Sports photography lens

[truetifoso]

I'm a newbie so please excuse any ridiculously silly questions in advance. I just bought an SLT A-77 with a Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6. Ninety-nine percent of what I shoot is sports photography and mainly one of my sons playing tennis both day and night. Unfortunately, while I love the fact that it shoots 12fps, I get one or two pics out of 150 that is clear. Any suggestions. If it's a new lens I'd like to stay around $1,500 if I can.

 

[Kolia]

Do you use a tripod ?
What is your shutter speed ?
What AF settings are you using ?
What's not clear in your pictures ? Camera shake ? Player moving to fast ? Out of focus ?

f4-5.6 might simply not be fast enough.

 

[truetifoso]

I don't know if I'm answering your questions correctly, but I'll try my best. I don't use a tripod, but I don't think the blur is fom camera shake. The background is almost always in perfect focus but the tennis player is out of focus - most often his face. My son is nine. He's fast, but not that fast. In terms of the settings, I just move the dial to the 12fps setting. I see the numbers on top changing from 60 to 1000. Night shooting is one problem, but I'm more concerned about the player being consistently out of focus - day or night. Thank you for your advice.

 

[o hey tyler]

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 w/ OS... If they make it for the Sony mount.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Do you use a tripod ?
What is your shutter speed ?
What AF settings are you using ?
What's not clear in your pictures ? Camera shake ? Player moving to fast ? Out of focus ?

f4-5.6 might simply not be fast enough.

For tennis action, this question I find confusing.

 

[kassad]

I'm a newbie so please excuse any ridiculously silly questions in advance. I just bought an SLT A-77 with a Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6. Ninety-nine percent of what I shoot is sports photography and mainly one of my sons playing tennis both day and night. Unfortunately, while I love the fact that it shoots 12fps, I get one or two pics out of 150 that is clear. Any suggestions. If it's a new lens I'd like to stay around $1,500 if I can.

Look at the latest sigma 70-200 f2.8 they can be found for in you price range. Also if your willing to look at used, you can find the Minolta 80-200mm f2.8 G lens on ebay in that price range.
Minolta AF APO Tele Zoom 80-200mm F2.8 | eBay
(I'm not recommending that particular auction it's just an example)

Also I thought the 12 fps mode on the a77 locked some or all of the exposure and focus. While the 8fps mode should give you full control of the exposure and full auto focus.

 

[Kolia]

Kasaad is right, the default full speed 12fps will not use the continuous autofocus. You will have to set the exposure to be able to go to C-AF.

Try to use speed priority instead and note what settings the camera selects aperture and ISO.

 

[Kolia]

For tennis action, this question I find confusing.

Tripod + SteadyShoot can have unwanted effects on the camera.

 

[bunny99123]

Turn off steady shot when using a tripod...in manual. Glad I read it, cause I use a tripod a lot.

 

[gsgary]

12fps only works in auto

 

[CouncilmanDoug]

why would you ever need 12 fps? Learn proper timing!

 

[imagemaker46]

I don't know Sony, but I would suggest a faster lens, forget the idea that you can shoot 12fps, all that shows is that you don't know how to shoot a good action shot on one frame. Shooting at 12fps is a sign of inexperience, and lack of confidence. If sports is what you shoot 99% of the time, you are in trouble.

 

[Kolia]

12fps only works in auto

Not exactly Gary. It's a separate mode and does have limitation as to exposure and AF control. Yet it's nothing that would prevent anybody from using it.

So hight fps is for noobs ? I hope anybody saying this is taking separate light measurement and focus manually. Heck, anybody not cranking it's own film by hand is also lacking in skills...

Come on...

 

[imagemaker46]

12fps only works in auto

Not exactly Gary. It's a separate mode and does have limitation as to exposure and AF control. Yet it's nothing that would prevent anybody from using it.

So hight fps is for noobs ? I hope anybody saying this is taking separate light measurement and focus manually. Heck, anybody not cranking it's own film by hand is also lacking in skills...

Come on...

As I was the one that made mention of 12fps. I grew up shooting film, I learned how to shoot sports 1 frame at a time, manual focus, light meter. These days I stand next to the young movie makers that just blast away hoping to end up with one good frame out of 60. It's not about how many frames that are being shot, it's about understanding the timing involved in shooting 1-2 frames at a time and ending up with quality images. Although if someone wants to spend hours sitting at the computer and delete 99% of what they shoot, good for them. It takes alot more skill to shoot one great frame at a time than it does to shoot to shoot 60 garbage frames to maybe get 1.

Photography isn't about how many frames you can shoot, it's about how well you shoot just one.

 

[Kolia]

I'd rather use my gear to its fullest. That includes maxing out the frame rate when needed.

From what I've heard, one very good shot out of 100 is actually a fairly good ratio.

The op is interested in taking good pictures of his son now. I fail to see how your earlier comment helps him in any way.