Faster shots with a Sony a5000

[photecs]

Bought a Sony a5000 a couple of years ago when we found out we were having our first child.

I used to be really into photography, taking classes in high school and college, but when film died, I left the hobby. Now, i'm using this camera more and more... but lately i'm finding that with faster action shots (as my daughter is now walking/swimming), it's tougher to get a non-blurry shot.

I have the standard 35mm lens the Camera came with, but also got another telephoto (50-200 i think) with the camera purchase. Same issue with either, more so the telephoto understandably as it lets in less light.
I'm shooting in P mode during my daughters swimming lessons, 1/2 are blurry...
Suggestions?
(another lens is not in the budget right now).

 

[Braineack]

I'm assuming the camera is picking too slow of a shutter speed to 1. deal with the movement of your daughter, and 2. deal with the movement of you which is magnified through the lens.

I'd suggest turning on auto-iso, and limiting the shutter speed to something faster when shooting action ( assuming the a5000 can do this, I know the a6000 can)

 

[cherylynne1]

You mention the “standard” 35mm lens the camera came with...is that the Sony 35 1.8, or the 16-50mm that’s normally packaged as a kit lens?

For swimming photos, I would guess you’re probably someplace with plenty of light, so I would start using it in “S” mode and setting a higher shutter speed with auto ISO, as Braineack suggested.

If you are using the 35 1.8, I would also ask if you’re open all the way to 1.8. If so, your depth of field might just be too narrow to keep up with the action shots. If that’s the case, then something in the shot is likely in focus, it’s probably just slightly behind or ahead of where you wanted it to be. If nothing is in focus, or everything but the moving objects is in focus, your shutter speed is likely the problem.

There’s also a possibility that your depth of field, shutter speed, and focus is fine, but your ISO is up above 6400 or so. That’s where I start to notice a serious lack of sharpness on Sony APS-C. That seems the least likely scenario right now, though.

 

[Braineack]

iso doesn't really affect sharpness...

 

[cherylynne1]

Well, I meant more that after I apply enough noise reduction to deal with the noise, it’s not sharp enough for me to be happy. Same if I shoot in jpeg and let the camera do the noise reduction for me. But yeah, if you like or don’t care about noise, then it doesn’t affect sharpness directly.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Could you pick a picture and copy out its EXIF data? If you are using "Windows Photo Viewer" it is under the "File\Properties" menu in the 3rd tab. The most important information is focal length, F-stop (and the Maximum aperture), ISO and exposure time. If you post a version of the picture that would help put the data in perspective.

 

[Dave442]

In P mode the camera will give you an initial exposure using a combination of Aperture and Shutter Speed - you then need to check if that selection is acceptable or if you need to slide the combination to settings better suited for your situation.

If the camera selected f/8 @ 1/125th then you want to slide over to f/5.6 @ 1/250th giving you a faster shutter speed for stopping more of the motion. Then you might want to go to 1/500th, so if you are at ISO 800 then go to ISO 1600 so you can go from 1/250th to 1/500th.

Up to ISO 6400 looks acceptable with that camera. The good thing about digital over film is having those higher ISO values available at any time.

For my kids shots I never worried about a slightly blurry hand or foot that you might have at 1/125th or 1/250th, if you want to stop the water drops then you might need 1/1000th.

A second issue causing blurry photos in sports is not using the right auto-focus mode. If you are in AF-S mode and the subject is moving it may be out of focus when the image is taken.

So blur could be motion blur from the subject, motion blur from camera movement or out-of-focus (OOF) blur, or any combination of those.