New User New Canon 70D questions

ffpm46 · Apr 5, 2014

Hello, just got my 70D real excited about learning to use it. I have read the manuel and have a few questions from the knowlegable people on this site.

I purchsed this camera for shooting my childrens sports, currently me daughter is in competition cheerleading, indoor arenas, indoor basketball facilities. I have the 70D and I use a 70-200 Sigma F/2.8 OS.

I was wondering what settings I should start with.

TV mode, with AI focus, Auto ISO, AWB, Zone AF, Picture style Auto, Evaluative metering, AEB Automatic.

First for action slots ( subject constintely moving ) is this the proper mode I should be in. The manuel says it is and that I should be in Zone focus and AI focus.

Should I start with a shutter speed of 500?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

ronlane · Apr 5, 2014

Welcome to the site. First I will start by saying that you don't need to post the same question in multiple threads. Second, congrats on the new 70D and the 70-200.

To answer your question, there is no way that we can know the conditions of the place(s) that you will be shooting, so we could not possibly give you settings to use. What we can do is give you a starting point that will get you headed in the right direction.

With competitive cheer, as you said, you will be indoor with not the best lighting, so you are going to want to get the aperture as wide open as you possibly can to get the fast shutter speeds that you will need to freeze the action.

Shutter priority mode would be a good start but I would consider using something about 1/1000th as a starting point in order to not have blur. The AI focus would be good, in order to lock focus on your daughter (I would consider back button focus as well). I'm not sure on the AF points but I personally would probably use a spot focus. I would not use auto ISO, because in the low light situation, you may get a lot of very noisy photos from really high ISO's. (I wouldn't go must past 1600 on my T3i, but am not sure how far a 70D could go).

Continue to read and learn about your camera and get comfortable with the settings. Search for videos online (youtube is a good resource). Another thing that I would suggest, is to shoot photos during their practices. (My daughter has been in tumbling for almost 2 years and is going to start competitive cheer this year. The guys at the gym are used to me shooting during her sessions).

Good luck with it.

Overread · Apr 5, 2014

I would not use AI Focus and instead would use AI servo.

The camera has basically two focusing modes:

One shot - which is where the camera locks focus once and then holds it at that point.

AI servo - where the camera camera continually checks its focus and makes any adjustments needed if subject and/or camera moves.

Thus AI servo is ideal for sports where you have a potentially fast moving subject that can shift around its position.

AI Focus is a mode which blends the above two focusing modes, with the camera detecting which it should use at the time. As such its not perfect, a moving subject might stand still for a second or two and the camera would not start re-focusing in time to catch a sudden flurry of motion.

ffpm46 · Apr 5, 2014

Thank you both. She has a meet tomorrow, and I plan on practicing before hand. The ISO range is 100-12800.

I did read that about the AI Servo, thought the middle would be good, but after your explaination that makes more sence.

Thank you again, and keep the suggestions coming.

Overread · Apr 5, 2014

A point about noise.

A higher ISO increases the amount of noise in a photo.

A well exposed photo at a higher ISO will have less noise than a poorly (under) exposed photo at a lower ISO.

As a result if you need 1/1000sec and you might already be at your maximum aperture (or widest you want to go accounting for depth of field and the subject) then if you're shutter speed still isn't up to that limit just raise the ISO. You can sure the noise in editing to some degree and printing/web display hides a lot of it as well. You can't, however, fix motion blur in editing* so that shutter speed is all important.

*it might be possible, but generally you'd be looking at a lot of photoshop work and a lot of hours to do it right. That's beyond most peoples desire to perform and if you were doing that much retouching you'd be more a digital drawer than a photographer.

centauro74 · Apr 5, 2014

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...7I9TxQ2cO4Hi1q1hQ&sig2=ZGFrofVI8lJPuQd50RfNTw

centauro74 · Apr 5, 2014

I try this technique recently in a basketball game with this camera and the 70-200 f4. So I recommend don't go higher of ISO 1600. After that you get a lot of noise. If you shoot in RAW then you can use ISO 3200 and clean it in Lightroom.