Race bikes too quick for my 400D autofocus?

[Kiwi_gav]

I need a bit of advice please....

SO I spent the day at the raceway shooting Superbikes. Beautiful day that started slightly overcast but finished brilliantly blue. I shot from all around the paddock and all round had a good time. And then I got home to review my days work.....almost all of my panning shots are soft or out of focus. I had probably 10% in focus. I had my AF set to AI-Servo, shot around 1/800 for end on shots then dropped down to about 1/250 for panning.

I also shoot field sports (rugby, football) and find it difficult to get good focus consistently. A slight softness when chasing moving objects is common. Generally I use my 70-200F4L and keep it around 1/1000.

My question: Would an upgrade solve this problem? Is a more sophisticated AF such as that on the 7D required? or are there some techniques that I should be working on to improve my keep ratio?
thanks

 

[vtf]

What's you aperture in these shots?
Display an image and the settings for it.

 

[KmH]

My question: Would an upgrade solve this problem?

No an equipment upgrade probably wouldn't help. You don't say how long you have been shooting action sports, but it's more likely you need a wetware upgrade..

Shooting using continuous focus takes practice, and good camera/lens handeling technique. A good understanding of how auto focus works won't hurt either.
Do you have your camera set up to do back button focusing?

One foot forward, with slightly more weight on the front foot. Pan from the waist, elbows in and braced against your torso, left hand under the barrel of the lens with the camera body resting on the meaty part of your palm closest to yout wrist.

Just like shooting a gun, squeeze the shutter release and make sure you control your breathing.

 

[Rekd]

KmH nailed it. Again.

Lets see some of your shots, with the Exif data intact.

 

[whiplash23]

KmH helped me very recently with the same problem, but on a completely different camera. I have a D90 and was getting very soft shots at kids soccer games (ironically, I didn't have much trouble at the 2010 Indy MotoGP race, but may have just gotten lucky with how I set up the camera).

Anyway, on the D90, the center focus spot (of the 11 that can be chosen) works better than the ones on the periphery when using continuous focus. There is a reason for this that I do not recall, but once I started using that focus point, my shots improved 10 fold. I have no idea if this is relevant for a Canon, but I figured I'd toss it out.

Good luck!

 

[scorpion_tyr]

An upgrade in cameras would be a waste of $ and shutter life. The camera should be able to do it just fine. I'd look hard at the shooter, or maybe the lens before the camera.

 

[Kiwi_gav]

Thanks for the replies.
I have attached some examples of the range of results I have got, from my better one to the ugly. I was using backbutton focusing and the centre focus point. However the tips on technique from KmH have shown me already that my 'sloppy' technique has probably a lot to do with it (damn, I was after an excuse for that 7D!)

Please have a look guys and I appreciate your help.

 

[fokker]

You want to be on AI-focus mode, rather than AI-servo.

If you were using a 1 series body or a 7D I definitely think it would improve your focusing, but they still don't make up for bad technique.