Bob 08701 Loc: Lakewood, NJ

Hi
The objective is “to take movies of 4th and 7th grade basketball games in unevenly lit gyms for my grandson’s review of their game play”. My challenge is getting the right focus settings for shooting the basketball game movie. I’ve had mixed results at this point and don’t know if I should be using AF-S or AF-C (currently using C). To compound my confusion I have not found the correct ‘focus area’ setting… wide, normal, facial, or subject. Exposure is not an issue and I am shooting everything at 1280x720 30fps High Quality. Frame and aim is adequate, and the conundrum is consistent focus and using settings that don’t give the camera cause to focus hunt.
I’m open to any suggestions from your experience’s
Thanks,Bob

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

There's a number of things to consider. What lens are you using and at what settings? How far are you from the action? Do you have a tripod you can easily pan with? Is the camera set to a high iso to let you raise the f-stop to get a greater depth of field in lower light?

I'm guessing you want a wide angle lens to follow all the action and players, and a high enough iso to get enough light, and a high f-stop, maybe f8 or higher to get a decent depth of field, so more of the frame is in focus.

If you can set your lens to manual focus that may help as well, if the lens is spending too much time autofocusing in low light.

Another consideration is if you are editing the videos. If so you can zoom in on the action and add light in the editor, depending on how good your editing program is. With Adobe CS6 Pro 64 bit I can take a dark scene and light it up and even put a spotlight on any part of the scene, also I can copy a scene and slow it down as much as I want to create a slow motion view of the scene.

Hope some of this was helpful. Having 6 grandkids I think the hardest part of the project may be to get your grandson to watch the videos when they are done. My grandkids just don't see things the way I do and they are all looking for instant gratification like they get with video games. Their attention span for Grandpa is pretty limited. Good luck.
Bob

Bob 08701 Loc: Lakewood, NJ

Thanks for the reply. Shooting from the stands in elementary schools, now using tripod as a monopod for some stability and to give my arms / shoulders a break. The focus challenge comes into play as I follow the ball until it locks in on a semi stationary figure.

I don’t do any post shooting work and as I said the boys are mainly interested in their game play (steals, shots, rebounds).