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Is the SEL 55-210OSS not suitable for action photo?


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Hello Guys and girls, my first post here!

I have tried to use the SEL55-210OSS on my A6300 for car racing photography with bad results...

 

Out of about 2000 photos I had 1 photo i was really happy with, the rest are slightly out of focus when i crop in the picture.

Camera setting was Shutter priority, 40-80th sec expo with panning, ISO auto, and 8pictures/second with AF-C,.

 

Anyone here who had the same problems? how much better/faster is the 70-200 F4 G-Master??

 

Here are some of the bad pictures, I might be overly focused on the out of focus problem but I see pictures from the same event with 100% focus, it makes me sad :)

 

What other zoom is suitable for action photo?

 

 

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Guest all8

Hi,

 

I think your shutter speed is too slow. Try 1/250 or higher. Also, it can be an idea to use Single Drive Mode and then time your shot.

 

And perhaps try AF-C with the centre region only.

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I agree with the two posters above - 1/40th - 1/80th is far far too slow. Don't know what speeds the cars are doing but I try 1/500th as a minimum, possibly 1/1000th. Experiment !!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Guest Jaf-Photo

The 55-210 is adequate for its price. Obviously it's not the optimal action photography lens. If you understand its limitations and handle it well, it will do a decent job but you won't get 100% hit rate.

 

If you want top performance, you'll have to get the top lenses.

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Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated!

When i go 200th or above the bacground blur and wheel motion blur gets very much reduced, I still want the speed to be captured in the picture.

This next picture I took with 1/100th sec, 

 

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Guest all8

OK, but when you go to a higher shutter speed, is the focus OK? Or better? Its hard to evaluate because the uploaded images get compressed quite a bit.

 

What aperture is being used?

 

I take it that photos of stationary cars, using the same lens and settings, are in good focus Right?

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Guest all8

Another idea would be to start with the Scene Mode called "Sports", and, if that gives you good focus, then use its settings as a starting point and introduce changes to get the effects you want.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

You could try turning off OSS when panning. I haven't tried panning with the 55-210 but some lenses have a real problem with stabilisation in these scenarios. I usually turn it off even when there is a dedicated panning mode.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Just for fun I tried shooting some moving subjects with my 55-210. Unfortunately the tesults were similar to yours. The camera appeared to be tracking correctly but most of the shots were focused slightly behind or in front, by a foot perhaps. Flying birds worked better though, perhaps due to the increased contrast.

 

I haven't really used it for demanding work, because I see it as a handy, compact lens for increasing your range for casual photography..

 

As to the options, 70-200/4. 70-300 and 70-200 GM, you should probably try before you buy. I use A Mount equivalents and can't really help here. Again, you could try to disable OSS and do more stable panning. There isn't any obvious shake in the samples but they're quite small so I couldn't really locate the plane of focus either.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Is there a better choice of A mount lenses? Presumably you need an adaptor...

Much better than an adapter, I use A Mount cameras.

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Thanks for the input guys!

In lightroom I also need to bump up the Contrast a bit, the raw from the camera has a greyish blur to the whole image but it is not a huge problem.

The biggest problem is that when i borrowed my friends Olympus OMD EM1 MK2 with a high class zoom lens I made 50% hit rate on the same cars with the same panning style and framerate, this is why I`m curious about similar problems from the other users here.

 

the 70-200 F/4 OSS FE lens would be a BIG hole in my wallet but if it can supply photos I`m happy with it would be worth it!

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I really like my 70-200 FE 4.0  But I don't shoot moving subjects very often and most of those results are my shortcomings rather than the equipment.  But for general purpose 70-200 photography the images are extremely sharp with wonderful color rendition and contrast.  I bought mine used for around $800 on Craigs List, can be had on Ebay around $900 or so.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

Oops, finger trouble I think...

I only just got my a6300 so changing to an A mount now is not in the budget, sadly.

Fair enough. One small tip is that prices on used A Mount gear is still depressed. For instance, you could buy A77 and 70-300G for less than a used FE 70-200/4. Sometimes it's easier to have different systems for different uses. I used to shoot all systems by Sony but got rid of the FE because it wasn't my cup of tea.

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Guest Jaf-Photo

OK thanks. Is the 70-300 G a decent lens? I guess one of the Sony adaptors would be best?

 

I think it is definitely one of the best 70-300 lenses around. It has very good subjective image quality, i.e. colours, contrast, bokeh. The FE 70-300 came out after I sold my FE gear so I haven't tested it. It produces very nice photos, though.

 

As regards the A Mount lens, you should really use it on an A Mount camera that makes full use of the SSM drive. I would not recommend using it with an adapter because I suspect it would be fairly sluggish. I have used it with the LA-EA4 adapter but you get very basic af which is only suitable for static shots.

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OK thanks. Is the 70-300 G a decent lens? I guess one of the Sony adaptors would be best?

I had the 70 -300 and in my hands it was nowhere near the 70-200 for image quality and could essentially crop to get the extra 100mm.  Handles better, for me, too.

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So yesterday I finally bought a mint second hand FE70-200 F4 G OSS and here are a shot that compares the performance of the 55-210 / 70-200 the shot is with the same aperature, same iso 400 and same shutter speed 1/160th

 

55-210:

 

70-200:

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