Muppet Needs Focus Help, Please

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Persephone

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Name
Amber
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My gorgeous new Nikon 70 - 200mm f2.8 lens arrived this morning and I immediately took it out for a test run. It was around noon and the light was decent; cloudy sky, ready to rain, but at 1/640 the images were decently exposed. I was photographing a fairly slow poodly-type dog trotting/half-heartedly running toward the camera. I missed focus on every picture.

Further settings that may be important: VR was off, focus type was AF-C, priority for AF-C was 'release'. The little red square that shows where the lens should focus was squarely on the dog's head, and yet every time the focus fell on to the wall behind.

Please help total muppet to take a focused moving shot. Is it my settings? Should I be holding the button half down until it's focused and then tracking the subject or just shooting wildly? It's very unlikely to be the lens' fault (in my opinion) as I'm very inexperienced with moving subjects and honestly have no clue. I've read the ace sports tutorial on here, but the issue is still happening.
 
At a guess, it's your settings. Try using the Focus priority setting rather than Release - IIRC, the Focus option won't allow the shutter to release if focus isn't locked on. If you'd rather stich with the Release setting, wait for the focus confirm light to go green (not certain but probably a green dot in the lower left of the viewfinder - check your manual) before the final gentle squeeze of the button.
 
Use rear button focussing. And start the focussing well before you start shooting, this helps the camera to get its eye in.
Youll stil have problems if theres no contrast on the digs face and you might stand more chance by prioritising focus, although there's no guarantee.
 
Thank you all! I read the tutorial that Steve provided and mimicking the settings shared there seemed to help. I managed to catch a few decently sharp moving subjects, like so:


DSC_2709 by thedogblog, on Flickr

Shall have a play with focus/release priority and rear button focusing tomorrow! I'll get there.
 
Looking at that leaping Pug, you're very close to there!
 
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