shooting moving subjects

[benners]

hey everyone

I'm looking forward to capturing the London Marathon this weekend and am pretty much setup and ready to go:
D700 + Nikon 24-70 f2.8
D700 + Sigma 70-200 II HSM f2.8

does anyone have any tips or menu settings to play with for capturing running people?

I've set the bodies to:
- continuous servo focus
- 21 af points (*edit* to select from, will choose one for AF)
- continuous shooting
- f5.6 (though will play around with this)
- iso 400-800, to allow for higher shutter speed to freeze action

my main concern is firing off a number of shots as runners come towards me and not having them in focus. it's a new style of photography for me, so any advice is really appreciated

 

[troutfisher]

Use centre point/single point focus ( or whatever its called on Nikon).
If you use all 21 points the camera will focus where it wants to,(closest,highest contrast),not where you want it to.
Say you want a runners pained expression,using single point you will be able to focus on the face,using all 21 points you may or may not get what you want.

 

[benners]

Use centre point/single point focus ( or whatever its called on Nikon).
If you use all 21 points the camera will focus where it wants to,(closest,highest contrast),not where you want it to.
Say you want a runners pained expression,using single point you will be able to focus on the face,using all 21 points you may or may not get what you want.

will do... i think i may already be set up that way (will check later!), my plan was to manually choose the AF point - most shots will be portrait, so i'll want one which is 2/3 of the way up to AF on face, and get upper torso in shot.

i'll be shooting in manual as well.

is the Dynamic AF Area (a3 in the menu) a must? have read a couple of varying reports on using it... but on paper it looks a perfect tool for this?

 

[troutfisher]

is the Dynamic AF Area (a3 in the menu) a must? have read a couple of varying reports on using it... but on paper it looks a perfect tool for this?[/QUOTE]

No idea sorry, hopefully a Nikon owner will chip in here.
Hope you have a good day and its not too wet.

Chris

 

[benners]

is the Dynamic AF Area (a3 in the menu) a must? have read a couple of varying reports on using it... but on paper it looks a perfect tool for this?

No idea sorry, hopefully a Nikon owner will chip in here.
Hope you have a good day and its not too wet.

Chris[/QUOTE]

cheers Chris... have packed all the waterproofs, think I might need 'em... think my kit's got more protection than me!