D7100 & Sigma Lens Focus Issues

Evening all,

I try and take some images for my local football team, but I always seem to get a lot of images out of focus.

I have the D7100 set to shutter, usually around 2500 with an iso between 450 - 800 depending on light levels.

The sense is a F2.8 Sigma 70-200.

I have AF on and use AF - C

I have uploaded some images here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/qc7Uu3pP59RevyYE3

Would welcome your comments.

Thanks,

Richard

Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

What F stop are you using? I would guess around wide open (F2/8) from looking at your photos. I have never shot football (soccer around here) but I would think you could reduce the shutter speed to around 1000 (or perhaps even less) so you can increase your f stop to increase depth of field.

Also, make sure you are focusing on your subject. Some of your photos look like the focus is on the background.

Your AF-C setting might be set to release priority instead of focus priority. Setting it that way allows the body to take photos more quickly than when it is set to focus priority (shutter won't fire unless the images are in focus). In release priority, the images may or may not be in sharp focus but the body will fire the shutter anyway. Look in your menu options under the AF settings. I don't have my camera in front of me to tell you specifically where that setting is located.

Once you find the setting (and if it is set for release priority which is the default), switch it to focus priority and see if that makes a difference in nailing the focus. AF-C tends to be used with release priority allowing the user to take continuous shots, but they may not all be in focus.

I just checked with my D7100. The setting I'm talking about is a1. It allows you to change the AF-C priority focus option from release to focus.

rjtyrell said:

Evening all,

I try and take some images for my local football team, but I always seem to get a lot of images out of focus.

I have the D7100 set to shutter, usually around 2500 with an iso between 450 - 800 depending on light levels.

The sense is a F2.8 Sigma 70-200.

I have AF on and use AF - C

I have uploaded some images here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/qc7Uu3pP59RevyYE3

Would welcome your comments.

Thanks,

Richard

Click to expand...

Which Auto-focus Area Mode are you using (e.g. Auto, Single Point, Dynamic...)?

I agree with what the others said. Just to add, there are two components to focus... How the focus point is acquired (S, auto, d9, dynamic, etc) and how the focus motor behaves after acquiring the focus point (af-s vs af-c). Then we have menu A1 and A2 that determines whether the shutter must wait for focus. The default is af-s will wait (focus priority), af-c will not wait (release priority.)
You mention you have AF ON and af-c, I take that to mean you are using back button focus. In that case, it is on you to be sure you have focus. When shooting action, you will get some out of focus images using bbf, especially if you are not sure what af area mode you are in. I would use single point if there is a particular player you need to follow.
If the pictures are still in camera, you can turn on the option and get to the screen to see what focus point was used. If after the fact, Nikon's NX-i or NX-d software will show you the focus point that the camera used. I tend to stick with single point in most situations.