Thanks for the responses, everyone - I'll try to address them here.
You may want to try using the Fine Tune Autofocus function.
See this video:
Nikon D7000: Fine Tune Auto Focus - YouTube
Thanks, I'll check that out.
Just curious, why spot metering?
And with my amateur eye it looks like maybe there is motion blur on the player and a little too much DOF? Just a guess.
The spot metering was because I wondered if it would help (no).
I don't
think it's motion blur - wouldn't motion blur be all in one direction?
Also, what I found that helps is using the back focus option. It allows me to prefocus on a spot. You could take spray and pray approach, but you won't learn anything with that.
I'm not sure what back focus is - I'll look into that. Spray and pray is kind of what I've been doing...
Try shooting in bursts...
...and usually all three or four pictures are out of focus.
Looks like the focus is on the boards behind the player. I think you just missed the focus. It takes a lot of practice and spot metering will work, maybe bump it to 8. Take or upload a few more pictures if you can.
I think you just missed the focus. Because the whole board is in focus behind the player. Shooting at 5.6 if you would have been on the player he would have been in focus. I could be wrong but I think you just missed it.
That's what I thought originally, too, but Aperture indicates the focus is right on the player's jersey, the lower part of the Caps logo. I'm not sure how I could hit it much better than that. That's why I'm here asking about it. I can post a few more examples. For example, the first one has the focus dead center on the "ita" in the Caps logo. The second one is focused just under his right glove.
It's my understanding that the AF-C setting should keep it in focus while he's in motion, right? I.e., what I often do is focus on the player, keep the shutter button halfway pressed, then fire it off, usually in the continuous-slow mode to get a burst of two or three pictures. Maybe I'm hitting the board initially, then centering on the player, and the camera isn't refocusing on the player.
It'd be easier to zoom in more so the player is larger in the viewfinder and thus easier to hit for focus, but that starts to push the limits of lighting with that lens... But maybe I'll try that next time as a test - even if the pictures are too dark, all I need to see is whether they're in focus.
Our next game is January 10, so that's when I'll find out what I've learned.
Here is my settings with the D7000.
AF
-C priority selection - release
AF
-S priority selection - focus
Focus Tracking A3- Off
AF
Point illumination : On
Focus point wrap around: Off
I shoot a lot of sports and I would set my camera to shoot anything moving to these settings.
Servo mode AF
-C.
39 pt dynamic area setting (I've tried the single, 9 and 21 pt. But the 39 gave me the sharpest pics.).
Also set your AE-L/AF
-L button to AF
-ON.
You set your AE-L/AF
-L button this way to work with the AF
-C.
When set up like this, you use your thumb to press and hold the AE-L/AF
-L button and your index finger on the shutter(not pressed half down).
By pressing and holding the AE-L/AF
-L button it will make the lens continually focus on your subject, all you have to do is push the shutter when
you want to take a picture. It's the same as holding the shutter half way down but sometimes its hard to do that for a long period of time.
Read more: http://nikonites.com/d7000/14152-help-indoor-action-shots-2.html#ixzz2p6JdzYPc
Thanks. I'll look at these settings and that thread.