RAW vs. JPG. I took over 600 shots. All RAW. How long did t take me to get to 250 ish Kurt ready shots? Not as long as one would think. Saturday night took me two to go through all the shots and rate them. Maybe could have been faster, but was also watching Svengoulie. Also managed to get a blog post out. Sunday morning batched the colors on the 250, less than 30 minutes. Then had to level, crop to 1920x1080 or 1920x1280, save as JPG the 250 shots. About two hours. Again, not that bad. Even if I had taken JPGs, I'd still have to do the finishing part. Multiple saves on the JPGs. I would listen to an argument on the file size. In the D780 I use 32 gig cards in each slot where I can I get 650 shots per card or about 1300 shots. I do carry extra cards. I had one day at Reno taking 1700. First time there and yep, probably should have taken a movie camera. Two years ago, I was much younger. Anyway, at this time - no reason to go JPG.
Auto-Focus.
Yep, that 70 is spot on. Too bad. Anyway, I used a larger center point for AF. That works well for wide open spots and birds who move around a lot. Overthinking this, I left it alone. On purpose. Clearly I could have done better. There were two main arenas in play. This one had a number of posts that were clearly jumping in the way. The other arena is a little more open. If/when I go back, I'll probably tighten up the AF area.
Frames per second: I don't know why I always hold back on the FPS. That's like leaving 2 cylinders in the truck when you're passing slower traffic. Use 'em. Sure, it eats up card space but I carry extra. In this case I'll take only 2-4 per sequence. And for the top of the jump, it would be worth it. The D780 will do 7 FPS. The D500 will do 10 FPS. I did that once at the air races. It was worth it. My problem on Saturday was thinking that horses are slower than airplanes, and I should be able to get the job done at 3 FPS. Bad thinking. With the horses, I am trying to get an object in a specific place at a specific time. Less room for error. Faster frame cycle rate. I had a much better success rate a 7 PFS.
Camera/Lens combo: I started with the D500 and the 70-300. I got off a few shots, but thought it was too much lens. I did an in the filed lens swap, which I don't like to do. And finished the day with the D780 on the business end of the 70-300. As the day developed, I could have used the D500. Most of my shots were over 105 mm which would be the short end of that combo. This event was built for the D500 - and next time I'll flex it. The vast majority of my shots were at 300 mm, which would tell me it was maxxed out and I could have used more reach. The monster lens would be too much to lug around, but maybe some time later in the year. When it is cooler.
When to put all this together? Saturday is a Barrel Racing Event about 45 minutes away. Can't think of a better time.
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