Davison High School Football '22

Since the last high school football adventure, there have been a few new developments and processes.

As to the developments, there is a new camera in the stable. For the football games, at night, the D500 and D850 did real well.  I some time forget that that this is a hobby.  The D500 was not built for 'under the lights' photography.  That point is probably mentioned in the documentation.  But it has a virtually unlimited buffer.  I have never filled the buffer, even at 10 FPS shooting RAW.  Technically the documentation says it will hold 200 shots.  I never tested that.  But the D500 with the crop sensor does much better in daylight.  The D850 with the full frame sensor did very well at night, but it is built for portraits and landscapes.  The 48 mp files fill up the buffer quickly.  Yep, I lost a few shots.

Enter the D6.  Built for sports, or action shooting.  The 20 mp layout on a full frame sensor means the pixels are almost as big as a beach ball.  Lets in a lot of light - and reduces the noise.  What's not to like?  

First, it is a bit pricey.  I can deal with that.  I looked at a used unit from KEH.  I used KEH for a lens and was very happy with the transaction.  That being said, a lens is not as complicated as a camera unit.  And for a few $$$$s more, I could get a re-furbished unit from Nikon.  And I get all the accessories, including the most outrageously priced Nikon sells, the battery charger.  Easy decision.

The other minor decision is, why stay with DSLR and not move to a mirrorless system?  Everyone has their opinion, here's mine that applies to me only.  I have too much sunk into the system I have.  If I was 10 years younger, I might change.  My opinion is that adding an adapter between the lens and the camera (FTZ) won't help anything.  And if I was going to move on to a mirrorless system, it would not be with Nikon.  (Or Canon!) So a D6 it is.

I used the D6 for the rugby shots here.  It did not disappoint in the daylight, nor did I expect it to.  But it is here for night shots.

One other development in the past few weeks comes from the software world, and that is the introduction of Topaz's Photo AI.  In summary, it uses AI for denoise and sharpen.  In practice, I have found it useful for shots that need very little cleanup.  So in the cases of the rugby and football shots, this application works well and has sped up the post processing.  Not sure how it will go with the aircraft.  So far, for past shots - not as well.  The time will come later for real testing.

But for now, some football shots with the D6 and quick post processing.

Not sure how many more games there are this season, playoffs begin soon.  Hopefully this team has a few more games to go.

Friday Night Lights

And now for something completely different.....

Every now and then I get to start a new category.  Today is one of those days.  Not sure if it will stick, but the 2022 Airshow season for me is pretty much over.  Need to do something - and this is what we call in the corporate world a 'stretch'.

A few weeks ago, I was out to a lacrosse tournament.  Haven't seen a game in years.  It was a lot of fun.  Lot's of good action.  And in the middle of the day - warm.  I never figure these things out for myself - I get invited.  Or in this case - dared.  And good for photography friends who pull me out of a rut.

And the same 'friend' dared me again to stretch, this time with Friday night lights.  As with most of my photography friends, he's a Canon guy.  I think he really wants to see if I could handle a Nikon outside of perfect airshow conditions.

And good for him, I wanted to see what the Nikon would do as well.  And can I handle the Friday Night Lights.

As with most times I try something new, if you shoot enough shots, something is bound to work right.  And Friday night I shot 350+ shots.  And a few turned out OK.  A few.

I use the D850/70-200 f/2.8 for the evening.  It did OK.  The shots that didn't require much cropping were pretty much good right out of the camera.  I shot manual with Auto ISO, and the highest was 11,400.  And for the most point, the shots were usable.  That being said, I hit the shot buffer a few times at 7 fps.  That was a first.  Yes, shots were missed.  I dialed it back to 5 fps which somewhat cured the issue.  Lessons learned.

DHS Stands

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20 /Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8

70 mm, 1/1,000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

To me this is one of the more interesting shots of the night.  Pure football.  Should have been higher than 1/500 sec.  lesson learned.

DHS Running Back

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20 /Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8

200 mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 900 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

For the most part, I focused on the QB.  Most of the action is there, right?  Rookie stuff.  Coming from the defensive side.  I like the shots where you can also see the ball in flight.

DHS Pass

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20 /Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8

200 mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

The opposition runner.  He is pretty good.

Detroit Central Catholic Runner

NIKON D850 Ver.1.20 /Nikkor 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8

135 mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

Will post a few more shots later.

But for end of the experience thoughts.  I chose the D850 for the full sensor and low light exceptional ISO traits.  But it is advertised as a portrait camera - and fast action is limited.  That is truth in advertising.  Next time, the D500 gets a try.  If I do that, I'll have to put the 70-400 on the front end.  There won't be as much room to crop.  It will be more than enough lens.  The noise could be more prevalent.  The best shots for focus were 1/800 to 1/1000 second.  I could use the 1/500 shots - but I wouldn't want to count on them.  And after all, this is a learning experience.