The light was perfect - that late afternoon, low-in-the-sky sun... my camera was more than I could ever hope for - a Pentax K20D... and the action was great - an energetic, young, sponsored kitesurfer who was more than willing to throw trick after trick for a photographer. So what the heck was going on?? About 90% of the pics I snapped were somewhat blurred, no matter how careful I was with the focal point. I farted around with the aperture and shutter speed - at one point I was at f/3.5 and 1/1000, which absolutely should have frozen the unhooked backloops this kid was landing. I also switched back and forth from AF-S to AF-C, because the subject was moving, not stationary. I even tried manually focussing, but that went bad quickly - visualize me, standing in the Columbia River in thigh-deep water on an unstable sandy bottom, trying to simultaneously zoom the lens, pan the camera, and focus on this mass of kiteboard and body careening towards me... you should have seen the amazing blurs I captured after ducking out of the way at the last second! Not to mention nearly dunking the camera!
Anyhow, I must say I was becoming frustrated. I was so disappointed when I had to delete many well-composed shots because they were not in focus. Maybe I bought a dud of a K20D? Sometimes there are lemons from the factory, right? I think I even muttered to my boyfriend that I should convert to Nikon or something... ***GASP*** Yes, I really said that out loud! But on the other hand, I had taken way too many crisp, in-focus pics for the camera or lens to be at fault. Then some words of wisdom popped into my head, something I heard or read (I don't remember exactly where this came from): It' s not the equipment, but what you learn to DO with the equipment... a good photographer can take a great picture with even the crappiest of cameras.
Alright then, certainly it has to be a problem with how I'm using the camera in this particular situation. So off to the internet I went, to surf through my favorite forums in search of people who may be having the same trouble.
I couldn't believe my luck, when within 15 minutes I came across this post:
This fellow's first point made the light bulb come on for me immediately: I don't think I've ever turned the image stabilization OFF...!! Could that be my problem? Makes sense, because when the IS is turned on, the magnets on the sensor are always trying to compensate for movement. When the subject is moving, and the camera is moving, well that compounds the problem. Jeesh!! Why didn't I think of that?! Perhaps if I had read through my users manual I would have come across that piece of advice? Anyhow, this fellow attached some pics he took of a surfing event in Italy, and every photo was spectacular. Definitely my poor results had to be operator error.
After reading that suggestion and seeing that fellow's perfect photos, my faith is renewed - I've switched the camera image stabilization OFF, and I took the filter off my lens (see the previous post). Hopefully this combination will produce more satisfactory results? I can't wait to find out!
Cheers.
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