State of Origin Pics

Managed to score a ticket to last Wednesday night's State of Origin[1]
opening match at Suncorp Stadium, so took the trusty MZ60 and Tamron
70-300/4-5.6 along with some Fuji 800 film.
The results weren't fantastic, but were better than what a friend of mine
came up with, with a couple of digi P&S's (and her batteries ran out half
way through too). This was my first time to a night time footy match - I
didn't know what to expect as far as lighting, and didn't know where I was
going to be sitting. As it turned out, the seats were pretty good - 6th row
and in line with the dead ball line. I'm glad I got some 800 film, and
didn't just rely on the 400 that I already had in the fridge, and glad I
didn't trust it to my S2IS (which can only go to 400ISO and is pretty bad at
that). Things to learn for next time... 800 film isn't quite fast enough
for sports action with a 300/5.6 lens - I need to either get a faster lens
(can't see me getting ministerial approval for that in a hurry though), get
faster film, or both. A monopod would have come in handy, but not sure about
whether I'd be able to get one in the grounds - they seemed pretty strict
about things like flagpoles etc.
Anyway, some of my pic's from the night are he
http://tinyurl.com/2mll8o
or for the full link:
http://www.users.myall.net/grahamf72...avId=x95c07a94
My favourites are the ones where they are kicking goals, and you can see the
ball has just left the foot.

[1] For the non-Australians (or maybe the non-QLD/NSW), State of Origin is
one of the most fiercely contested games of Rugby League football, played
annually between Queensland and New South Wales. Interstate rivalry is
fierce, and many matches have almost legendary status. This match was the
first of the best-of-3 series for this year, and was played at Brisbane's
Suncorp Stadium. The buzz in the crowd of over 55k people was just
incredible. QLD got off to a good start with the first points only a few
minutes into the match which excited the home crowd no-end. The atmosphere
was less thrilling though when NSW ran away with 3 tries to lead at half
time by 18-6. QLD had a resounding 2nd half comeback though to finally win
by 25-18. When QLD scored the try to take the lead, almost the entire
stadium was at it's feet cheering - the noise was deafening. Kinda hard to
take photos when you have people all on their feet waving their arms around
in front of you.

Graham Fountain wrote:
Managed to score a ticket to last Wednesday night's State of Origin[1]
opening match at Suncorp Stadium, so took the trusty MZ60 and Tamron
70-300/4-5.6 along with some Fuji 800 film.
The results weren't fantastic, but were better than what a friend of
mine came up with, with a couple of digi P&S's (and her batteries ran
out half way through too). This was my first time to a night time footy
match - I didn't know what to expect as far as lighting, and didn't know
where I was going to be sitting. As it turned out, the seats were pretty
good - 6th row and in line with the dead ball line. I'm glad I got some
800 film, and didn't just rely on the 400 that I already had in the
fridge, and glad I didn't trust it to my S2IS (which can only go to
400ISO and is pretty bad at that). Things to learn for next time... 800
film isn't quite fast enough for sports action with a 300/5.6 lens - I
need to either get a faster lens (can't see me getting ministerial
approval for that in a hurry though), get faster film, or both. A
monopod would have come in handy, but not sure about whether I'd be able
to get one in the grounds - they seemed pretty strict about things like
flagpoles etc.
Anyway, some of my pic's from the night are he
http://tinyurl.com/2mll8o
or for the full link:
http://www.users.myall.net/grahamf72...avId=x95c07a94

My favourites are the ones where they are kicking goals, and you can see
the ball has just left the foot.

Dunno about the monopod, there's no appreciable shake that I can see on
your images, and I have to say they surprised me, coming from 800 ISO
film, at least at web sizes.

As for me, I would have been reaching for a 30D (1D series are well out
of my price range!) at 1600 or 3200 ISO, rather than a P&S or a zlr, but
that's just me, willingly seduced by digital.

Colin D.

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"Colin_D" wrote in message
.. .
Graham Fountain wrote:

Dunno about the monopod, there's no appreciable shake that I can see on
your images, and I have to say they surprised me, coming from 800 ISO
film, at least at web sizes.
As 6x4 prints there is only slightly noticeable grain - only slightly worse
than 400 film. I did one as an 8x10, and it's a bit grainy - not disgusting
though. I've always found Fuji Superia 800 to be a fairly good film for
it's speed - certainly better than the Kodak equivalent, and better than
exposing 400 film at 800.
Most of the shots I posted would have been taken at about 135mm - most of
them could do with a little more zoom to get the subject a bit larger in the
frame. At 135mm, the tamron 70-300/4-5.6 is F4.5, and the combination of
wider aperture and shorter focal length, meant that the shutter speed was
well within the hand-held range at about 1/200. At 300mm though, shutter
speeds were dropping to around 1/125 which was pushing it for the longer
focal length. Some of them came out ok, some were mush. Additionally, the
slower speeds weren't much good for stopping motion.
I _might_ be getting tickets for game 3 in about 6 weeks time, so if I do I
might try Fuji Press 1600. (Can't see any chance of SWMBO allowing me to
purchase something that will give F2.8-4 at 300).

As for me, I would have been reaching for a 30D (1D series are well out
of my price range!) at 1600 or 3200 ISO, rather than a P&S or a zlr, but
that's just me, willingly seduced by digital.
A Pentax K10D/Samsung GX10 is on the shopping list, but not until I get my
tax refund - probably around sept/oct.
I've tried quite a few P&S digi's, and frankly, they suck at anything beyond
about ISO 200. They are good for what they are designed for - P&S happy
snaps. The FSLR performs significantly better than P&S digi's, so until
SWMBO releases the funds for the DSLR, I'll happily continue shooting film
for anything I want reasonable quality, and use my digi for happy snaps.

Colin D.

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