tv, av or sports canon 550d

[mondo1]

hi , taking pic for couple of months now with very mixed results. mostly m'bikes and football. some good shots but 90% deleted. :-( . i always used tv but have been told av is better ,i'm not sure. also my pics are not very sharp most of the time. the more im out the more i get muddled with iso speed, av and shutter speed , any help would be much appreciated, many thanks karl

[wave]

hi first question what lens are you using. next what i would try using AI servo mode then then try shooting again. are you using a tripod or mono pod

[mondo1]

hi , thanks for answering , im using a tamron 70-300mm 1.5-4.5 . im also using alservo but no tripod

[graham_c]

Hi Mondo
I don't take a lot of action shots, but when i do, I do a few things that might help you . I set the camera to continuous, put it on shutter priority and never go below 1/250 , can go as high as 1/500 or even 1/1000 and shoot in jpeg rather than raw,because the jpeg file is smaller it allows your camera buffer to empty faster and lets the memory card write faster. I also make sure the sun is behind me. Hope this helps ... Graham

[mondo1]

cheers m8, all helps , just gonna take time

[Blitz Photography & Prod]

hi mondo

this might help you out

http://www.canon.co.uk/youconnect_ne...slr/index.aspx

from Canon web site about shooting fast things

when i first got my Dslr i had it with the Tamron 70 - 300mm and i found it can be a hit and miss using this lens in Al servo mode as the lens cant keep up with fast moving things that well because of the motor in the lens but again the lens is only £99. Now over the years up grading to a faster lens the Sigma 70 - 200mm F2.8 i dont have that trouble as the lens keeps up with things i track.All so as wave asked about a tripod or mono pod a mono pod is a most shame there is no lens collar for the Tamron 70 - 300mm but its a lightweight lens so you could just screw you 550D to the mono pod and your away giving you some extra support.
With what setting to put the camera in tv is for slowing down fast action so if your zoomed out to 300mm then your shutter speed needs to be double so that would be a shutter speed of 640 or higher on a 550D at 70mm then 200 shutter speed you can all ways change the shutter speed up it or down it to get the right looking shot with ISO settings you would need to take a test shot when out when out on a bright day you could get away with ISO 400 as i have the 550D & 60D and the noise at high ISO speeds over my older 500D is way better i see the difference when im editing my images later on a pc when i have used all three camera's
But for me the best mode is manuel mode and once you under stand it as it lets you see if your images are going to be dark or light by watching the exposure meter in the middle then that way i can any blame my self if i get the images wrong and not blame the camera for having it set in the wrong mode

hope this helps you out mondo

all the best
Russ