Why does my Rebel t5 take such lousy action shots?

[mxmom]

I have a panasonic Lumix (standard point and shoot, no extra lenses )  that takes fantastic action shots when on sports setting on burst.  I fully expected my upgrade to the Canon rebel t5 to be outstanding.  It is nothing but blurry!  Why?  I tried the lense it came with, and the 300 mm.  All my shots are blurry messes no matter how I play around with the settings.  I have been using the sports setting on burst with ML setting.  What do I need to do?  I will be using it for motocross and football.

[TCampbell]

We'd need more information and would probably need to see some sample images which still have all the image meta-data (aka "EXIF" data) intact.  This would let us see what settings you used (or what settings the camera automatically decided to use.)

Action & sports is difficult for the camera... speeds are fast and often the lighting is poor.  

A higher end lens will usually collect substantially more light than an entry-price lens -- allowing for much faster shutter speeds and lower "noise" in the image.

Also, the camera needs to continuously track focus ... and the focus motors on the lens need to be able to keep up.  The lenses that have "USM" focusing motors tend to be the fastest (but that's a generalization... it will vary by the specific lens model).  The entry-price lenses tend to have the slower focusing motors and may not keep up with fast changing focus distances.

But we can only speculate unless we can see sample images.  Images can be blurry because focus was missed... or they may be blurry because the camera was moving too much while the shutter was open.  We don't know unless we can see sample images.

[ebiggs1]

Yes, we need way more info.  Are these games in daylight for instance? What are the exact particulars.  

[cicopo]

See if the info here helps give you a better understanding on how to shoot action & then consider that motorsports & aviation photography are similar in that you want some things frozen but others blurred to show the action, while for football high shutter speeds are acceptable because the action speaks for itself by the stance captured.

http://www.rccanada.ca/rccforum/showthread.php?t=147971

[mxmom]

Thanks for the info.  I just got the camera, so I dont know a lot about it.  While playing around with it, I did get the action shots to become more clear, but am still disapointed in it.  On burst it only takes 3 shots per second.  Is there any way to change this setting?  My p and s, takes 10 shots per second when on high speed burst with speed proirity.  Is there some kind of setting on the Canon similar to this?

I was also looking into how to crop the photos afterwards.  It seems to be only an automatic feature, and doesnt show me what it even looks like when cropped.  

Thanks for the help.  Oh and both the events would be held in daylight, to answer someone's question. 

[MikeSowsun]

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mxmom wrote:

Thanks for the info.  I just got the camera, so I dont know a lot about it.  While playing around with it, I did get the action shots to become more clear, but am still disapointed in it.  On burst it only takes 3 shots per second.  Is there any way to change this setting?  My p and s, takes 10 shots per second when on high speed burst with speed proirity.  Is there some kind of setting on the Canon similar to this?

I was also looking into how to crop the photos afterwards.  It seems to be only an automatic feature, and doesnt show me what it even looks like when cropped.  

Thanks for the help.  Oh and both the events would be held in daylight, to answer someone's question. 

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There is no way to make your T5 take 10 shots per second. It is a physical limitation of an entry level DSLR. If you want better image quality and faster frames per second you will have to spend a lot more money. 

Everything in life is a trade-off.   If 10 fps is very important to you you could just use your Point and Shoot for those shots and your T5 for everything else. 

[ScottyP]

Hi,
The T5 is a step up in some regards. Fast autofocus is not one.

As for the blur, please don't rely on "sports setting". It may not give you a fast enough shutter.

Instead: Go into TV mode. That means "time value" and is called "shutter priority" in most other cameras. It lets you set the shutter speed. For an outside sporting event, try a shutter speed of about 1/400th of a second. (the camera will say "400", not "1/400" but you can tell what it is doing as you turn the main control dial and the shutter speeds get faster or shorter. Experiment until you get a fast enough shutter for the particular sport but 1/400th to 1/640th or so should be enough to freeze the action with no blur.

Also set the autofocus mode to "AI focus" or "AI servo" and not "one shot". That way the autofocus will attempt to track your subject as you hold the shutter fire button half way, following your subject around.

[TCampbell]

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@ScottyP wrote:

Also set the autofocus mode to "AI focus" or "AI servo" and not "one shot". 

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There's a slight penalty for "AI Focus" ... use "AI Servo" for sports.  

There's a mode called "One Shot" - which is intended for stationary subjects.  When you press the shutter button, the camera will activate focus, work to lock focus on at least one focus point (or the focus point of your choice if you select the focus point instead of letting the camera use any point).  Once focused, the focus system switches off.  If you merely press the shutter halfway the camera will wait for you to completely press the shutter to take the picture.  If you fully press the shutter immediately (don't do a half-press) it STILL waits until it lock focus before it will take a picture.  HOWEVER... if subject distance changes AFTER the camera has locked focus... it will not update focus.  It will remain focused at that initial distance (and you'll end up with an out-of-focus image for your intended subject.)

The other common mode is "AI Servo" - which is intended for situations where the distance between camera and subject is constantly changing (such as action or sports).  In that mode the camera focuses continuously.  But a side-feature is that the camera WILL take a photo IMMEDIATELY when you fully press the shutter button and it will do so whether the camera has had time to lock focus or not.  This behavior is called "release priority" (in "One Shot" mode it will not take a photo until it can confirm it has locked focus first... this behavior is called "focus priority").  This means you'll need to maintain the presence of mind that you need to half-press the shutter for a few moments and continuously track your subject ... fully pressing the shutter release button when you want it to take the shot.  If you just lift the camera to your eye and fully press the button, it'll shoot before it can focus.

And then there's "AI Focus" - which is sort of in the middle.  "AI Focus" means the camera will attempt to evaluate which mode is best for the shot... between "One Shot" and "AI Servo".  If it evaluates the subject and decides that the subject doesn't seem to be moving, then it will behave as if it's in "One Shot" mode.   If it evaluates the subject and decides that the subject is moving, then it'll switch to "AI Servo" behavior.   

This makes it sound as if "AI Focus" might be a preferred mode since the camera auto-evaluates and does the right thing (well... it doesn't always do the right thing.)  But the slight penalty is that it takes the camera a few moments to make that determination.  If you KNOW your subject focus distance is going to be continuously changing... then it's best to just put the camera into "AI Servo" mode for the shot.

[ebiggs1]

If you are wanting high fsp, don't use AI-Servo.