FS5: Baseball Try Outs

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greytail

Well-known member
Have been contracted to video baseball player performance at a local university. Planning to use my FS5 with the Fe Pz 28-135Mm F/4 G Oss Lens. Like the nice powered zoom. Do you see any problems with this set up. Also, I have never filmed baseball practice before. Do I need a helmet (haven't got one, but do have a skier's helmet and what are the chances of the camera being hit by a ball? Yes, they seem silly questions but I am a bit anxious :)
 
We need to know more. Just where to you plan to set up? If they want you on the field with a camera pointed at the batter, then you need to take special precautions. If you are behind the batter or in the stands, the dangers drop significantly.

If you are going to between the dugout and the batter then a cup and a helmet may be enough if you don't take your eye off the ball.

The odds of getting hit are quite small, but if it happens, head injuries can be severe and life altering.

They will probably have spare helmets, but if I were shooting, and in harms way, I'd want a full face mask like a catcher (and never turn your head away while they are batting). See if they will let you borrow an umpires outfit if you are shooting from the infield.
If you want to protect the camera then put something like a thick piece of plexiglass in front of the camera. But that presents problems of reflections.
 
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Hand-held or on tripod? Where are you going to be positioned on the field? That's a heavy lens that has a lot of servo lag in manual focus. You better have some kind of rig if you intend to shoot it hand-held. Always a danger of being hit by a ball when covering baseball. Or of colliding with a player chasing a foul ball if you are on the field on the sidelines. Got to be quick to cover sports. Servo zoom is too slow for sports coverage and the manual zoom also has servo lag. In that regard, the new 18-110 is better because manual mode disconnects completely from the servo. To be brutally honest, I wouldn't take on shooting sports if I've never done it before. If you are shooting from a fixed camera position in the stands, the 135 top range isn't long enough. You could try the clear zoom feature to bump it to 270 but still too short to get enough of a closeup to assess player performance. I hate to be too much of a spoil-sport, but I don't see this ending nicely. But I do hope I am wrong.

Ned Soltz
 
nsoltz said:
If you are shooting from a fixed camera position in the stands, the 135 top range isn't long enough.
Click to expand...

Yep. You'll need a lot more lens than that. Even on the field that is likely not enough depending upon what they are looking for. If it is just a locked down shot of the field, then no worries.
 
I would not recommend your setup, I have shot for skillshow/perfect game events and you can almost count on at least a near miss of getting hit by a stray ball. I would never shoot these with something other than a Canon XA10 or similar. Fast auto focus is a must while shooting drills or you are simply going to miss focus in a fast paced environment.
 
Stay away from Plexi and go straight for high impact Lexan. Plexi can shatter. Make sure there's a little bit of distance between the Lexan and the lens - and hang a net (from a c-stand) to catch balls that don't hit the protector. Use some black material from all around lens - taped to sunshade - to lexan to stop reflections.
Whatever you do, don't trust having a kid with a glove to 'catch anything that comes close'. A well hit line drive represents a lot of energy and can do more damage than you can imagine.
And don't put your eye up to the viewfinder!
 
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