District Class: TSV Freystadt II – SG Plankstetten II

I went to two matches at the weekend, one in the Beszirksklasse and one in the Kreisklasse. In each case TSV Freystadt against SG Plankstetten. The game in the Kreisklasse ended 2:0 for Freystadt, both goals were scored in the second half, the 1:0 unfortunately by Benedikt Rupp’s own goal, shortly after the Plankstetten goalkeeper had saved a penalty.

I was there with the OM-1 and the 90-250 f/2.8, my standard lens for the soccer pitch. I have pretty good experience of the yield there. The number of sharp images is of course lower than with an mFT lens because the monster part is significantly heavier, but you can see if anything has changed after the firmware update. Especially in terms of C-AF.

The first attempts were not so great. The camera often found the background more important. After a few minutes I switched from a 5-field to a 9-field and from then on all the pictures were actually sharp. There were a few exceptions, but the error quickly turned out to be behind the viewfinder. So what should you pay attention to?

• Use a 9 -point field.
• Yes, the lens is heavy and tends to slide down. But that’s stupid, because then – Nearest is Best – the AF is interested in the grass and not the players. So always keep as close to the target as possible.
• Don’t pull into the scene from the outside with the shutter release button half-pressed. Then it keeps the players on the edge in focus and by the time it changes the target, the scene is over. So aim first, then press.
• Zoom in closer, especially if the players are running around on the sideline. If the players are too small, it sometimes catches the spectators or the boards. If the image section is right, the focus will also be right.
• The AF doesn’t find very light-colored jerseys as exciting as darker jerseys. Especially when the players are very close and larger than the image, this makes a difference. Remedy: zoom out.
• If the series is very long – several seconds – and the players move across the camera, the C-AF “pumps” very slowly in the direction of the back or front focus, but then comes back again. It may be that the camera is confused by the wild movements of the players fighting for the ball because the phase AF cannot provide a clear indication of the direction in which the action is moving.

If you take these points into account, the yield is 100%. Depending on your requirements, you can then fine-tune the C-AF parameters, but you just have to map the changed behavior when taking pictures.

The yield is an order of magnitude better than before. In the end, I only had sharp images and could comfortably select the subject and delete everything that was too lame for me.