Technique advice needed please

Penstock

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John
Good afternoon,

I currently shoot with a Canon 70d with an 18-200mm lens. A little dated i know but next year i intend to purchase an A7iv with Tamron 35-150.

my daughter is an amature showjumper and most of my photography is in burst mode whilst the horse is in flight over fences.

my technical question is "whilst actually shooting in burst mode can i adjust the focal length at the same time, ie zoom in and out during the same burst of shots" ?

horse jumping is not particularly fast, nothing like basket ball for example. do you think my choice of A7iv with the Tamron 35-150mm is suitable. in my mind it allows for nice close in shots which the normal 70-200 would struggle with.

thanks to all in advance.

Penstock....Cheshire, England.
 
If you're using continuous focus, you zoom in and out whilst shooting with continuous drive mode.

I would think most would opt for back button focus for what you are doing.

Personally, I think 135mm focal length is a bit short for your needs. It depends on how far away you will be and whether you want the whole horse in the shot or close in on the rider.
 
Yes, you can, but your success will vary depending on the lens. In order to be most effective you will need a lens that is parfocal. Parfocal means that the lens maintains focus when the focal length changes. Most lenses are not parfocal. but there are some. The advantage is that if you zoom or go wider, the camera doesn't need to refocus. If the camera has to refocus when the action is hot, there will be a pause in the burst while it acquires focus.

How much of a problem that is depends, really. I shoot very fast action at the drag strip, and while it does show up once in a while it isn't that big of a deal. I never use BBF, I just leave it on the shutter button.

I would point out though, that the 35-150 on a FF sensor isn't going to be near as long as the 18-200 on Canon's APS-C, which would have the equivalent of a 320mm FOV. I've shot horses in motion before and find the 100-400 to be a really good range.
 
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