Marlene, I'm so glad to see this video because I've had the same run of luck trying to shoot indoor basketball games with my G9II (and my G85 before that)... I was using the Olympus 40-150 F2.8... I shot wide open with a 1/800 shutter speed and refused to allow my camera above an ISO of 3200... I was surprised you went so high! By and large I was able to freeze the action and like you, people were very happy with the photos. But I wasn't satisfied with how flat and lifeless my shots looked. Although I'll have challenges with focal length, I'll bring my Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 next time. I WOULD LOVE to see more videos from you about this kind of shooting... it's the most challenging of all, I find!
Oh thank you so much for this. I appreciate the feedback and hearing your similar experiences. I don't have too many young athletes in my life, but I'd love to give high school basketball a shot ;) And yes, I'd want a fast prime if I ever do indoor sports again. The 42.5mm sounds like it would be good for basketball as I imagine you'd be a bit farther from the action so the extra length might be fine. A good tradeoff for the extra speed, I say! Not many people watch my action sports videos, but it's one of my favourite things to shoot.
@@ImageMaven I will report back to you next week as there's a game every Sunday. 🤣 I also want to thank you for being so honest and open about your experiences, even when they don't produce the results you're looking for... I've learned a LOT from you, and it's comforting to see I'm not the only one struggling with this! (Loving my G9II otherwise. This thing is a beast!)
@@ImageMaven Hi Marlene I'm back as promised. Turns out the extra couple stops of light make a HUGE difference. I highly, highly recommend you give your faster primes a chance. I shot an indoor basketball game with the Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 wide open 1/800-1/1000 shutter speed and an ISO of 1600... what a difference. I got AMAZING shots... the best part is, I was able to crop in a BUNCH, and the pictures were still sharp with beautiful dynamic range (i.e., not the noisy flatness we complained about at F2.8). The bad part was I had to "zoom with my feet," and I missed the action on the opposite end of the floor, but that's usually not the ideal angle for basketball photography anyway. I would love to see another attempt video from you... I think you'll be much happier with the results! All the best.
@@MrVara411 So great to hear this! Thanks for following up. My 25mm f1.7 should arrive in the next couple of days. I’ll test it out again on volleyball for sure. 👍
Life happens faster than the blink of the eye! That's why I'm still learning to push shutter speed ever faster in spite of high ISO! And, learning to love Topaz Photo AI/DXO. Even jpegs can get better than the eye and camera can see with these programs. Always enjoy your video adventures that keep photography intriguing!👍❣️🙂
Yes, I love Topaz DeNoise. Use it all the time for my birding, but I had 300+ keeper photos on this shoot and I didn't have the time to deal with them all. The players never pixel peep like we do, and they're viewing on their phones! So I went with them basically straight out of the camera except for some cropping.
Marlene, I thought your results looked good, especially shooting MFT at ISO's above six-thousand. I don't own any fast Lumix glass but as a working press photographer I used to use my Nikon D700 and 80-200mm f2.8 and often shoot from the back corners (usually against the gym wall) to compress the blocking and scoring attempts at the net. However, most of our gyms were so poorly lit our paper was given special exemptions for the use of off camera, specially shielded flash units set up along the axis of the net as far from the court as possible. At one district tournament the flash exemption was denied and I had to shoot the match at ISO 25,000 at 1/250th at f2.8. Your results were a lot better than mine:) I look forward to all your future videos with your new G9 Mk 2.
Wow those were tough lighting conditions! I’ll try your tips for getting further back to shoot compressed. Glad you thought I did ok. 😊 Many indoor hockey rinks are similar or worse with their lighting. Freezing the puck is near impossible. Thanks for the tips Bruce!
Nice little episode. 😀 Strange how you had buffering issues because I don't really suffer with that and I only shoot RAW. Because its so manly🤣😂 I used to shoot 60fps but, like you, I settled on 20fps even with pre-burst and only seldom does the Buffer rear its ugly head. This may have something to do with the cards I use, which have write speeds of V60. Not really much reason to go higher as this even covers me filming almost all flavours of codec the camera can spit out. Have you ever considered attaching a Solid State Drive to your camera such as SSD or the newer M.2 NVME drives with USB C cable? You can also edit directly from these cards for a speed boost on your computer. They are a heck of a lot cheaper than SD cards, when you price in how many SD cards make up 1Tb for an SSD card. And they are considerably faster with read/write speeds which may also help your camera clear its buffer faster. External drives are mainly for filming, however if I'm on holiday and worry about storage and running out of SD cards then having a couple of 1Tb or 2Tb drives alleviate any anxiety of running out of space. The only worry is the USB C cable being pulled out. But you can buy attachments that keep the cable locked in place. Smallrig even do a 2.5 inch SSD card holder that slots into the camera's Hot-shoe that clamps the cable in place. You can also get clamps that attach to your camera to ensure that the cable does not come out at tricky moments if you are worried.
Frank this is full of good information. Thank you! YES, I have considered the SS Drives. I've just learned about them recently. If they are not too cumbersome for birding, I think I'd use them, as I don't plan to shoot indoor sports very much - just for fun with my family members. I know that Sean from Lumix USA uses an SSD and he demonstrated it on a recent Lumix Live Stream. Thanks for the specs. Of course I won't buy anything until I actually own the G9II myself (this one is on loan until the end of Feb). Cheers!
@@ImageMaven I think it was Emily that got me onto the Smallrig adapter that can fit on a Hot-Shoe. You can set it up so the SSD does not bang up against your forehead. Or you could buy a cage and have the SSD off to the side. Or you could have a very long USB cable and keep the card in your pocket or attach the card to some velcro and stick it somewhere useful. I've just upgraded my computer by replacing the two 2Tb M.2 NVME cards with two 4Tb NVME cards. I then bought a couple of caddies from Amazon and put the old NVME drives into them. I now have a couple of 2Tb NVME drives that are even faster than my 2Tb Seagate 2.5 inch SSD Drives. As for getting the drives to play nicely with your camera, things could not be more simple. You connect them to the camera and when you turn the camera on, it asks if you want to use them straight away. If you film your episodes, bird footage or Talking Head stuff with the G9m2 to the external drives then you just plug them into your computer. Easy peasey, lemon squeezy. Just wait till you start using dummy batteries for filming outside or doing long Time Lapses and not have to worry about the battery dying.🙃
I also use M43 system. (Olympus E-M1 mark III, with pro f2.8 lenses). I prefer to shoot in raw and reduce noise in post-processing. You are right the buffering time is longer, but I often crank up the iso to 6400, which provides lots of noise. In case of high iso, I start the post-processing workflow with DxO PureRAW 4 to reduce noise. It works properly with the Olympus raw file.
Interesting Marlene. You probably reached the ISO limits of the camera. The pictures look great for that level though. Wouldn't have expected this. That's for sure the kind of shooting I wouldn't like to do. You did well. btw I am goind on hollidays ths winter with my new 14-140. Plan to use it a lot indoor in museum and churches. Wonder if it will be bright enough in winter lightning. We'll see. After all canvas, columns and statues move far slower than a Volleyball team.
I shoot a lot of volleyball and I use the full frame R5 and R6 mark II, but also use micro for thirds for a lot of video, considering getting the G92 and was specifically looking for performance in volleyball. Big difference though is I don’t shoot to absolutely freeze the action. I do kind of want the ball to have a slight blur to it so I actually shoot usually around 400 to 1/640 of a second and that could help you get your ISO down a bit, of course with full frame 6400 is not a problem.
Hi Marlene.. thank you for the candid assessment of your experience. I have that same lens and I love it so much... in the right situation. If you end up doing this type of thing where it's worth the investment you might consider the sigma 56 mm 1.4. I bought one of these primarily as a portrait lens,, but it helped me in situations shooting movement indoors like Native Peoples Pow Wow dancing.. This lens is sharp as a tack! Used, they are probably in the $275 USD area.. but might be worth the investment. Great video ..keep practicing and sharing.
Thanks so much, Clint. I actually bought a Lumix 25mm f1.7 (the cheap version) yesterday. That 56mm looks lovely, but I think it would be too long for this situation since I shot at 35mm 99% of the time. Not that I will be shooting much volleyball, but I did notice a little gap in my lens collection. And you know, we all love to play with new gear. Well I do, at least.
Appreciate you sharing this…must have been a challenge, yet some good results! Just a bit more practice in indoor work as you noted 😊 and you already commented on some ways to improve. Glad you got to dust off the 35-100 lens…a long time if I recall correctly. So next time…a faster lens…same camera or perhaps the OM 1 (saw one of the comment’s below)?
Yes, I think I should give the OM-1 it's fair due on this too. That would also force me to learn it better! So far I've only done birding on that camera. Hopefully my niece's team is playing in Calgary again soon so I get another chance. Thanks for watching Gordon.
Marlene, where do you go set the Pre-burst setting please? Very impressed with your sharp shots indoors! Thanks so much. Got my G9 Mk 2 on March 20th after selling my G9.
May I kindly suggest you look that up in the owners manual? As I expect you’ll have plenty more questions. And it’s faster than me writing out all the steps for you. The pdf is searchable.
I have shot women's college basketball (Div 1 top 10 teams) with my old G9 and only one game so far with my G9ii. I use the Leica 12-60 the majority of the time. and 100% of the time when the action is on my end of the court. I shoot RAW. Usually on High burst vs Pre burst. I do it as a hobby so I have plenty of time to process the RAW shots. The buffering when it happens is not an issue to me. I will shoot jpeg for one half and RAW the next half tonight with my Markii and do some comparisons. It is funny to me to sit on the court with my 12-60 and it's less than half the size of that 70 - 200 Canon lens most other photographers are using. I'm also going to use my 20mm 1.7 a bit to see how that works. Keep up the work Marlene. Hope to see more of your trials and tribulations with the Markii.
Great to have this info. Thanks for sharing! I own the 12-60mm but opted for the full f/2.8 of the 35-100mm. Let me know how the 20mm works. I'd still like to try with the 25mm f1.4. But I don't shoot a lot of this stuff, so not sure it's worth the cost of that lens since I already have that focal length covered in three other zoom lenses, except that they're slow!
@@ImageMaven I will. Like the idea someone mentioned about the 42.5 1.7. I find sitting on the baseline, under the goal, most of my shots are in that 15-30mm range. I've learned so much from you I feel like I'm paying back a TINY bit. :)
Interesting discussion. Though you used the 35-100mm lens, what was your nominal focal length? I wonder if a fast prime, like m.zuiko 45mm f/1.4 or the 75mm would have covered the range (if you, in the end didn't necessarily zoom in and out much. I've never shot volleyball.
As mentioned in the video I shot mostly at 35mm. I felt I could have used a wider angle. I’d love to shoot with the 25mm f1.4 next time. Just have to track one down! Thanks for watching. Cheers.
Very challenging shoot with very good result for one system and one photographer, faster lens or even fast FF Gear would have resulted with much more blur surrounding the main subject-was this a good outcome for this shoot... Back in the film days, i shot theater plays on grand rehearsal with two cameras and only after watching another rehearsal before so i was quite informed and in a much slower pace action, for me and looks by many others you did very well capturing the moment in this game environment.❤
Yes a faster lens for the next time I do this! I don't really want more blur though, just more shutter speed to freeze the motion - but of course they are related.
I guess this is the kind of scenario where a M4/3-camera really isn't the best tool for the job. I had some success shooting basketball with an M5 iii and the Sigma 56mm 1.4 prime, though the autofocus of the M5 iii was pretty slow sometimes. But the fast aperture meant I could keep the ISOs a bit lower.
I think m4/3 is a good tool, but the limits are the lighting of the venue and lens speed. If I get the opportunity to shoot this again, I will try with the OM-1 and something like a 25mm fast prime, to see those results.
Hi Marlene, I also use the 35-100 first version with the G9 and sometimes I go to see some volleyball matches of the Italian championship both male and female. The arenas here are very bright and with ISO I can stay between 2500 and 3200 with shutter speeds between 1/500 and 1/800. What kind of mode did you use of metering mode? I use "centre weighted"
I think that old lens did a good job for me. How nice to be able to use lower ISO. I used Multi metering but I'll try Centre Weight if I get another chance to shoot volleyball. thanks for watching!
Volleyball is very challenging. I did a shooting session of a tournament last summer and I was lucky it was an outdoor event, so light was not an issue. But the game is soooo fast and unpredictable. I also did a lot of slow motion clips with the G9 and it I got some great results. I also did some indoor photos of some games but that's where it really gets tricky with the light and high ISO. If I was to shoot more indoor sports events, MFT would probably not be my first choice tbh.
Now writing, please wait...(now grab my old G9 to use while waiting ;-) You would enjoy outdoor better plus natural light. My daughter played all the way through college and now, my grand-daughter's. Indoors was also helped by a monopod so I could move around at certain areas of the court but not restricted from a telephoto lens. Great video. Glad you're loving the new camera!
Isn't it great to have sporty family members to try things out with? My niece and her team provided the talent for this video. I'd like to shoot VBall again before the season ends in April, especially now that I know what to expect. Their team is in Calgary a couple times a month for tournaments. The camera is a long term loan but I hope to purchase my own G9II in the next few months. Thanks for stopping by to chat again Steve! Always a pleasure hearing from you.
So fun to watch this video, Marlene. Really helpful information. Indoor shooting is defintiley different from a light perspective. Hypothetically, if you HAD to shoot an indoor volleyball tournament, what would you do differently? I mean, let's say you were hired to shoot the tournament for the feature article of a well-known sports magazine. Would you use that 25mm f1.4 (but wouldn't you need the zoom)? I know that you want to get everything right in-camera and not do the work in post, but would you consider some of the new-fangled AI DeNoise software (Topaz Labs, for example)? Would you switch to a full-frame camera in order to reduce the need for higher ISO? Just curious what you would do. :-) BTW, I loved the pictures you took!
If I had to do this again, and for money.... I would definitely shoot with the 25mm f1.4 (if I could get my hands on one) and also the 35-100 again. I think it was fine for some shots. I'd also get over my shyness and talk to the ref and coaches about getting in the court during warmups. I would not shoot FF. At this stage in my life, I'm not interested in that format for many reasons. If a handful of the photos were going for publication, I'd definitely use Topaz DeNoise where needed. But I won't do that for more than about 20 photos unless there was a batch processing option....hmm I bet there is... Another video idea is in the works! Thanks for stopping by to look and drop a comment. Always nice to hear from my regulars :)
@@ImageMaven Loved this answer! I'm always encouraged to get out and shoot when I watch your videos. Edit: What about the Panasonic 25-50mm f1.7? It's expensive at about $1,500, but it's faster than f2.8 and seems to be in a focal range that would work. The reviewers say that it has the sharpness of a prime lens.
Yes that lens would probably do the trick but it’s pricey and heavy! (Multiply that price by 1.4 and you’ll get the Canadian cost.) If I was a sports journalist getting paid big bucks, yes for sure! We can dream though, right. 😊
Saw you on Rob's MFT gathering. I also shoot a TON of indoor volleyball (both of my daughters play on club teams). I alternate between: 1) my OM-1 with 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 (I sometimes use a f1.2 prime) and 2) my D500 with 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8. Shooting manual and setting custom WB are key (I use an expodisc). Gym lighting can be good or very poor. I push ISO up to 6400 and with de-denoising technology you can fix this later. Plus, most folks view the results on their phones, so you don't have to obsess with noise. I almost never shoot high speed burst. I've practiced enough over the last 3 years so that I can time my shots without needing many shots of the the same half second (burst shooting). I also cull the photos between plays (I hate having to look at hundreds of photos afterwards, so if I can get rid of bad ones immediately, I do so).
Sounds like you've honed your skills. Thanks for sharing with this newbie. I think I could definitely use "regular burst" for the next time I shoot volleyball. I usually do that with my skate photos as I know the timing much better. Even on my G100 at 7fps or less, I have no problem. Cheers!
@@ImageMaven I tried high speed burst a few times and found myself swamped with too many photos. Practice with shutter timing yields positive results in just a few outings. Now I can nail the timing 75% of the time, which is okay for me since the volleyball tournaments I go to last most of the day, so there's always more opportunities to "nail" a shot. A pro might need to be more efficient, so there is a case for pre-capture and burst modes. It sounds like you have shutter timing for skateboarding figured out.
Hard to say for sure as I have really been all over the map with testing this camera the past month. I’ve never run out of juice when birding even in the cold with some pre-burst. But I did after 1500+ shots of volleyball. Mostly pre-burst. So… maybe yes.
One thing that does happen with the OM-1 is overheating. And that rather worries me. Keeps my hands warm on cold winter days but not great in the summer.
I think it was LED lighting. It was very even. Just one bank of lights in this court was out. But overall decent, considering it was indoors. Thanks for taking a look!
Hi marlene, as G9 MK II potential buyer (or EM-1 MK II ,yes MK II Because it looks to be best M43 camera low light performer) was the camera applying automatic dynamic boost?
yes, so the G9 II is suppose to take double exposure for each image and achieve the best clean picture it can get, in youtube on my 32 " 1440p monitor it looks very nice with very detailed expression on the players face, thank you. This video is a keeper and goes to my photography folder🙏 my wife was a volleyball player in her youth and also loved the images. @@ImageMaven
I don’t think it’s wide enough in this case as I used 35mm most of the time and felt I needed wider. I’d love to try the 25mm I mentioned in the video.
@@ImageMaven Great lens... I just posted a comment with my luck... unfortunately Marlene is right... fantastic lens, but not quite wide enough for poorly-lit indoor gyms.
I shoot indoor volleyball with f2.8 lenses. I have thousands of pictures in various indoor lighting conditions that prove that it works. Your ISO will increase in poorly lit gyms, but the max I have ever gone to is 6400. De-noising software in post will clean this up.
That's my experience as well mushy photos 😂, although I'm using an om1mark2 that like 8 years old at this point, that I got second hand like 3 years ago .. and seriously thinking on getting the g9ii
I was actually surprised how mushy some of the photos were, I should point out I watch you tube on my large tv so they may not look as bad as someone viewing on a phone. Would be interesting to see what difference using topaz would make to some of the photos, maybe a follow up video. I’ve just recently bought a used G9, haven’t had a chance to really push it yet but quite pleased with it so far. Btw, the photos of the skateboarders I noticed a bit if graffiti, do people in Canada not like the UK? Can’t say I’ve ever seen graffiti in Britain saying F*** Canada 😂 Great channel Marlena.
Oh dear. My 1080p video on any large TV would be mushy for sure. Hopefully my wrinkles don't appear too large. I've done a couple of videos demonstrating Topaz DeNoise. I love it for my bird photos. These VBall shots will likely not be viewed on TV screens - mostly just cell phones as you said. As for the graf - don't be offended as most of that crappy spray paint is done by 11 year old boys and it's probably just a coincidence. I expect "K" was the name of someone. Trust me, I've seen much worse at times. The city paints over the whole skatepark a few times a year, so those boys always have a blank canvas to practice on. :( Thanks for stopping by to take a look!
@@ImageMaven Your videos look very good on my tv, your photos look very good on my tv, it was just the noise on some of the volleyball photos that made them look a bit soft. Believe it or not the quality of your videos and lots of other people’s on You tube are much higher than a lot of the tv channels in uk, excluding the main bbc channels and the 3 main commercial channels the rest all seem to show programmes in standard definition, which I think is 720p, so your 1080p always looks excellent. I should point out these are the free channels and not the paid for tv services, sky, Netflix etc which are obviously higher quality but I sometimes think you need a really big tv to see the difference between HD and 4 k.
any high end camera id use at least v60 or even v90 (not sure if you have them). i have an angelbird v60 128GB and its pretty quick with clearing the buffer on the GH5ii. are you still enjoying the G9ii? i like the pictures!
I seem to see too much noise with my g9 even at ISO 640. I would never go as high as you did. Have you noticed a difference in the noise level between the g9 and the g9 II? A rep told me that it is better with the new version. Don’t know if it was a sell tactic.
Hi Kathy, ISO 640 is very usable for most situations. What types of photos are you seeing noise in? Noise will show up in your dark tones. I tend to push my cameras to the limit and if I go over my comfort zone with noise and I really need that photo for something, I'll use Topaz DeNoise AI. Haven't done a side by side comparison yet as I'm more interested in the new PDAF of the G9II. But it's probably something I should do! I'm sure it's been done though. Thanks for stopping by.
The 2.8 is not fast enough unfortunately, maybe a fast prime might help. With the G9II I shot an indoor event and using the Sigma 56 and the 25 Olympus f1.2were the saving grace with ISO 400-1600.
I have been shooting indoor volleyball for the last 3 years. F2.8 lenses work. I have thousands of indoor volleyball pictures shot with Oly 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 zooms and Nikon 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8 zooms.
Did you run any noise reduction ? I recently learned to run it at the beginning before processing. I always did it after on only the keepers. My PC is fast and running 20-30 photos through denoise in LR is no problem. Might be time to do a short video on card speeds. Its pretty confusing at times.
I let the camera do the processing this time. There were just too many photos and a quick deadline to fuss too much. Plus, LR Denoise only works on RAW files. If I was getting paid for a shoot, I'd likely process at a more professional level. But for social media for the players to see and share, this was perfect for them. Thanks for the suggestion of a card speed video. I have done one in the past, but in digital age, it's probably 80 years old by now. Cheers!
With my G9 I followed your example and went to two skate parks to take pics. On one visit to one of them two years ago I was accosted by a shortish swearing man about half my age complaining about my intentions with the photos and accused of being a paedophile! I went back into my car to get my phone and when he saw that he physically wrestled me to the ground and took my phone from me. He was winding some of the crowd up against me to support his actions. He rang the Police and refused to let me back in my car. The Police came about 2 hours later and took my phone and G9 off me. Even though I showed photos of my son (16 at that time) to him at that skate park and to the Police they still took my camera off me. So now I had to wait not knowing what they might end up charging me with. Very stressful! However, after two days they returned my phone and my camera to me with no comment!!! None of my skate park photos had been deleted! That was my experience here in Perth. I was never told this man's name but have never been back to that skate park either. I can do without being assaulted for nothing. Your photos at the skate park are really good!
Marlene, I'm so glad to see this video because I've had the same run of luck trying to shoot indoor basketball games with my G9II (and my G85 before that)... I was using the Olympus 40-150 F2.8... I shot wide open with a 1/800 shutter speed and refused to allow my camera above an ISO of 3200... I was surprised you went so high! By and large I was able to freeze the action and like you, people were very happy with the photos. But I wasn't satisfied with how flat and lifeless my shots looked. Although I'll have challenges with focal length, I'll bring my Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 next time. I WOULD LOVE to see more videos from you about this kind of shooting... it's the most challenging of all, I find!
Oh thank you so much for this. I appreciate the feedback and hearing your similar experiences. I don't have too many young athletes in my life, but I'd love to give high school basketball a shot ;) And yes, I'd want a fast prime if I ever do indoor sports again. The 42.5mm sounds like it would be good for basketball as I imagine you'd be a bit farther from the action so the extra length might be fine. A good tradeoff for the extra speed, I say! Not many people watch my action sports videos, but it's one of my favourite things to shoot.
@@ImageMaven I will report back to you next week as there's a game every Sunday. 🤣 I also want to thank you for being so honest and open about your experiences, even when they don't produce the results you're looking for... I've learned a LOT from you, and it's comforting to see I'm not the only one struggling with this! (Loving my G9II otherwise. This thing is a beast!)
@@ImageMaven Hi Marlene I'm back as promised. Turns out the extra couple stops of light make a HUGE difference. I highly, highly recommend you give your faster primes a chance. I shot an indoor basketball game with the Panasonic 42.5mm F1.7 wide open 1/800-1/1000 shutter speed and an ISO of 1600... what a difference. I got AMAZING shots... the best part is, I was able to crop in a BUNCH, and the pictures were still sharp with beautiful dynamic range (i.e., not the noisy flatness we complained about at F2.8). The bad part was I had to "zoom with my feet," and I missed the action on the opposite end of the floor, but that's usually not the ideal angle for basketball photography anyway.
I would love to see another attempt video from you... I think you'll be much happier with the results! All the best.
@@MrVara411 So great to hear this! Thanks for following up. My 25mm f1.7 should arrive in the next couple of days. I’ll test it out again on volleyball for sure. 👍
@@ImageMaven I have that one as well. Fantastic glass for the money. Looking forward to seeing your take on this. Good luck!
Life happens faster than the blink of the eye! That's why I'm still learning to push shutter speed ever faster in spite of high ISO! And, learning to love Topaz Photo AI/DXO. Even jpegs can get better than the eye and camera can see with these programs. Always enjoy your video adventures that keep photography intriguing!👍❣️🙂
Yes, I love Topaz DeNoise. Use it all the time for my birding, but I had 300+ keeper photos on this shoot and I didn't have the time to deal with them all. The players never pixel peep like we do, and they're viewing on their phones! So I went with them basically straight out of the camera except for some cropping.
Marlene, I thought your results looked good, especially shooting MFT at ISO's above six-thousand. I don't own any fast Lumix glass but as a working press photographer I used to use my Nikon D700 and 80-200mm f2.8 and often shoot from the back corners (usually against the gym wall) to compress the blocking and scoring attempts at the net. However, most of our gyms were so poorly lit our paper was given special exemptions for the use of off camera, specially shielded flash units set up along the axis of the net as far from the court as possible. At one district tournament the flash exemption was denied and I had to shoot the match at ISO 25,000 at 1/250th at f2.8. Your results were a lot better than mine:) I look forward to all your future videos with your new G9 Mk 2.
Wow those were tough lighting conditions! I’ll try your tips for getting further back to shoot compressed. Glad you thought I did ok. 😊 Many indoor hockey rinks are similar or worse with their lighting. Freezing the puck is near impossible. Thanks for the tips Bruce!
Nice little episode. 😀
Strange how you had buffering issues because I don't really suffer with that and I only shoot RAW. Because its so manly🤣😂
I used to shoot 60fps but, like you, I settled on 20fps even with pre-burst and only seldom does the Buffer rear its ugly head.
This may have something to do with the cards I use, which have write speeds of V60. Not really much reason to go higher as this even covers me filming almost all flavours of codec the camera can spit out.
Have you ever considered attaching a Solid State Drive to your camera such as SSD or the newer M.2 NVME drives with USB C cable?
You can also edit directly from these cards for a speed boost on your computer.
They are a heck of a lot cheaper than SD cards, when you price in how many SD cards make up 1Tb for an SSD card. And they are considerably faster with read/write speeds which may also help your camera clear its buffer faster.
External drives are mainly for filming, however if I'm on holiday and worry about storage and running out of SD cards then having a couple of 1Tb or 2Tb drives alleviate any anxiety of running out of space. The only worry is the USB C cable being pulled out. But you can buy attachments that keep the cable locked in place. Smallrig even do a 2.5 inch SSD card holder that slots into the camera's Hot-shoe that clamps the cable in place. You can also get clamps that attach to your camera to ensure that the cable does not come out at tricky moments if you are worried.
Frank this is full of good information. Thank you! YES, I have considered the SS Drives. I've just learned about them recently. If they are not too cumbersome for birding, I think I'd use them, as I don't plan to shoot indoor sports very much - just for fun with my family members. I know that Sean from Lumix USA uses an SSD and he demonstrated it on a recent Lumix Live Stream. Thanks for the specs. Of course I won't buy anything until I actually own the G9II myself (this one is on loan until the end of Feb). Cheers!
@@ImageMaven I think it was Emily that got me onto the Smallrig adapter that can fit on a Hot-Shoe. You can set it up so the SSD does not bang up against your forehead. Or you could buy a cage and have the SSD off to the side. Or you could have a very long USB cable and keep the card in your pocket or attach the card to some velcro and stick it somewhere useful.
I've just upgraded my computer by replacing the two 2Tb M.2 NVME cards with two 4Tb NVME cards. I then bought a couple of caddies from Amazon and put the old NVME drives into them. I now have a couple of 2Tb NVME drives that are even faster than my 2Tb Seagate 2.5 inch SSD Drives.
As for getting the drives to play nicely with your camera, things could not be more simple. You connect them to the camera and when you turn the camera on, it asks if you want to use them straight away.
If you film your episodes, bird footage or Talking Head stuff with the G9m2 to the external drives then you just plug them into your computer. Easy peasey, lemon squeezy.
Just wait till you start using dummy batteries for filming outside or doing long Time Lapses and not have to worry about the battery dying.🙃
That’s Incredibly Awesome! Have a great weekend! 🤗❤️✨
Thanks you too!! 😊
I also use M43 system. (Olympus E-M1 mark III, with pro f2.8 lenses). I prefer to shoot in raw and reduce noise in post-processing. You are right the buffering time is longer, but I often crank up the iso to 6400, which provides lots of noise. In case of high iso, I start the post-processing workflow with DxO PureRAW 4 to reduce noise. It works properly with the Olympus raw file.
Interesting Marlene. You probably reached the ISO limits of the camera. The pictures look great for that level though. Wouldn't have expected this.
That's for sure the kind of shooting I wouldn't like to do. You did well.
btw I am goind on hollidays ths winter with my new 14-140. Plan to use it a lot indoor in museum and churches. Wonder if it will be bright enough in winter lightning. We'll see. After all canvas, columns and statues move far slower than a Volleyball team.
Not quite the camera ISO limit but definitely my limit. That’s a great zoom range for traveling. Enjoy your trip.
I shoot a lot of volleyball and I use the full frame R5 and R6 mark II, but also use micro for thirds for a lot of video, considering getting the G92 and was specifically looking for performance in volleyball. Big difference though is I don’t shoot to absolutely freeze the action. I do kind of want the ball to have a slight blur to it so I actually shoot usually around 400 to 1/640 of a second and that could help you get your ISO down a bit, of course with full frame 6400 is not a problem.
Thanks, Marlene. This is a very helpful explanation. Faster lens would definitely help.
Yes I agree. I have a 25mm f/1.7 on the way.
Hi Marlene.. thank you for the candid assessment of your experience. I have that same lens and I love it so much... in the right situation. If you end up doing this type of thing where it's worth the investment you might consider the sigma 56 mm 1.4. I bought one of these primarily as a portrait lens,, but it helped me in situations shooting movement indoors like Native Peoples Pow Wow dancing.. This lens is sharp as a tack! Used, they are probably in the $275 USD area.. but might be worth the investment. Great video ..keep practicing and sharing.
Thanks so much, Clint. I actually bought a Lumix 25mm f1.7 (the cheap version) yesterday. That 56mm looks lovely, but I think it would be too long for this situation since I shot at 35mm 99% of the time. Not that I will be shooting much volleyball, but I did notice a little gap in my lens collection. And you know, we all love to play with new gear. Well I do, at least.
Appreciate you sharing this…must have been a challenge, yet some good results! Just a bit more practice in indoor work as you noted 😊 and you already commented on some ways to improve. Glad you got to dust off the 35-100 lens…a long time if I recall correctly. So next time…a faster lens…same camera or perhaps the OM 1 (saw one of the comment’s below)?
Yes, I think I should give the OM-1 it's fair due on this too. That would also force me to learn it better! So far I've only done birding on that camera. Hopefully my niece's team is playing in Calgary again soon so I get another chance. Thanks for watching Gordon.
Marlene, where do you go set the Pre-burst setting please?
Very impressed with your sharp shots indoors!
Thanks so much.
Got my G9 Mk 2 on March 20th after selling my G9.
May I kindly suggest you look that up in the owners manual? As I expect you’ll have plenty more questions. And it’s faster than me writing out all the steps for you. The pdf is searchable.
I have shot women's college basketball (Div 1 top 10 teams) with my old G9 and only one game so far with my G9ii. I use the Leica 12-60 the majority of the time. and 100% of the time when the action is on my end of the court. I shoot RAW. Usually on High burst vs Pre burst. I do it as a hobby so I have plenty of time to process the RAW shots. The buffering when it happens is not an issue to me. I will shoot jpeg for one half and RAW the next half tonight with my Markii and do some comparisons. It is funny to me to sit on the court with my 12-60 and it's less than half the size of that 70 - 200 Canon lens most other photographers are using. I'm also going to use my 20mm 1.7 a bit to see how that works. Keep up the work Marlene. Hope to see more of your trials and tribulations with the Markii.
Great to have this info. Thanks for sharing! I own the 12-60mm but opted for the full f/2.8 of the 35-100mm. Let me know how the 20mm works. I'd still like to try with the 25mm f1.4. But I don't shoot a lot of this stuff, so not sure it's worth the cost of that lens since I already have that focal length covered in three other zoom lenses, except that they're slow!
@@ImageMaven I will. Like the idea someone mentioned about the 42.5 1.7. I find sitting on the baseline, under the goal, most of my shots are in that 15-30mm range. I've learned so much from you I feel like I'm paying back a TINY bit. :)
Loving your picture wall 👌
Thanks Sue. I’ve been collecting small original art pieces for years.
Thanks for sharing! Perhaps changing the white balance in post would have made the photos more interesting (even if it was not 100% correct).
Do you mean change wildly? Maybe for a select few of the best ones.
Interesting discussion. Though you used the 35-100mm lens, what was your nominal focal length? I wonder if a fast prime, like m.zuiko 45mm f/1.4 or the 75mm would have covered the range (if you, in the end didn't necessarily zoom in and out much. I've never shot volleyball.
As mentioned in the video I shot mostly at 35mm. I felt I could have used a wider angle. I’d love to shoot with the 25mm f1.4 next time. Just have to track one down! Thanks for watching. Cheers.
Nice seeing you on Rob Trek's channel! :)
Thank you for watching. It was fun to be there with everyone.
Very challenging shoot with very good result for one system and one photographer, faster lens or even fast FF Gear would have resulted with much more blur surrounding the main subject-was this a good outcome for this shoot...
Back in the film days, i shot theater plays on grand rehearsal with two cameras and only after watching another rehearsal before so i was quite informed and in a much slower pace action, for me and looks by many others you did very well capturing the moment in this game environment.❤
Yes a faster lens for the next time I do this! I don't really want more blur though, just more shutter speed to freeze the motion - but of course they are related.
I guess this is the kind of scenario where a M4/3-camera really isn't the best tool for the job. I had some success shooting basketball with an M5 iii and the Sigma 56mm 1.4 prime, though the autofocus of the M5 iii was pretty slow sometimes. But the fast aperture meant I could keep the ISOs a bit lower.
I think m4/3 is a good tool, but the limits are the lighting of the venue and lens speed. If I get the opportunity to shoot this again, I will try with the OM-1 and something like a 25mm fast prime, to see those results.
@@ImageMavenKeep us posted, keep up the good work. 😀I enjoyed this video a lot, and generally exploring challenging scenarios in photography.
Hi Marlene, I also use the 35-100 first version with the G9 and sometimes I go to see some volleyball matches of the Italian championship both male and female. The arenas here are very bright and with ISO I can stay between 2500 and 3200 with shutter speeds between 1/500 and 1/800. What kind of mode did you use of metering mode? I use "centre weighted"
I think that old lens did a good job for me. How nice to be able to use lower ISO. I used Multi metering but I'll try Centre Weight if I get another chance to shoot volleyball. thanks for watching!
Volleyball is very challenging. I did a shooting session of a tournament last summer and I was lucky it was an outdoor event, so light was not an issue. But the game is soooo fast and unpredictable. I also did a lot of slow motion clips with the G9 and it I got some great results. I also did some indoor photos of some games but that's where it really gets tricky with the light and high ISO. If I was to shoot more indoor sports events, MFT would probably not be my first choice tbh.
I’m always up for a good challenge. I really enjoyed it. But I’d love to try outdoor beach volleyball. Need to wait for summer first! Cheers.
Now writing, please wait...(now grab my old G9 to use while waiting ;-) You would enjoy outdoor better plus natural light. My daughter played all the way through college and now, my grand-daughter's. Indoors was also helped by a monopod so I could move around at certain areas of the court but not restricted from a telephoto lens. Great video. Glad you're loving the new camera!
Isn't it great to have sporty family members to try things out with? My niece and her team provided the talent for this video. I'd like to shoot VBall again before the season ends in April, especially now that I know what to expect. Their team is in Calgary a couple times a month for tournaments. The camera is a long term loan but I hope to purchase my own G9II in the next few months. Thanks for stopping by to chat again Steve! Always a pleasure hearing from you.
@@ImageMaven 🏐🤎
So fun to watch this video, Marlene. Really helpful information. Indoor shooting is defintiley different from a light perspective. Hypothetically, if you HAD to shoot an indoor volleyball tournament, what would you do differently? I mean, let's say you were hired to shoot the tournament for the feature article of a well-known sports magazine. Would you use that 25mm f1.4 (but wouldn't you need the zoom)? I know that you want to get everything right in-camera and not do the work in post, but would you consider some of the new-fangled AI DeNoise software (Topaz Labs, for example)? Would you switch to a full-frame camera in order to reduce the need for higher ISO? Just curious what you would do. :-) BTW, I loved the pictures you took!
If I had to do this again, and for money.... I would definitely shoot with the 25mm f1.4 (if I could get my hands on one) and also the 35-100 again. I think it was fine for some shots. I'd also get over my shyness and talk to the ref and coaches about getting in the court during warmups. I would not shoot FF. At this stage in my life, I'm not interested in that format for many reasons. If a handful of the photos were going for publication, I'd definitely use Topaz DeNoise where needed. But I won't do that for more than about 20 photos unless there was a batch processing option....hmm I bet there is... Another video idea is in the works! Thanks for stopping by to look and drop a comment. Always nice to hear from my regulars :)
@@ImageMaven Loved this answer! I'm always encouraged to get out and shoot when I watch your videos. Edit: What about the Panasonic 25-50mm f1.7? It's expensive at about $1,500, but it's faster than f2.8 and seems to be in a focal range that would work. The reviewers say that it has the sharpness of a prime lens.
Yes that lens would probably do the trick but it’s pricey and heavy! (Multiply that price by 1.4 and you’ll get the Canadian cost.) If I was a sports journalist getting paid big bucks, yes for sure! We can dream though, right. 😊
Saw you on Rob's MFT gathering.
I also shoot a TON of indoor volleyball (both of my daughters play on club teams).
I alternate between: 1) my OM-1 with 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 (I sometimes use a f1.2 prime) and 2) my D500 with 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8.
Shooting manual and setting custom WB are key (I use an expodisc). Gym lighting can be good or very poor. I push ISO up to 6400 and with de-denoising technology you can fix this later. Plus, most folks view the results on their phones, so you don't have to obsess with noise.
I almost never shoot high speed burst. I've practiced enough over the last 3 years so that I can time my shots without needing many shots of the the same half second (burst shooting). I also cull the photos between plays (I hate having to look at hundreds of photos afterwards, so if I can get rid of bad ones immediately, I do so).
Sounds like you've honed your skills. Thanks for sharing with this newbie. I think I could definitely use "regular burst" for the next time I shoot volleyball. I usually do that with my skate photos as I know the timing much better. Even on my G100 at 7fps or less, I have no problem. Cheers!
@@ImageMaven I tried high speed burst a few times and found myself swamped with too many photos. Practice with shutter timing yields positive results in just a few outings. Now I can nail the timing 75% of the time, which is okay for me since the volleyball tournaments I go to last most of the day, so there's always more opportunities to "nail" a shot. A pro might need to be more efficient, so there is a case for pre-capture and burst modes.
It sounds like you have shutter timing for skateboarding figured out.
Do you notice a more pronounced battery drain using the pre-burst mode? My OM1 battery drains really fast when using OM System pro-capture mode.
Hard to say for sure as I have really been all over the map with testing this camera the past month. I’ve never run out of juice when birding even in the cold with some pre-burst. But I did after 1500+ shots of volleyball. Mostly pre-burst. So… maybe yes.
One thing that does happen with the OM-1 is overheating. And that rather worries me. Keeps my hands warm on cold winter days but not great in the summer.
I shot some tennis in much dimmer lighting condition indoors, with g9ii olympus 40-150 f2.8, high burst 10-20fps, focus on point every single shot
Nice! That seems like it would be hard to shoot. Thanks for sharing!
Did it having something to do with flourescent lighting possibly? I think your photos look great. 👍
I think it was LED lighting. It was very even. Just one bank of lights in this court was out. But overall decent, considering it was indoors. Thanks for taking a look!
Hi marlene, as G9 MK II potential buyer (or EM-1 MK II ,yes MK II Because it looks to be best M43 camera low light performer) was the camera applying automatic dynamic boost?
Do you mean iDynamic? If so, I had it on Auto.
yes, so the G9 II is suppose to take double exposure for each image and achieve the best clean picture it can get, in youtube on my 32 " 1440p monitor it looks very nice with very detailed expression on the players face, thank you. This video is a keeper and goes to my photography folder🙏 my wife was a volleyball player in her youth and also loved the images. @@ImageMaven
You should try to use Zuiko 40-150 f2.8. This lens is very sharp, very fast and in my opinion a lot better than Lumix 35-100.
I don’t think it’s wide enough in this case as I used 35mm most of the time and felt I needed wider. I’d love to try the 25mm I mentioned in the video.
@@ImageMaven Great lens... I just posted a comment with my luck... unfortunately Marlene is right... fantastic lens, but not quite wide enough for poorly-lit indoor gyms.
I shoot indoor volleyball with f2.8 lenses. I have thousands of pictures in various indoor lighting conditions that prove that it works. Your ISO will increase in poorly lit gyms, but the max I have ever gone to is 6400. De-noising software in post will clean this up.
That's my experience as well mushy photos 😂, although I'm using an om1mark2 that like 8 years old at this point, that I got second hand like 3 years ago .. and seriously thinking on getting the g9ii
I need to research some Olympic volleyball photos to see if they have mush. Yes the G9II is a dream camera for sure!
I was actually surprised how mushy some of the photos were, I should point out I watch you tube on my large tv so they may not look as bad as someone viewing on a phone. Would be interesting to see what difference using topaz would make to some of the photos, maybe a follow up video.
I’ve just recently bought a used G9, haven’t had a chance to really push it yet but quite pleased with it so far.
Btw, the photos of the skateboarders I noticed a bit if graffiti, do people in Canada not like the UK? Can’t say I’ve ever seen graffiti in Britain saying F*** Canada 😂
Great channel Marlena.
Oh dear. My 1080p video on any large TV would be mushy for sure. Hopefully my wrinkles don't appear too large.
I've done a couple of videos demonstrating Topaz DeNoise. I love it for my bird photos. These VBall shots will likely not be viewed on TV screens - mostly just cell phones as you said.
As for the graf - don't be offended as most of that crappy spray paint is done by 11 year old boys and it's probably just a coincidence. I expect "K" was the name of someone. Trust me, I've seen much worse at times. The city paints over the whole skatepark a few times a year, so those boys always have a blank canvas to practice on. :(
Thanks for stopping by to take a look!
@@ImageMaven Your videos look very good on my tv, your photos look very good on my tv, it was just the noise on some of the volleyball photos that made them look a bit soft.
Believe it or not the quality of your videos and lots of other people’s on You tube are much higher than a lot of the tv channels in uk, excluding the main bbc channels and the 3 main commercial channels the rest all seem to show programmes in standard definition, which I think is 720p, so your 1080p always looks excellent.
I should point out these are the free channels and not the paid for tv services, sky, Netflix etc which are obviously higher quality but I sometimes think you need a really big tv to see the difference between HD and 4 k.
any high end camera id use at least v60 or even v90 (not sure if you have them). i have an angelbird v60 128GB and its pretty quick with clearing the buffer on the GH5ii.
are you still enjoying the G9ii? i like the pictures!
Yes, I need to get a fast card for sure. I'm still using a v30. I'm loving the G9II. So much! Cheers!
I seem to see too much noise with my g9 even at ISO 640. I would never go as high as you did. Have you noticed a difference in the noise level between the g9 and the g9 II? A rep told me that it is better with the new version. Don’t know if it was a sell tactic.
Hi Kathy, ISO 640 is very usable for most situations. What types of photos are you seeing noise in? Noise will show up in your dark tones. I tend to push my cameras to the limit and if I go over my comfort zone with noise and I really need that photo for something, I'll use Topaz DeNoise AI. Haven't done a side by side comparison yet as I'm more interested in the new PDAF of the G9II. But it's probably something I should do! I'm sure it's been done though. Thanks for stopping by.
Perhaps volleyball is the kind of sport where you frame first, and let the action enter the area?
Yes, perhaps, but sometimes the action doesn't go exactly where you think it will.
The 2.8 is not fast enough unfortunately, maybe a fast prime might help. With the G9II I shot an indoor event and using the Sigma 56 and the 25 Olympus f1.2were the saving grace with ISO 400-1600.
Yes it was definitely pushing things. I’d love to try this again with the Lumix 25mm f1.4
I have been shooting indoor volleyball for the last 3 years. F2.8 lenses work. I have thousands of indoor volleyball pictures shot with Oly 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 zooms and Nikon 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8 zooms.
Did you run any noise reduction ? I recently learned to run it at the beginning before processing. I always did it after on only the keepers. My PC is fast and running 20-30 photos through denoise in LR is no problem. Might be time to do a short video on card speeds. Its pretty confusing at times.
I let the camera do the processing this time. There were just too many photos and a quick deadline to fuss too much. Plus, LR Denoise only works on RAW files. If I was getting paid for a shoot, I'd likely process at a more professional level. But for social media for the players to see and share, this was perfect for them. Thanks for the suggestion of a card speed video. I have done one in the past, but in digital age, it's probably 80 years old by now. Cheers!
@@ImageMaven indeed forgot about the raw versus JPEG thing in Lightroom
Is the dynamic range boost on?
Not sure what you mean. There is no menu for DR Boost menu. It's automatic.
With my G9 I followed your example and went to two skate parks to take pics.
On one visit to one of them two years ago I was accosted by a shortish swearing man about half my age complaining about my intentions with the photos and accused of being a paedophile!
I went back into my car to get my phone and when he saw that he physically wrestled me to the ground and took my phone from me. He was winding some of the crowd up against me to support his actions. He rang the Police and refused to let me back in my car. The Police came about 2 hours later and took my phone and G9 off me. Even though I showed photos of my son (16 at that time) to him at that skate park and to the Police they still took my camera off me. So now I had to wait not knowing what they might end up charging me with. Very stressful! However, after two days they returned my phone and my camera to me with no comment!!! None of my skate park photos had been deleted! That was my experience here in Perth. I was never told this man's name but have never been back to that skate park either. I can do without being assaulted for nothing.
Your photos at the skate park are really good!
You should break the bank and get the 25-50 1.7
Maybe if I did this full time. But that lens is too rich for me. Also it’s huge.
Haha, I think it’s heavier than the 100-400