X-Pro2 + XF100-400mm Does Rugby X-Treme

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A couple of weeks ago I took the new Fujifilm X-Pro2 out on the Snowman Rally to test it in a sports photography environment.  The results were very impressive, especially the AF performance.  

 Today I decided to give the camera another sporting test, this time a local game of rugby between North Berwick and Dalkeith in the BT East Regional League Division 1.

 Once again the weather decided to play its part and the dark rain clouds overhead produced some challenging lighting conditions that forced me to set the exposure at 1/500 @ f5.6 ISO1600.


Rugby, like all team sports, is a lot different from shooting motorsport.  I used to shoot a lot of local sports - football, rugby, cricket - when I was the staff photographer at the Grantham Journal 18 years ago.  Luckily I hadn't forgotten how to follow a fast moving game and I was able to read the action and capture some vital moments during the game.

 With the X-Pro2 set to 8fps I also captured some sequences, such as the tackle below that up ended the player. 




The 100-400mm performed very well but the f5.6 maximum aperture was providing me with a challenge in the low light conditions and I found myself wishing for f4 or even f2.8. But we work with what we have and I always love a challenge! With the ISO dial set to 1600 I had enough light to give me 1/500s, just about fast enough.

The AF also worked well with the camera set to AF-C and Zone mode and once locked on the camera was able to follow the player with the ball.  It sometimes got fooled by someone running across the frame between the subject and the camera but this was the exception rather than the rule.  The hit rate of in focus shots was about 65-70%, which for a fast moving game was pretty good and very acceptable.


Another bonus of the new 24MP X-Trans III sensor on the X-Pro2 is the ability to crop the image in post production.  The 6000 x 4000 pixel image size is easily cropped and still produces a file size larger than the 4896 x 3264 pixel size of the files from the X-T1.  The shot below was cropped to put the player with the ball in the centre of the image and the full size file size is still 5000 pixels on the long edge.









And the final score?  North Berwick 70 - Dalkeith 0

I came away from the game with some shots that would've made the grade for the paper so I was happy with the performance of the X-Pro2 and 100-400mm in such challenging conditions.  I'm hoping to give this combination even more of a challenge in a sports environment very soon.
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