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I recently had the opportunity to see Stars on Ice and Scott Hamilton in one of his farewell performances. It was a terrific show and a chance to test the useful limits of the E-10 and TCON 300. This was a case where camera, lens and photographer were forced to operate far outside the comfort zone.
The obvious disadvantage of photographing a performance like this one is the amount of available light. There was no way to use a flash of any kind for two reasons. First because it was not allowed, and second (and more technically important) I was in the middle of the upper arena so any type of flash was just pointless. So while I'm not a fan of ISO 320 on the E-10, it was the only choice I had. Even at this, the fastest shutter speed I could use was 1/100th of a second.
The next disadvantage was physical. I was jammed into a seat like everyone else so there was no way to use a tripod, or even a monopod for that matter. Every shot was hand held.
The third disadvantage was the action. The skaters move so quickly that focusing was a constant problem - auto or manual. In auto mode there frequently was not enough light for the contrast focusing system to operate properly. Since I was using the TCON, the IR focus was turned off (it would have been useless at that range anyway). Trying to manually focus and track a skater is almost impossible. I had hoped that I could just set the focus to infinity and not worry about it, but this was not the case. I was too close and shooting with a wide open aperture most of the time. Every shot had to be focused. Here's are the camera settings I used.
| Lens | TCON300 |
| ISO | 320 |
| White Balance | 4000 |
| Focus | Auto most of the time |
| Mode | Shutter priority, 1/100th |
| Metering | Spot |
| Flash | None |
| Stabilization | None - all shots hand held |
The six shots below were taken under the best technical conditions. The light was fairly good and the subjects were either stationary or holding a pose while moving slowly. These might be classified as nice amateur snapshots, but none have the quality necessary for publication.
 ice01 87.90 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice02 171.16 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice03 187.03 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice04 175.08 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice05 148.03 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice06 166.04 Kb 1024 x 770 |
The next six shots were taken under more difficult circumstances. The skaters were moving much more quickly. Each one has some amount of blur as the action out-paced the slow shutter speed. In these shots, luck was the biggest success factor.
 ice07 144.93 Kb 770 x 1024 |
 ice08 160.48 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice09 157.32 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice10 128.22 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice11 174.20 Kb 1024 x 769 |
 ice12 182.43 Kb 1024 x 777 |
Finally, jumps or Scott Hamilton's signature flip were completely beyond the capability of the equipment.
 ice13 134.11 Kb 1024 x 768 |
 ice14 156.46 Kb 770 x 1024 |
 ice15 273.68 Kb 1024 x 1365 |
Since I originally posted information about this lens I've received Email almost every week asking about the E-10 and TCON 300 for sports photography. Everything from soccer to hockey has been mentioned. In my opinion this is not a sport photography set up. Yes, you can take pictures at a sporting event and probably get a few good ones in the process, but that's totally different from meeting the demands commonly placed on a sports photographer. The big draw backs are the limited ISO of the E-10, fixed focal length of the TCON 300, and the ability to focus rapidly in low light. The Canon D30, Fuji S1 or any of the Nikon D1 variants will out-perform the E-10 hands down.
I mentioned earlier that luck was a big factor in getting any usable shots. To give you some insight about that, I captured a total of 299 images with the TCON. On the very first edit pass through them, I deleted 121 for severe technical flaws - mostly blur and focus problems (no big surprise). Out of the remaining 178, there were less than 50 real "keepers" and just a few worth printing larger than 4 X 6. There were no images of commercial quality.
This doesn't not mean I dislike the TCON 300. I think it's a well crafted piece of equipment that brings extra functionality to the E-10 in daylight conditions or in low light when used inside it's limitations. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with it this summer. I just wouldn't bet my pay check on it for indoor action or sports photography.