No AI-Servo. What to do?

I wanted to start getting some shore and chase boat shots this summer. I don't have AI-Servo with my 300D unless I'm in sports mode...which obviously limits me to automatic settings. What kind of techniques could I use for riders coming towards or going away from me if I want to shoot in M or AV modes? I do not have the hack and I'm using the 70-200mm f/4.

For my niece's soccer games I end up half-depressing the shutter button at a continued rapid pace to keep my moving subjects in focus.

Thanks in advance for the tips.

When I was shooting with the 300D (aka the Rebel) I would just anticipate where the rider would be and focus that point. It was more miss than hits, but that was the best I could do without AI servo. What about AI focus? any luck there? (does 300D even offer that? I forget!)

I'm not familiar with AI focus but I don't think the DR offers it. Thanks for the suggestion. So you would just focus on the water at the point directly beneath where you wanted to capture the rider in the air?

I had good luck with the repeated focusing technique I mentioned but capturing 5 year-olds playing soccer is different than a wakeboarder coming at you at close to 30mph!

honestly, 5 year olds move pretty slow.. switch to manual focus and f-stop of 9 or higher. :-)

Yeah, I might have to experiment with a couple of techniques and I don't think I'll be shooting wide open!

Thanks Swami. Time to upgrade and get that AI Servo!

Forget AI servo (or AI focus) unless you're using a 1 series. I have tried AI servo in the 10D, 20D, 5D. (haven't bothered with the XTi) and it's too hit/miss. That's what you're spending the big bucks on the 1D(X) series for. Like Swami, I've had better luck manually focusing and high f stop is good also to max DOF. If you're at f2.8 very little will be in focus anyhow!

If you shoot with a high f stop (deep depth of field) the photo will look like it was taken with a point and shoot camera IMHO. I think the rider pops more with a shallow DOF.

I had fair results shooting with the rebel on single shot from chase boats.

If the rider is coming towards you(or away)just manual prefocus on the spot where you want to shoot the rider. This will allow you to concentrate more on framing and composition, which will really improve your photos

I shot these with the old Rebel. There not very good shots but you can see it will focus just fine. Shoot wide and use one focus point. Make sure you pan with the rider and keep the focus point on him at all times.

If you shoot wide you can go back and crop them to your liking.

eh...I think it all depends on the background, contrast, etc. Obviously the 1D is head and shoulders above the Rebel, but I never had TOO many issues with AI Servo on my 10D.