HS Basketball w/ 1DM4

[JPR Images]

Picked up my Canon 1DM4 this Thursday and shot two basketball games last night using the Mark4 & MarkIII. Used 24-70 f2.8 & 70-200 f2.8 IS lens on the two bodies. I was very impressed with the auto focus on the Mark4 compared to my Mark3, it was a noticeable difference to me. I used the Mark4 in shutter priority mode (TV) and set the shutter speed at 1/500 with most shots at f2.8 - 3.2 and used the new Auto ISO setting. Also was shooting jpegs and enabled the Auto Lighting Optimizer which worked very well for me. I use AI Servo/center point focus. At the end of the night I walked away extremely pleased with the Mark4 and its auto focus which is great. One other thing that impressed me was I purchased a new SanDisk Extreme Pro 16gb card and I never filled the buffer. The speed of that card in the Mark4 is super. Here are a couple of shots, if you would like to see more they are on my website. The jpegs were processed in Lightroom with minor noise reduction applied. The first three albums dated 01-08-10 were shot with the Mark4, www.jprimages.com

ISO 5000
http://jprimages.com/img/v1/p872769828-4.jpg
ISO 3200
http://jprimages.com/img/v0/p1053962217-4.jpg
ISO 2500
http://jprimages.com/img/v3/p565305318-4.jpg

[zelseman]

Wow, very good shots. Congrats on the new camera...it looks to be everything we wanted it to be. Now if only i could afford it.

[emtp563]

I checked out your galleries. Awesome! It looks like the Mark IV is a winner!!!

[joe9047]

Great shots! Impressed by the fact that they were all done by zooms without the 85 1.8 or 135L in sight :)

[JPR Images]

I have an 85 f1.8 that I used primarily for volleyball this past season in some of the darker gyms that I shoot in. That is the only fixed focal length lens I own. I really prefer zooms and debated over the Canon 300 f2.8 and the Sigma 120-300 f2.8 last year. In the end the cost factor and not wanting to be fixed at 300mm swayed me to the Sigma which I did not regret. It has worked well for football and soccer.

For basketball I usually start out in the stands with the 70-200 and then move down to the floor using the 24-70 which I find to be a great range for down by the net.

[wtr3554]

Looks great congrats on the new gear