Lens envy (mild humor)

[Patrick 10D]

I take photographs for my American football team's web page as a hobby. Last weekend, we had our first home game of the season - a perfect day for football and photography.

I am doing my thing as usual on the sidelines, when a photo-journalist from the local newspaper shows up ... with her 1DsMkII ... and an EF 300 f/2.8 L lens. I wanted to fall on my monopod and slay myself, especially once she started taking pictures. My 20D cannot compete with that shutter speed, and my little 300 f/4 lens looks like a toy compared to the f/2.8. :mrgreen:

Anyway, my pictures came out Ok, but the one chosen for the newspaper was terrible IMHO, as it had nothing to do with either the story's headline, or the story of the game (which we won, 36-12).

If she comes back for our next game on Saturday, I will ask if I may borrow that monster f/2.8 for a quarter or two of the game!

[Medic1]

lol.....lens envy....I know it all too well, as does my wallet!!

[cmosdos]

Lol, good luck getting her to part with the lense! I think you'd have better luck finding out her weight.

[Andy_T]

Well, all I can say is that I envy you a lot for that 'toylike' 300/4.0 lens you got :lol:

So everything is relative.

Best regards,
Andy

[Patrick 10D]

Lol, good luck getting her to part with the lense! I think you'd have better luck finding out her weight.

Well, I was using the 300 and the 70-200, and she asked me which would be better for American football (that was her first game), and I suggested 70-200 ... She took my advice and shot with that in the second quarter until half-time. I was much more comfortable after that.

However, several of my friends and former teammates jokingly said to me post-game that, "it looks like you will have to buy a bigger camera bag now." :(

Oh well. :|

[lost]

when a photo-journalist from the local newspaper shows up ... with her 1DsMkII ...

My 20D cannot compete with that shutter speed,


It must have been the infamous 1DMkII not the s model. The 1DsMkII has a 4fps shutter, slower than your 20D. Just be glad you were not carrying a 300d.

My first baseball game a newspaper photog showed with the machinegun camera. Talk about inferiority complex.

[Loaded]

i get the same thing. Many of the parents in my daughters cheerleading team have LOTS of money.. he last mom there bought Kodak DCS and L lenses she said she spent nearly 8K at one drop and just cant understand why her photos come out so bad! LOL UGH proof is in the print!

[Patrick 10D]

It must have been the infamous 1DMkII not the s model. The 1DsMkII has a 4fps shutter, slower than your 20D. Just be glad you were not carrying a 300d.

My first baseball game a newspaper photog showed with the machinegun camera. Talk about inferiority complex.

My bad. Yes, that was the machine that she had.

I still feel lackluster!

[booggerg]

Yes, it was mild.. :wink:

[willg]

i get the same thing. Many of the parents in my daughters cheerleading team have LOTS of money.. he last mom there bought Kodak DCS and L lenses she said she spent nearly 8K at one drop and just cant understand why her photos come out so bad! LOL UGH proof is in the print!

now thats some humor right there...wonder why she got a kodak

[gasrocks]

Patrick - can you remember the initial sense of envy? Was it A - that looks great? I would look better holding one of those. B - Boy, the pictures I could get with that? C - I wish I had that kinda money.

[wibbly]

a newspaper photog showed with the machinegun camera.

Just console youself that 8fps is like a slow movie camera. Takes all the skill out of it. At THAT rate ONE frame is BOUND to be good. You just have to choose your moment so you don't run out of buffer memory or flash space before the 'event' is over ;)

That's what I say to a friend who had a Nikon D2H and now has a D2X...

Anyway, the attached image was shot in one shot mode @ 1/250 at f5.0. Not a wonderful shot, but I got 'the moment'. At that point she was bragging that nobody had tipped the water on her yet!

J

[myth337]

There are two kinds of photographers in the world.
Those who take many frames per second and pick the best one, and those who take good pictures.

I understand the need for the, um.. machine gun camera... and when I could shoot 4-8 frames per second, I used it specifically to get a good sequence of shots, that were displayed as a sequence of shots.

Of course, I have missed a few shots while the hamsters in my humble 300D were frantically shovelling megabytes of data into the CF card, but hey.. the shots that I got were pretty good.

and one last point.. some of the best, coolest shots that I made in the film world have come from the hip... with a p&s camera, or just a snapshot with my 35mil, set on automatic. don't get me wrong.. I have set up and taken other good shots.. and a nice camera with lots of cool features is nice to have... but like the man said.. the proof is in the print. the camera just records what we see when we push the button.

.. Lee

[myth337]

C - I wish I had that kinda money.
this would be my answer...

[wibbly]

... and she got kinda wet in the end ;-)

http://newton-i.usefilm.com/3/3/0/9/3309/847241-large.jpg

[myth337]

At that point she was bragging that nobody had tipped the water on her yet!
.. and from the expression on her face, the signals from her hair telling her brain that it was raining hadn't quite been registered yet.

.. looked at the other shot too.. nice capture of the water drops floating around.

.. Lee

[calgaryphotographer]

i'll tell you that I sure do get excited when I see big lenses, most of the time people will let my try them out!

[Curtis N]

My 20D cannot compete with that shutter speed, and my little 300 f/4 lens looks like a toy compared to the f/2.8.I have a question for you, Patrick, since you were at a football game:

Was the game won by the team with the biggest linemen and the fastest running backs? Or was it won by the team with the talent, training, and preparation to execute their game plan?

[benhasajeep]

I have a somewhat similar story. I was a photographer for a college newspaper. I was pretty decent at shooting sports. So I got most of the good sport assignments. For 2 years I saved up for a 300 2.8 AF. Just after I got it I took it to a football game. I had it mounted to a dedicated camera with just a stap no monopod. Anyway the action was moving to one of the endzones and I changed my position. Found a spot next to a "real" photog. At the time I was hand holding my F3 which had a 70-210 lens on it. And my 300 was on my left shoulder. The "real" photog was to my right. My press pass was quite obvious that I was not a major media player (even thought it was our stadium). Anyway after a play or two there was a time out. And the "real" photog turned to me and said some day you might make it to be a real photographer and be able to shoot with some good equipment. It kind of miffed me as I never said a word to this guy. Then I realized he was just a jerk because I started to listen to him. He was trying to boss others around. Like telling others your in my shot. Basically playing king of the media box.

Well anyway a little later the action started going the other direction. I was not interested in taking a picture from behind. But I made sure before I moved back to the other end. I lowered my close up camera and moved around my 300 2.8. I made sure I took a couple pictures with it, just to make sure the guy next to me noticed it. Then just as I was leaving I said, I don't know about you but this is a brand new lens and I OWN it.

[Patrick 10D]

Patrick - can you remember the initial sense of envy? Was it A - that looks great? I would look better holding one of those. B - Boy, the pictures I could get with that? C - I wish I had that kinda money.

B!

[grego]

I have a somewhat similar story. I was a photographer for a college newspaper. I was pretty decent at shooting sports. So I got most of the good sport assignments. For 2 years I saved up for a 300 2.8 AF. Just after I got it I took it to a football game. I had it mounted to a dedicated camera with just a stap no monopod. Anyway the action was moving to one of the endzones and I changed my position. Found a spot next to a "real" photog. At the time I was hand holding my F3 which had a 70-210 lens on it. And my 300 was on my left shoulder. The "real" photog was to my right. My press pass was quite obvious that I was not a major media player (even thought it was our stadium). Anyway after a play or two there was a time out. And the "real" photog turned to me and said some day you might make it to be a real photographer and be able to shoot with some good equipment. It kind of miffed me as I never said a word to this guy. Then I realized he was just a jerk because I started to listen to him. He was trying to boss others around. Like telling others your in my shot. Basically playing king of the media box.

Well anyway a little later the action started going the other direction. I was not interested in taking a picture from behind. But I made sure before I moved back to the other end. I lowered my close up camera and moved around my 300 2.8. I made sure I took a couple pictures with it, just to make sure the guy next to me noticed it. Then just as I was leaving I said, I don't know about you but this is a brand new lens and I OWN it.

Good one. Yeah, for some reason, pro photographers seem to get this complex that they are some how so much better than you are and can't be touched.

[benhasajeep]

Good one. Yeah, for some reason, pro photographers seem to get this complex that they are some how so much better than you are and can't be touched.

Actually this was the only occasion that I had anyone ever say anything to me. I even had the opportunity to take some pictures of President Clinton when he flew into town once. I was right next to some big time media people and not a word was said to me.

[bolantej]

i had the saem thign happen to me last night. i was at a church funtion, and a guy shows up with his 20d and both the 70-200 f4L and maybe the 300 L. oh well. made me think of spending more money, though. :D

[Tom W]

I am doing my thing as usual on the sidelines, when a photo-journalist from the local newspaper shows up ... with her 1DsMkII ... and an EF 300 f/2.8 L lens. I wanted to fall on my monopod and slay myself, especially once she started taking pictures. My 20D cannot compete with that shutter speed, and my little 300 f/4 lens looks like a toy compared to the f/2.8. :mrgreen:

There's a good chance that the equipment belongs to the newspaper.

f she comes back for our next game on Saturday, I will ask if I may borrow that monster f/2.8 for a quarter or two of the game!

If she comes back next Saturday and says she owns the lens, marry her! :)

[grego]

Actually this was the only occasion that I had anyone ever say anything to me. I even had the opportunity to take some pictures of President Clinton when he flew into town once. I was right next to some big time media people and not a word was said to me.

It's not that common, but it does happen. I had that experience with another college photographer. But that's cool you haven't run into anymore idiots.