Photojournalist/Sports combo needs

I've gone through quite a bit of kit lately. First off, it's not because I got G.A.S or I have loads of money to waste, it's just that different genres have taken me in odd directions to which I have changed kit to suit.

I now find myself shooting more for an on-line agency called Demotix. Really enjoying it, and feel that citizen photojournalism via this agency is a not bad start.

Anyway, my point is that it would be ideal to have a two body set up. A telephoto on one and wide to medium on the other. However, I just don't want to start throwing money at kit in the hope that it is going to work again.

I've gone through a 7D, 1D Mark III and now the 5D Mark III. If I'm honest I don't think the 5D3 is the type of camera for this. It just feels very sluggish compared to the 1D3.

What would be your ideal set up for this type of work? I would like to try my hand at sporting events. The Commonwealth Games are in my home town at the moment so I've been all over the place shooting for that, but feel that I'm being limited in focal length and speed of body to action.

Cheers,

Paul

Heya,

1D4 with Sigma 120-300 F2.8 ART, Kenko DGX Pro 300 series TC in pocket/bag.
6D with Sigma 35 F1.4 or Tamron 24-70 F2.8 VC.

Very best,

Not sure I could stretch to that Sigma 120-300. Bit out of my price range

For the sake of foundations, say I was to sell my 5D3 and get £1600 for it. I have £1000 cash too, so that would make a budget of £2600 give or take for gear.

That's maybe a better way to look at it.

5dmk3 feels slugish in fps, otherwise it kicks older 1 series butt. I tested my 1dmk2 (I know not 1dmk3) with 300mm f2.8 IS I along with 5dmk3 and 5dmk3 was much better in AF department. ISO no comparison. This mainly for sports.

If I cant swing a nice lens for sports, I would definitely get an older body like 1dmk3 and pair it with 300mm f2.8 lens.

bobbyz wrote in post #17067939
5dmk3 feels slugish in fps, otherwise it kicks older 1 series butt. I tested my 1dmk2 (I know not 1dmk3) with 300mm f2.8 IS I along with 5dmk3 and 5dmk3 was much better in AF department. ISO no comparison. This mainly for sports.

If I cant swing a nice lens for sports, I would definitely get an older body like 1dmk3 and pair it with 300mm f2.8 lens.

That's interesting cause the 5D3 is slower in both shutter lag and viewfinder blackout compared to any of the 1D series cameras. I do find the 6fps pretty lame. I'm more concerned with speed of operation and AF snappiness in AI Servo. I appreciate this will be impacted on with regards to the lens you use, but that's why I'm on here asking I guess

Paulstw wrote in post #17067942
That's interesting cause the 5D3 is slower in both shutter lag and viewfinder blackout compared to any of the 1D series cameras. I do find the 6fps pretty lame. I'm more concerned with speed of operation and AF snappiness in AI Servo. I appreciate this will be impacted on with regards to the lens you use, but that's why I'm on here asking I guess

I agree with you, if I'm shooting something moving fast and there's plently of light, the 1D3 wins. I know plenty will disagree though.

Your budget is more than enough for a nice, used, 1D4. Personally I have never owned the 1D3 but a close friend did and he found that the move to the 1D4 was a bigger step up than he expected (I was certainly very happy with my 1D4). He tells me that the AF is significantly improved on the Mk4 as well as the resolution and the high ISO performance is much better. I used his 1D3 a few times and liked it very much but the Mk4 is a significantly better camera in every department except battery life!
Good 1D4's start at about 1800 quid so that would leave some funds to start saving for a Canon 300 F2.8 L IS!
Alternatively you could save a bit longer and have a look at a 1DX? They may not be quite as stupidly expensive as you may think - well mine wasn't. With the 1DX speed, responsiveness, IQ all move up a notch and 8000 ISO is more than usable - many are happy with 16000 ISO.

Paulstw wrote in post #17067765
I've gone through quite a bit of kit lately. First off, it's not because I got G.A.S or I have loads of money to waste, it's just that different genres have taken me in odd directions to which I have changed kit to suit.

I now find myself shooting more for an on-line agency called Demotix. Really enjoying it, and feel that citizen photojournalism via this agency is a not bad start.

Anyway, my point is that it would be ideal to have a two body set up. A telephoto on one and wide to medium on the other. However, I just don't want to start throwing money at kit in the hope that it is going to work again.

I've gone through a 7D, 1D Mark III and now the 5D Mark III. If I'm honest I don't think the 5D3 is the type of camera for this. It just feels very sluggish compared to the 1D3.

What would be your ideal set up for this type of work? I would like to try my hand at sporting events. The Commonwealth Games are in my home town at the moment so I've been all over the place shooting for that, but feel that I'm being limited in focal length and speed of body to action.

Cheers,

Paul

If you want real examples of useful photojournalism equipment, study the information accompanying Reuters' gallery of the best images of 2013. Among the cameras used was a Canon T3, which adds to the suspicion that location, luck, courage and skill are more important than equipment in gathering memorable news photos.

Paulstw wrote in post #17067942
That's interesting cause the 5D3 is slower in both shutter lag and viewfinder blackout compared to any of the 1D series cameras. I do find the 6fps pretty lame. I'm more concerned with speed of operation and AF snappiness in AI Servo. I appreciate this will be impacted on with regards to the lens you use, but that's why I'm on here asking I guess

which lens you using on your 5dmk3? Like i said I didn't have 1dmk3 to test but 1dmk2 and 1dmk3 is less difference. Even 1dmk4 folks have moved to 5dmk3. If I needed faster fps I would definitely use 1dmk4 but for everything else I shoot, 5dmk3 is very very good. AF is only behind 1dx.

Again glass over body. i will spend to get 300mm f2.8 over 5dmk3.

Paulstw wrote in post #17067765
I've gone through a 7D, 1D Mark III and now the 5D Mark III. If I'm honest I don't think the 5D3 is the type of camera for this. It just feels very sluggish compared to the 1D3.

How do you like the IQ, interface, and overall AF features of the 5DmkIII? If all those seem like great advantages over the 7D and/or 1DmkIII, then really the only body to save up for is the 1Dx! Seems like almost everyone just raves about it for sports and such since it is so fast and FF. If you need a fast "sports" camera on your budget right now, then maybe look at the 1DmkIV. If you can wait a bit, maybe wait and see if there's a 7DmkII announcement soon: while not a 1D body/ will have better IQ then the 1DmkIV, will be faster crop for sports, and interface like the 5DmkIII.

DC Fan wrote in post #17069218
If you want real examples of useful photojournalism equipment, study the information accompanying Reuters' gallery of the best images of 2013. Among the cameras used was a Canon T3, which adds to the suspicion that location, luck, courage and skill are more important than equipment in gathering memorable news photos.

The really interesting thing about those photos there, is that not a lot of them are particularly awesome in terms of quality, the thing we inspect around these parts a little too often. Some of them look very good as an overall photo and show quality. But the majority of those photos are made 90% or so based solely on composition and light, but mostly just composition as a lot of the lighting is pretty much poor. Some of those photos are straight bad and look like snap shots from any old iphone, yet came from a 1DX and/or 5D3. I'm sure I'll get screamed out and burned at the stake, but that's what I'm seeing. I think those photos prove the point that you simply don't need crazy gear. I think the real selling point is simply the weather resistance and robust builds, and not the image quality aspect of things.

I couldn't tell which was the T3 and which was the 7D let along the 1D series or 5D3 out of the slide show.

I concur, it's more about right place, right time, context, and capturing the composition that tells a story. Having a $10k setup clearly didn't produce the kind of images I see around here. But photojournalism has it's own viewer base who will probably disagree with me.

Very best,

DC Fan wrote in post #17069218
If you want real examples of useful photojournalism equipment, study the information accompanying Reuters' gallery of the best images of 2013. Among the cameras used was a Canon T3, which adds to the suspicion that location, luck, courage and skill are more important than equipment in gathering memorable news photos.

I'd like to make the point here that in reality I couldn't give two monkeys about what cameras I use. I'm actually more interested in the lenses. The only reason I have a 5D3 was out of curiosity, and the cameras I've had before were bought out of the same reason. My personal favourite was the 1D3. However, from the link it looks like the 5D3, 1DIV and 1DX are used quite a lot. The shot with the T3 is just a shot, as terrible a scene as it is there's no real action to make the camera work. However it's still a great shot and like what was said before I can't really tell the difference in overall IQ because the stories take the need to know that away.

My initial thoughts were to keep the 5D3 and 24-105 as one body and then get a 1D MarkIIN and 70-200 variant on as the the other body.

22MP is a bit wasted on the 5D3 to be fair it just takes far too long to get your shot uploaded to the picture desks. Something I never thought would annoy me so much. No point in having great gear if by the time you get your shots up it's not news anymore.

UK broadband is utterly terrible with 1-2Mb upload speeds and with the picture desks needing the highest quality your camera can do it's often a pan in the ass to upload them.

I am primarily a sports shooter and started with the 7D. I was uncomfortable with the noise at higher ISO, which I regularly needed in order to keep shutter speed high enough to avoid blur, so I bought the 5dMK111. I found it much better in terms of image quality but fps not good enough. So, last week bought a second hand (obviously) 1dMKIV and really happy with early shots.
I might now reserve the 5d for portraiture, landscape etc which it excels at and use the 7d and IDMKIV for sports. That might be a sensible combo for you and it will not break the bank

Paulstw wrote in post #17069642
22MP is a bit wasted on the 5D3 to be fair it just takes far too long to get your shot uploaded to the picture desks.

Do you have to upload RAWs or are jpegs too big as well? If RAW, you can shoot in sRAW. If you want to quickly resize images before sending, that's a piece of cake. Just batch process a smaller sized version.

davesrose wrote in post #17069815
Do you have to upload RAWs or are jpegs too big as well? If RAW, you can shoot in sRAW. If you want to quickly resize images before sending, that's a piece of cake. Just batch process a smaller sized version.

Yeah it's the jpgs. They go into the stock library so try to keep them close to the original size if I can. Small price to pay. Hardened news shooters tend to keep files smaller I think. Not sure.