What equipment (camera and lenses) best suit your choosen sport and why.
theduck Member 67 posts Joined Jun 2009 More info | Jun 25, 2011 10:46 | #1 What equipment (camera and lenses) best suit your choosen sport and why.
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Thorrulz Goldmember  More info | Jun 25, 2011 11:01 | #2 Camera = 1D series is my 1st choice and a very very close 2nd is the 7D Flickr
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Jun 25, 2011 11:10 | #3 theduck wrote in post #12655402  What equipment (camera and lenses) best suit your choosen sport and why. The best "equipment" is the experience to know how a sport works, to place yourself in the best location to capture the action, and then to anticipate the action so you have the camera pointed in the right direction at the right time. Expensive equipment means little if you're not ready to use it.
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Jun 25, 2011 11:16 | #4 Very good advice, DC fan, ....interesting, Thorrulz, your choise of the 7D in second concidering what i've read about its lack of sharpness and focusing issues.
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Thorrulz Goldmember More info | Jun 25, 2011 11:36 | #5 theduck wrote in post #12655504 Very good advice, DC fan, ....interesting, Thorrulz, your choise of the 7D in second concidering what i've read about its lack of sharpness and focusing issues. Most of the bad reviews stem from user error and not knowing how to set up the 7D for optimal results. I can't state this enough but you have to have great glass for the 7D to really shine. I've shot thousands of local football and wrestling pics and the 7D is a great camera once you learn how to use it. Flickr
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pfjbaldwin Senior Member  328 posts Likes: 3 Joined Mar 2009 Location: Baldwin, MD More info | 7D is wonderful for a sport shooter on a budget. What an improvement in focus speed vs my 40D. 7D pairs well with Sig 120-300 2.8 and provides fast focus and a lot of flexibility on the field. I shoot baseball, football and lacrosse with this combo. Soccer I use 70-200 2.8 and 24-70 2.8 with 2 bodies from the sideline because the action distance changes so quickly. Gymnastics 70-200 2.8 with the clean high ISO the 7D gives. pfjohnsonphotography.com, pfjphoto.com, Baldwin, MD
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Jun 25, 2011 12:32 | #7 Thorrulz wrote in post #12655563 Most of the bad reviews stem from user error and not knowing how to set up the 7D for optimal results. I can't state this enough but you have to have great glass for the 7D to really shine. I've shot thousands of local football and wrestling pics and the 7D is a great camera once you learn how to use it. Im in the market for a backup for my 5d mkii, i wasn't going to look at the 7d but i will now.
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MTStringer Goldmember  4,652 posts Likes: 6 Joined May 2006 Location: Channelview, Tx More info | Jun 25, 2011 13:40 | #8 |
CameraMan Cream of the Crop  More info | Jun 25, 2011 13:50 | #9 DC Fan wrote in post #12655492 The best "equipment" is the experience to know how a sport works, to place yourself in the best location to capture the action, and then to anticipate the action so you have the camera pointed in the right direction at the right time. Expensive equipment means little if you're not ready to use it. So true! I shot a soccer game a few years ago with a Rebel XT and got some amazing shots because I did exactly as you stated. Anticipated where the action was going. You don't need a fast shooting camera unless you like sifting through 20 photographs to find one or two good ones. Photographer
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MikeDeep Goldmember  More info | Jun 25, 2011 14:30 | #10 CameraMan wrote in post #12656101 So true! I shot a soccer game a few years ago with a Rebel XT and got some amazing shots because I did exactly as you stated. Anticipated where the action was going. You don't need a fast shooting camera unless you like sifting through 20 photographs to find one or two good ones. That reminds me of a time when my friend shot a baseball game. He had 15-20 shots in each series of shots he was trying to get. He invited me over for a beer and we sat at his computer for quite a while (about 4 beers each worth) picking out the "best" shot of each sequence. He would get a series of shots of a player sliding into 3rd or home (He was on that side of the field) and in each series maybe 1 or 2 were usable because as the action was happening he just aimed the camera and held down the shutter release until it was all over. Lucky thing the beer was good otherwise it would have been a LONG night... Except that's how you get peak action, high FPS and a bunch of frames from a sequence to choose from. That doesn't save you from being lazy and not being in the place at the right time, but high speed bursts are very much a part of sports photography. mikedeep.com
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Cozmocha Senior Member  728 posts Likes: 5 Joined Oct 2010 More info | Jun 25, 2011 16:23 | #11 Mike Deep wrote in post #12656239 Except that's how you get peak action, high FPS and a bunch of frames from a sequence to choose from. That doesn't save you from being lazy and not being in the place at the right time, but high speed bursts are very much a part of sports photography. If you just only shoot a few shots in a sequence, the odds you'll miss the best moment (Which is literally measured in milliseconds), catch a weird facial expression, or catch an awkward pose go way up. 8 to 10 fps almost never gets the 'shot' of a batter in baseball or player in golf. It's all about knowing the lag of the camera and watching the play... not just looking in to the viewfinder. -Kurt
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MTStringer Goldmember 4,652 posts Likes: 6 Joined May 2006 Location: Channelview, Tx More info | Jun 25, 2011 16:58 | #12 To get the ball in the frame, I try to make the first shot count, then shoot through the swing to capture the facial expressions. Timing is everything. Yep, I shoot high school basketball one frame at a time with a pair of strobes.
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TooManyShots Cream of the Crop 10,203 posts Likes: 532 Joined Jan 2008 Location: NYC More info | Jun 25, 2011 17:40 | #13  Permanent banHmm...well, if you shot races, any sort of races with the subjects moving towards you, away from you, or passing you, FPS matters. Having the burst speed allows you to offset problems you get with the AI servo mode focusing. Let's face this, AI servo focusing does not always nail the focus every shot. Have the burst speed, you can ensure maybe 2 out of 7 shots you nail the focus. I won't want to use anything less than a 1d to shoot cycling races.... One Imaging Photography
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TooManyShots Cream of the Crop 10,203 posts Likes: 532 Joined Jan 2008 Location: NYC More info | Jun 25, 2011 17:41 | #14 Permanent banMike Deep wrote in post #12656239 Except that's how you get peak action, high FPS and a bunch of frames from a sequence to choose from. That doesn't save you from being lazy and not being in the place at the right time, but high speed bursts are very much a part of sports photography. If you just only shoot a few shots in a sequence, the odds you'll miss the best moment (Which is literally measured in milliseconds), catch a weird facial expression, or catch an awkward pose go way up.
One Imaging Photography
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dmwierz Goldmember  2,376 posts Likes: 2 Joined May 2005 Location: Chicago Area, IL More info | Jun 25, 2011 18:42 | #15 TooManyShots wrote in post #12656958 Hmm...well, if you shot races, any sort of races with the subjects moving towards you, away from you, or passing you, FPS matters. Having the burst speed allows you to offset problems you get with the AI servo mode focusing. Let's face this, AI servo focusing does not always nail the focus every shot. Have the burst speed, you can ensure maybe 2 out of 7 shots you nail the focus. I won't want to use anything less than a 1d to shoot cycling races....  Strobes and etc???? Unless you are using the latest Pocket Wizard that allows you to get the flash sync speed at a much higher speed, you will get ghosting effect trying to freeze riders going at about 28 mph + with a strobe. Sorry, mate, but with all due respect, you're just wrong on both accounts. Let’s think about this. Most frames of the photographs we take of batters are from maybe 6 feet to 10 feet in width. At 60 miles per hour, the ball moves 88 feet in one second. This means that the ball is actually within the frame for approximately 1/10 of a second. At 10 frames per second (the fastest frame rate you can get in a DSLR), your camera is taking an image once every 1/10 of a second. What this means is at 60mph, which is a fast little league pitch, you will be lucky to catch the ball in one frame out of a ten frame burst when you’re using a pro-level DSLR. Raise the speed of the pitch to 80 mph which is where Senior High School pitchers thrown, and the ball will only be in the frame for 1/12 to 1/13th of a second. The impact of this means that, even at 10 frames per second, it’s very possible your camera will open and close too slowly to catch the ball in frame. The ball will very likely pass through your frame too quickly for your shutter to catch it. Use a non-pro camera, where the frame rate may be 3 or so, and you’ll see the likelihood of catching the ball is even lower. You think I'm wrong? Try it. Just close your eyes when the pitch is thrown and mash the shutter next time you're covering a baseball game and see how may ball-in-frame shots you get.
 This also holds true for getting a football player just catching the ball in his finger tips:   A defender blocking a punt:  Or a fielder just catching the ball in his mitt:   Every one of the shots above was taken by me with both eyes open, using the eye in the viewfinder to keep the subject in frame, and the "free eye" to track the ball. Secondly, as it relates to shooting on strobes, being able to sync at a higher speed does only one thing: it allows you to further distance your strobe light level from ambient. As long as you keep your strobe level 3 stops over ambient (where the higher sync speed comes into play) the shutter speed is NOT freezing the action, it is only exposing for ambient. What freezes the action is the duration of the strobe/flash. You control how much ambient light is in the exposure by adjusting your camera's exposure setting (sliding the ISO and/or the aperture). Now, when you're shooting with strobes or a flash in daylight, you're likely not going to be able to overpower ambient by three stops, so you are likely using the flash as fill, shooting in HSS mode. This is NOT what is being mentioned above as what the SI (or others using strobes at pro venues) are doing. To get back to the OP's question, of far more import than the equipment you are using is knowing how to use it. FWIW, my camera's are 5 years old and older MkIIn's , and I still do OK. More important is the glass you use. All of my lenses are f/2.8 and faster. Baseball, American football and soccer: 400 f/2.8 (primary camera) and 70-200 f/2.8 (secondary camera); sometimes I add the 1.4X TC on one or the other of these when shooting in daylight. Hockey and basketball: 70-200 f/2.8 and some times a 24-70 f/2.8 (primary camera) and 300 f/2.8 or 400/2.8 (secondary camera) for far-court action. http://www.denniswierzbicki.com
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