Paintball World Cup Asia in Malaysia plus camera damage

These are from the Paintball World Cup Asia which took place on Langkawi Island Northern Malaysia.
The event took place in doors so the lighting was very poor and flash was not allowed so I used ISO speeds from 128,000 up to 102,400

Here are a few more, Thanks for looking

Great shots Gary! Which lenses were you using? Looks like the one that got hit was a 24-70? Did you have a filter on it?
Thank God for CPS!!!!

your stuff is always amazing. great job!

OwensSi wrote in post #13498712
Great shots Gary! Which lenses were you using? Looks like the one that got hit was a 24-70? Did you have a filter on it?
Thank God for CPS!!!!

It was an very dark indoor event and flash was not permitted so I was only able to used my 70-200mm f/2.8L and EF 300mm f/2.8. It was the 70-200 that got hit and I was using a filter on it. The front element was badly scratched by all of the broken filter glass and needed to be replaced. Makes me rethink the use of filters.

BTW Repair costs to replace the front element were about $350, yes thank god for the CPS Platinum discount, it was money well spent

ISO 128,000!! Wow....nice shots for this speed.

i wish i had your job Gary... did u use RAW or all JPG to post edit the noise out.

probably using two filters would help avoid damage of front element. anyway, nice pics

Karver wrote in post #13533103
probably using two filters would help avoid damage of front element. anyway, nice pics

Probably not...if the front element was damaged then it would have gone through two filters easy. Not to mention stacking filters kills photo quality.

There are so many misconceptions about the use filters in paintball photography. As a general rule of thumb picture quality decreases as you add pieces of glass to the front of any lens and I would prefer to shoot without any filters. But since shooting paintball takes place in some very dirty and gritty environments, perhaps the harshest of any sports photography, very frequent lens cleaning are required due to paint and dirt splatters. I use a filter to protect the lens from these frequent cleanings, NOT paintball hits. I would much rather scratch a $50 filter than the front element of a $2000 lens.


The damage done to the front element from this direct hit was the worse I have ever had in more than 10 years of shooting the sport. The scratched front was the result of the shards of glass from the filter and it costs about $125 after my CPS discount to replace the front element.

Karver wrote in post #13533103
probably using two filters would help avoid damage of front element.

I'm pretty sure he was joking...

What shutter speed did you get up to with your ISO being that fast?

hey gary do you remember what was the last pic right before you got hit?

nice shots. I bet it was a lot of fun

I'd say "Can't wait to see some of these in a magazine next month!" but those aren't around anymore. I've heard over and over again to ditch my UV filter on my 70-200 while shooting paintball, I really didn't believe a paintball would break it, I saw someone drop a ball bearing on it. Glad I got rid of it and glad to see proof that paintballs will break filters, a good lesson for all the paintball photog's here.

Nice shots btw, especially for being in AE with a slowish shutter speed.