1-4 are 7D images 5 and 6 are 5DIII. With football I'm usually grabbing for the 7D because of the crop reach and not the fps, if I had a 400 2.8 the 5DIII would be glued to it (or really the 1DX if I was affording a 400 2.8). I don't like to crop these images heavily as the Sigma is a tad bit soft and CAs pretty bad with the white uniforms (CA is a non-issue shooting bright birds with this lens), so putting on the 5D3 and hacking it down hasn't turned out as well in practice for me (regardless of the ad nauseum debates I've seen on the forums). With better glass, I may rethink that; especially with how much I like the AF on the 5D3. When we had a game in the rain that faded into under the lights, I was going to the 5DIII on the 300 for the noise and ISO advantage.
Shooting RAW, about 2/3s a stop up and getting the exposure right in the faces, then pulling back the highlights in post did produce images that exposure wise alone I'm much happier with than images from about a month ago in similar harsh lighting. I'd love for all games to take place in the 5-7pm time frame (with my team always headed into the light) or under clouds, it makes getting the faces much easier. I spent some time before the start of the game getting the exposure dialed in on each camera for the an in the sun baseline, then made adjustments off of that, but I knew with each camera pretty much where it should be
With the 7D on the long glass and a 70-200 on the 5D, the gap was a little bigger and so it was much clearer when to grab what, and which lens to have on the 2nd camera. I've tried a 70-200 on the backup camera when it was on the Xsi, and had the 7D on the long lens and the gap didn't provide enough change/room so by the time I switched the play was already too close for the zoom, with a crop body I've found the 50 to be a better option for intermediate range. But the mix of putting the FF and crop, saw more planned out to give me more options for looks, I'm the only person for my publication (and that day the school) covering the game, so I was looking for the most insurance on getting the shot and the most versatility to get a few different looks.
I've found once I'm over 5fps, the fps doesn't really matter (3, which used to be plenty is so slooooow to me now), where the 7D has a huge advantage for me is the buffer size/file size mix, with the 7D I can get the 25 RAW photos, with the 5D3, I'm only getting 10-13 images depending on ISO. I tend to wait until that first crucial moment nail it with that first or 2nd shot, then keep rolling and reframing until the action stops. No SD card, noise reduction, lighting optimization, CA fix, lens corrections, etc. setup in camera, 1000x Lexar cards, I should be about as good as I can get there, but the 5D has forced me to start being more diligent.
The 5D3 is a camera I'm still learning, I trust it but I feel like there is going to be some time before I'm pushing it and getting the most from it.
