What Camera to buy for SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY?

Question

I am pretty decent with a camera, and am looking to buy a good camera, but was wondering what to look for in a camera mainly used for sports photography. I figure i need to have a high ISO and shutter speed, but what do you recommend and what are the shutter speeds and iso numbers i should be looking at?

I also intend to buy a flash as well and later down the road a lense, but for now, mainly the camera.

Help? please?

Answer 1

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9220229&type=product&id=1218061795563

Answer 2

If you want to buy an external flash and buy lenses, stay away from the coolpix. You can also consider the Canon line, such as the D50. If you have the money, the Canon 5D Mark II has excellent clarity, and has very good performance at high ISO levels. You will want good performance at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200. For sports, shutter speeds faster than 1/250 or 1/400 should be good for freezing subjects. Most digital SLR offerings will cover this shutter speed.



Without good ISO performance (and/or a wide-aperture lens), it will be difficult to get that shutter speed unless you are in the sun. Cloudy days, sports games at dusk, or indoor sports will need better ISO performance (so go higher-end).



Also consider the level of zoom you will need. To freeze active subjects, and have one player fill an entire photo, you will want a lens that is longer than 200mm. Tamron and Canon have telephoto zoom lenses that will cover the 70-300mm range, which will be even better on a mid-range SLR with a FOVCF (field of view crop factor). On a full-frame body, you will want over 250-300mm.



I hope this helps.



John



http://www.flickr.com/johnhanam

Answer 3

It's up to you but, when it comes to sports, only a DSLR will do. I decided I needed something capable of shooting 5 frames per second or better for shooting sports and other fast action events that I wanted to shoot. Full-frame cameras are not a necessity for most sports/action photography since most such photography tends to involve medium to long telephoto lenses where crop-body cameras with high continuous speeds actually offer an advantage over most full-frame cameras.



If you've got the money, Nikon's D300 is a great choice that shoots 6 frames per second in stock trim. Add a battery grip and the maximum frame rate jumps to 8 frames per second. It offers the same 51-point auto-focus system found on Nikon's full-frame D700, D3 and D3x. Nikon's is probably the best auto-focus system on the market right now. Count on spending around $1800 for the body only on the D300. Add a grand for the D700 and count on spending about $4500 for the 9 frame per second, speed demon D3. All of these cameras produce clear images all the way up to ISO 3200 with the D3 making spectacular images at ISO 6400



Canon is another great choice, well known to sports photographers. If you've ever been to a sports event and noticed all the white lenses on the sidelines, you've seen Canon cameras in action. In fact, sports photography is where Canon's current reputation was forged. Canon's 40D and 50D both shoot at just a hair over 6 frames per second and both produce usable images at ISO 3200 with the newer 50D being the better of the two. The 50D can push it to ISO 6400 but Nikon's D300 is still slightly better and in either case you'd have to really need that shot. The 40D was recently discontinued but is still instock with many vendors for about $900 for the body. The 50D runs about $1200 for the body only. The superior choice with Canon is easily the EOS 1D Mark III which features a 45-point autofocus system. However; the 1DmkIII is a $4000, professional camera body that is well beyond the needs and means of most people.



You can't go wrong with either brand. Canon has owned the sports photography market since the 1990s. Nikon has been the choice of most established studio phototographers for almost as long as modern 35 SLRs and DSLRs have existed. And since 2007, Nikon has been making a serious effort to regain it's long lost supremacy in the sports shooting market with the introduction of the D300 and D3 as well as replacing many of their existing lenses with modern AF-s lenses that feature faster, quieter HSM focusing systems like those used by Canon.

Answer 4

If you have the money, get a Nikon D700.

It is full frame for good cropping, has 'focus tracking' which will stay focused on a moving subject, makes very acceptable images up to and past 3200 ISO. Shutter speed to 1/8000. Takes most old (spectacular and cheap) Nikon lenses.



I love mine!

Answer 5

Nikon