Digital Camera [For sports photography]

[HBF]

Just beginning to do some research on purchasing a decent camera & lens for taking some serious photo's at sporting events. Has been something I have wanted to do for a while now, and i'm finally going to go out there are get myself a camera.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what sort of camera and lens I should be looking at?

Would appreciate any feedback.

 

[blackshadow]

First of all a couple of questions for you to help with recommendations.

What's your budget and what sports are you considering? Indoor/outdoor etc - amateur/professional?

Is it as a hobby or with a view to make money?

What type of photographic experience have you had?

If you are looking for top notch results you will be looking at a DSLR with a pretty decent feature set - the things that matter with sports photography are good autofocus, reasonably high frames per second and with lenses you generally would be looking for lenses f2.8 or faster (fast glass costs big bucks though).

 

[HBF]

Mainly outdoors, and yeah a hobby, perhaps with a view to make me some money down the track. What sort of dollars are we talking about here blackshadow?

 

[blackshadow]

When buying camera equipment quality lenses are going to be the thing that is most expensive, but they'll also outlast bodies. So my philosophy is to buy the best lenses you can and look to save money on the body.

I'd suggest a 70-200mm f2.8 lens as a starting point - the Canon and Nikon variations aren't cheap but they are sensational lenses - if your budget stretches far enough try and get one with image stabilisation - I think the Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS can be picked up for around $2300. If that's too rich for your blood the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 is a good lens for about half the price of the Canon I mentioned (I think the Nikon equivalent is even more expensive).

Rather than buying new I'd suggest you look for a good second hand the older pro model cameras such as the Canon 1D Mark IIN. It was the king of sports photography cameras up until about 2 years ago - it has lightning fast and accurate autofocus and shoots at up to 8 frames per second. These cameras are built like tanks. Should be able to pick one up second hand for around $1500-2000.

You could also look at something like a second hand Canon 40D - for a fair bit less. There is one up on ebay at the moment http://cgi.ebay.com.au/CANON-EOS-40...emQQptZAU_Digital_Cameras?hash=item518ee19097

Very good camera for someone starting out and a lot less than pro gear.

If you are looking for new current models - I suggest you have a look at the Canon 7D (you can find them for about $2000 new) or a Nikon D300s for a similar price.

I guess it depends what your budget is.

Then there are other costs to consider like memory cards, a computer that runs lightroom/photoshop well - extra hard disk space, a flash, camera bag etc

The 70-200 lenses may be a bit short for some sports but they are the most versatile lenses out there and their range can be extended reasonably cheaply by adding a teleconverter. If I'm shooting footy I use a 400mm lens but for someone starting out I wouldn't recommend it as it is a specialist lens. You'll also need a smaller lens as there will be other things you want to shoot where a 70-200 will be too long for your needs.

Good luck with it.

Cheers, Richard