Insider's Prospective:

One of the photographers for the football team and 99% of my shots are taken with a 7D/5D on either a 16-35mm f2.8L or 70-200mm f2.8L. The 7D will have a crop factor of 1.6x since it's not a full frame camera, (ie: the 70 to 200mm lens would actually be 112mm to 320mm) something to take into consideration.

To answer your question: If someone gave me 700 bucks to spend on camera gear specifically for sports I would grab the Canon T3i (body only $500) and the EF 75-300mm ($200). This setup would work well for day games because of the abundance of light but you might be a little handicapped for night games because the speed of the lens is f4-5.6. (I would bump up the ISO for night games as much as you're willing to accept)

Everyone's setup is different but here's mine if you want to know:
1. My shutter speed is usually set to 1/500 or faster
2. I use spot focus (center) in one-shot mode
3. I generally prefocus on the area Im most likely to shoot

Hope this helps and good luck on your search/website

dankwonjr;842321715 said:

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Insider's Prospective:

One of the photographers for the football team and 99% of my shots are taken with a 7D/5D on either a 16-35mm f2.8L or 70-200mm f2.8L. The 7D will have a crop factor of 1.6x since it's not a full frame camera, (ie: the 70 to 200mm lens would actually be 112mm to 320mm) something to take into consideration.

To answer your question: If someone gave me 700 bucks to spend on camera gear specifically for sports I would grab the Canon T3i (body only $500) and the EF 75-300mm ($200). This setup would work well for day games because of the abundance of light but you might be a little handicapped for night games because the speed of the lens is f4-5.6. (I would bump up the ISO for night games as much as you're willing to accept)

Everyone's setup is different but here's mine if you want to know:
1. My shutter speed is usually set to 1/500 or faster
2. I use spot focus (center) in one-shot mode
3. I generally prefocus on the area Im most likely to shoot

Hope this helps and good luck on your search/website

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I really appreciate the feedback from a true insider. I noticed the Ti Canon series in my research and I've heard that the T3 still competes well even though it is an older model.

BTW, my budget is a little more than $700 but I probably would not spend more than that on a single camera. How few $$ can I get away with when shopping for an additional (probably telephoto) lense that will do the job at Memorial.

I'm looking to sell my Canon T2i if you are interested. It have very few actuations and it takes great shots. Not a scratch on it.

brainsmile@gmail.com

Brainsmile;842321758 said:

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I'm looking to sell my Canon T2i if you are interested. It have very few actuations and it takes great shots. Not a scratch on it.

brainsmile@gmail.com

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I am about to call it quits today but over the next few days I am going to looking at specific cameras more closely. I will include your model in my search and see how it is rated. I will get back to you soon.

Last year I used a Canon EF 70-210 mounted on my Canon T3i at my granddaughter's HS graduation. The indoor pictures were mostly of unacceptable sharpness and quality. I blamed the failure on the lack of image stabilization in the older lens, although it may be that there is a problem with the lens I hadn't noticed (the lens looks perfect). Last September I was able to buy a new, repackaged Canon EF-S 55-250 IS II zoom on eBay for $144 including shipping (DISCLAIMER: I lost a few auctions before winning Far better lens for the T3i than the EF zoom was and far superior results. Image stabilization in the new lens made a big difference at slow shutter speeds.

Some vendors remove the EF-S telephoto zoom from the two lens combination package that Costco likes to sell; selling the tele-zoom separately. The Tele-zoom is inside a plain white box inside the Canon Combo package and is brand new. $200 is more typical eBay price, but I got mine from a major mail order Chicago camera shop, no problems in the transaction. It pays to be persistent on eBay.

Question: How do you tell a sports photographer from other professional photographers?

Answer: Sports photographers [U]mount a camera [/U] to a massive, tripod supported lens, other professional photographers [U]mount a lens[/U] onto their camera which may be the one on a tripod. Most large telephoto lenses weigh more than cameras and have their own tripod mount to support their massive weight.

dankwonjr;842321715 said:

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Insider's Prospective:

....

To answer your question: If someone gave me 700 bucks to spend on camera gear specifically for sports I would grab the Canon T3i (body only $500) and the EF 75-300mm ($200). This setup would work well for day games because of the abundance of light but you might be a little handicapped for night games because the speed of the lens is f4-5.6. (I would bump up the ISO for night games as much as you're willing to accept)

...
Hope this helps and good luck on your search/website

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pictures of the difference that you speak of ?

Does anybody know what the stadium rules are regarding photographing from the stands?

On another website there are reports that some stadiums prohibit removable lenses unless you have a press pass or are at field level.

I can also try to find out from the athletic department or the ticket office.

heartofthebear;842322464 said:

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Does anybody know what the stadium rules are regarding photographing from the stands?

On another website there are reports that some stadiums prohibit removable lenses unless you have a press pass or are at field level.

I can also try to find out from the athletic department or the ticket office.

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I don't know the current policy, but here are past threads on the subject:

http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61659

http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32826

Don't know the metric system. I don't think lens length has been measured in inches during my life time, or the last fifty years at least. A 5" lens focal length (maximum according to the references) converted to mm is 127mm, a short telephoto on a full frame 35mm camera. Nowadays most DSLR buyers will get a wide angle to short telephoto zoom as their standard lens. My Canon EF-S 55-250mm zoom on my Canon EOS T3i is physically 5" long but produces an image equivalent to a 400mm lens on a full frame DSLR. Now 400mm is almost 16", so the policy of no lens longer than 5" is meaningless in photographic effectiveness on limiting telephoto or closeup shots.

okaydo;842322512 said:

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I don't know the current policy, but here are past threads on the subject:

http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61659

http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32826

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The first photo below was taken last year at granddaughters HS graduation, existing light, ISO 6400, hand held seated, elbow on arm rest, 1/30th of a second, lens zoomed to 210mm is not image stabilized. Image size has been resized from 8 MP to 75K-100K pixels, no color correction. This is the best of about 20 taken.




Below is a hand held (standing) photo taken two weeks ago with the Canon EOS Rebel 3Ti, from a balcony about 150 feet away, 1/30th of a second exposure, available light, AF, Imaged Stabilized, ISO 6400, with the EF-S 55-250mm IS II lens set at 250mm focal length. Image size has been resized from 8 MP to 75K-100K pixels, no color correction. Image is similar to about 80% of the indoor photos taken that day.




Low light photography pushes the lens/camera system to it's limits showing differences in image quality, sharpness and color, as well as the benefits of image stabilization.

going4roses;842321812 said:

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pictures of the difference that you speak of ?

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