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Want to buy a camera for sports photography. What camera, lenses should I look for? ?

I want to take action pictures of field hockey (outdoor) players. I tried a Canon SLR (forgot the model #), didn’t go wide enough. Any pointers to reading materials, or camera makes/models recommendations?
thx

You will need a fast-shooting camera body coupled with fast lenses.

If you’re going Canon, the fastest prosumer dSLR is the Canon 40D. It gives you 10MP quality and shoots at 6.5 fps (frames per second), which should be sufficient for your shooting needs. It retails for about $1000 on Amazon.

As for a good lens for sports shooting, I’d highly recommend the EF 70-200mm f/4L. It’s fast, it has a good zoom range, lightweight, and incredibly sharp. Its large aperture (low f-number) allows more light in and blurs the background to draw more sharpness to the player(s). Best of all, it only costs $450 on Amazon!

You mentioned wide; I guess you want to capture a large spread of players then? If so, and you’re using the 40D, I’d recommend the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. It’s also fast, sharp, goes very wide, and has good build quality. It retails on Amazon for $400! I recently bought mine for landscape and photojournalism work, and I’ve loved using it.

Good luck!

  1. c-rocky
    July 5th, 2012 at 09:51 | #1

    What you have to look for in a body is excellent autofocus system, and high picture per second ability.
    Since you are looking for outdoor sports, probably F4 should be fine, but F2.8 is the way to go. Also lens should have a USM (ultra sonic motor) which will make your autofocus faster.

    I would suggest Canon 40D or 50D (yet to be released) and Canon 70-200 F4 L IS or 70-200 F2.8 L IS.

    If you have more $$$ consider Canon higher end models (1D or 5D and so on)
    References :

  2. fhotoace
    July 5th, 2012 at 10:37 | #2

    The two current leaders in field sports are the Nikon D3 ($5,000) and Canon 1Ds, Mark III ($8,000). The lenses I use from the sidelines are either the 400 mm f/2.8 or 600 mm f/4 and a 24-70 mm f/2.8

    When you say the camera didn’t go wide enough, what do you mean?

    For pointers, go to this link and spend some time.
    http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm
    http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/howto.htm
    References :
    Sports photographer

  3. Andrew M
    July 5th, 2012 at 10:55 | #3

    You will need a fast-shooting camera body coupled with fast lenses.

    If you’re going Canon, the fastest prosumer dSLR is the Canon 40D. It gives you 10MP quality and shoots at 6.5 fps (frames per second), which should be sufficient for your shooting needs. It retails for about $1000 on Amazon.

    As for a good lens for sports shooting, I’d highly recommend the EF 70-200mm f/4L. It’s fast, it has a good zoom range, lightweight, and incredibly sharp. Its large aperture (low f-number) allows more light in and blurs the background to draw more sharpness to the player(s). Best of all, it only costs $450 on Amazon!

    You mentioned wide; I guess you want to capture a large spread of players then? If so, and you’re using the 40D, I’d recommend the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. It’s also fast, sharp, goes very wide, and has good build quality. It retails on Amazon for $400! I recently bought mine for landscape and photojournalism work, and I’ve loved using it.

    Good luck!
    References :

  4. Julie J
    July 5th, 2012 at 11:09 | #4

    please search here

    http://worthystore.com/camera/

    Thanks
    References :

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