Found your forum to be great for sport photography. I am looking to get a DSLR to take pictures of 1/4 midget racing (somewhat like a go kart if you never heard of them) at some local tracks in my area. The tracks are very small ovals (approx. a 1/20th of a mile). I am looking to sell these photos to parents at the track. I am also looking to take action shots at my son's baseball and football games. The racing shots will be taken during the day and nite time. The shots for racing will be from 20-30ft mostly. Also want to take shots of kids standing by their cars in winner circle as well at a range of 4-6ft. s w The baseball and football will be shot only during the day. I have been reading so many reviews on every camera imaginable. Geez there are alot. I went to my local camera shop and he showed me an Olympus EVOLT E-500. I read alot of reviews. It sounded ok, but the more I am diving in the more I am leaning away because of the high ISO results and the slow fps. Also not to mention AF. Anyways with all that said, I found this forum which has alot of people who take sports photgraphy (WoHooo). Even alot of folks who take racing shots. I am not sure between Cannon or Nikkon. I have read a couple of threads about maybe starting out with a less expensive body with better lenses. I would probably prefer that route. More bang for the buck. Also want to let you know that I am planning on having my local camera shop do the developing of the film, so no need for any fancy printers at this time. Also I am looking to probably start off with a step above camera body to the Rebel. So any recomendations would help.

Dave

They race 1/4 midgets in PA? hahaha...just a little humor as I know some of the kids who grew up in PA and raced 1/4 midgets....in fact I saw one of them last Thursday and Friday!

Well camera wise it depends on two things, really one...light, daylight or night? 1/4 midgets are not that fast compared to 600's or even Super Heavy and Heavy Karts so you do not need a super fast camera with super fast AF. You could get away with either a 10D or 20D - 10D for day, 20D for both day or night. Add a 70-200 USM IS f2.8 You might get away with the newest Rebel, but I am not sure how good it is for night use and how much the AF searches in low light. You can find plenty of great deals on the 10D or 20D. The 20D though is a leap above the Rebels in AF performance. The 10D is a Rebel with a metal body and same internal electronics.
The 70-200 lens will give you two to three steps for better night action shooting with the IS (Image Stabilization) and it's the best overall lens. You can also get a 50mm f1.8 for under $100 for victory shots.

I'll post a photo, lets see if you know what for 1/4 midget driver it is.....
I also threw in a shot of the 1/4 midgets so others know what they are.
These were both taken last Friday at Ft Wayne In.

JS

psdj52,

For football etc you probably want to go with the 20D. You can find them used. You are right though, get a good lens!
As for winners pictures, stand 10 to 15 feet back, save the kids eyes from the flash!

JS

They race 1/4 midgets in PA? hahaha...just a little humor as I know some of the kids who grew up in PA and raced 1/4 midgets....in fact I saw one of them last Thursday and Friday!

Well camera wise it depends on two things, really one...light, daylight or night? 1/4 midgets are not that fast compared to 600's or even Super Heavy and Heavy Karts so you do not need a super fast camera with super fast AF. You could get away with either a 10D or 20D - 10D for day, 20D for both day or night. Add a 70-200 USM IS f2.8 You might get away with the newest Rebel, but I am not sure how good it is for night use and how much the AF searches in low light. You can find plenty of great deals on the 10D or 20D. The 20D though is a leap above the Rebels in AF performance. The 10D is a Rebel with a metal body and same internal electronics.
The 70-200 lens will give you two to three steps for better night action shooting with the IS (Image Stabilization) and it's the best overall lens. You can also get a 50mm f1.8 for under $100 for victory shots.

I'll post a photo, lets see if you know what for 1/4 midget driver it is.....
I also threw in a shot of the 1/4 midgets so others know what they are.
These were both taken last Friday at Ft Wayne In.

JS

Well I don't know who this is in the picture, but I do appreciate the input. I am considering the Cannon 20D. I am just not sure which one is better Cannon or Nikkon. I guess it is a personal choice. I would assume the lense prices for either camera body are relatively the same. When I do purchase my camera, I will probably have those two types (focal lenght and f stop) of lenses in my bag. I didn't know if anyone could tell me Pros and Cons of either Cannon or Nikkon. I would assume comparing the Cannon 20D and the Nikkon 70D. I am also looking into the new Nikkon 200D. The other question I wanted to ask, is there any advantage or disadvantage to shooting in Raw versus High Res JPEG. Keep in mind I realize Raw takes up more space. I am also gonna be taking my SD card's or pic files to a pro photo lab to process.

Dave

I can't say anything about Nikon since I've never picked one up before. Regarding RAW vs JPG there are a few things to consider. RAW will give you a lot more flexibility (including better color and dynamic range to begin with) but you won't be able to shoot near as many RAW photos in burst mode than JPG since the buffer fills up a lot quicker. I use RAW for landscape or portraits where I can take my time and the quality really counts, especially for large prints.

For sports/action I prefer JPG since I tend to shoot in pure numbers and hope that 5-10% are keepers, something I couldn't do with RAW since I don't have enough memory cards and it would take way too long to process (but if you're just dropping the shots off at a lab that may not be a concern if they accept RAW format).

However, I'm very interested in trying Apple's new Aperture to see if it can really throw RAW files around as fast as they claim. Of course you need a monster G5 system, anyway. If I ever get a 1D Mark II N and I end up liking Aperture I might start to shoot sports in RAW.

I shoot all my sports in JPG M1 on the 1D MKII N. I do this so the file is close to the size that my email servers will allow.

As for the differences between Canon and Nikon, there are many differences, however these are the major differences:
#1: noise levels (some experts say Nikon is three years behind Canon in noise control)
#2: Lenses - they cost more for Canon, but you can't beat the quality of the L's in dust and moisture protection. I think they have a wider selection as well
#3: and one of the most important is service quality. Nikon has picked it up in this area, but still canot compete with most of Canons services.

As you can see above I shoot with Canon gear. When I first went looking for a pro camera I just didn't like certain things with the Nikons, #1 and #3 being the real deciding points. The fact that at large events such as the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400 and so on Canon techs are present and will clean and or do repairs on the spot for the pro's as well as loan gear. So twice a year I get my gear cleaned and checked for free, and that saves a ton of money as well as saving shipping and transit time. Now having two 1D bodies it will save even more. I can drop one body and one lens off and still shoot, then drop the other pair off when I pick the first set up.

JS

I want to thank you folks for all your input. It has been great. The other question I wanted to ask was what size CF cards do you carry or do you use a microdrive? Remember I am gonna be shooting at the track mostly and probably downloading to a computer with a screen so people can view and pic there photo's out. The track photographer that left shot only 35mm. So he would develop his shots, bring them back the following week, and place them in a album so people could purchase. I figured with a DSLR I could take my photo's, download them to a computer for viewing so people could pic what they want, and bring them back the following week. I would shoot a couple races then download so they could view. I am still figuring out the best way of doing this. I have thought about going for a more expensive camera and using the WIFI setup possibly, but I am not sure. Probabily will be sticking with the flash cards though. Ok enough of my input.

Thanks ,
Dave

Hmmm, Ok, didn't realize you were going to be a track photographer Dave. Whew, if I were to do it again myself I'd go with a 1D and a transmitter to transmit to a laptop at the photo booth as you shoot. Then you can keep the cards as a backup.
I use 6 cards myself, 3 1GB 3 512MB, slowly I am getting to where I will have 8 1GB cards, this way I can always have one in each of my 1D bodies. I don't really like larger cards, especially for racing and dumping to a computer, it takes too long to dump them.
What I would do now though, instead of a computer is get an Epson P2000 or P4000 (40GB & 80GB respectively) to dump cards to, then put them on a computer later. You can still let people view the photos.

So what track? I used to live in Coopersburg and know all the tracks in the area. I also know your town pretty well.....One of your former football coaches would remember me too, I almost arrested him at Southern Lehigh back in the late 80's.

JS