I Need Help!

[amyanks22]

Hello and I am very familiar with sports and am very interested in getting into sports photography. I am a young male and have a point and shoot right now. I had a birthday recently and have the money for a new DSLR and need help what to buy. ANy help is greatly appreciated as I need lots. I am not looking to spend more than $500. Most of my shooting would be at minor league baseball games and at spring training.

Alex

[VinnyC01]

1) good luck and enjoy while learning. there's a lot of frustration and a lot of learning.
2) Think about a Canon Rebel Xti. You can get a nice deal for a bit more than $500. Even a used one on Ebay.
3) The lens .. It should come with a lens, probably a 200 or 300 with 5.6. But again, that will run you over $500, well over. These will work, but when you realize that a lens can be faster and let in more light, you will want more.

Hope that helps. There are many others here who are more experienced than I and if you give more details, they can give you more suggestions, but beware that $500 is just the body.

[gryphonslair99]

Alex,

I'm not trying to bring you down here, but a DSLR for sports at $500 or less is not really practical. The XTi would be a good starter camera. But it also come in at the $500 range body only. I'm not big on buying things like that off of e-bay. Others are but I don't. There is not a lot of recourse if you are not satisfied with your purchase. If you want to look at used then look around your area for a good photography shop and see what they may have used. With the XSi coming out there will be XTi's popping up on the used shelves.

Glass is going to be another issue. For baseball you need fast glass and a decently long focal length. A good starter would be something in the area of 70-200 f2.8 zoom lens. The canon version will set you back around $1200.00. Sigma makes a 70-200 f2.8 at about $900.00.

If you are shooting any kind of dusk, evening, night game you will have to have at least ff2.8 to be able to get your shutter speeds up. You will need fast shutter speeds to capture the action. Sports photography is a demanding form of photography, Not only on the shooter and their skills but on the equipment as well and a lot of that equipment (at least in the way of lenses) can be fairly expensive with some of it being outrageously expensive.

My suggestion, if you are really serious about this would be to do one of two things. For the price range you have set, you might look at used film cameras and lenses. There is some good stuff out there that can be had quite cheaply. There are of course down sides to film such as film cost, developing etc. If you really want to get into this with a DSLR then I would wait a bit, save money and get started right. Nothing worse than starting with lenses that will not do the job and having to spend more money to replace them. Good luck

[JSPhoto]

Alex,
My first camera I used "officially" was $1500, plus another $300 for a flash and it wouldn't have worked for baseball at any level other than little league, and then only in daylight. Things are better now, but you won;t find a fast enough body for $500, then you need a at least three lenses, wide angle, a good reacher and something in between. You can find used 1D bodies for $600 and up, then lenses will range $300 and up to $6,000 depending on what you get and whether it's used or not. Some lenses used are almost the same as new because of their popularity and availability. A 70-200 with image stabilizer is $1,500 new, without IS $900. You need good fast lenses for night games and the 70-200 fits the bill nicely. For long reach a 28-300mm or 300mm or 400mm are the best bets, but your looking at $2800 to $6500 for those.
You could try an XTi however the issue there is slow AF for night games, and the fact the others who shoot games are all using pro gear and it's impossible to compete against them with an XTi.
Your best bet is to start off small, litterally, shoot little league, middle school and high school for a few years until you build up skills and gear. Get known as a good photographer and things will fall into place.
To be honest this is a really tough deal to break into, everyone with a camera wants to be a photographer, sports, concerts, news, whatever, have camera and "I'm a photographer" but most don't make it two years as they can't compete with the established pros. The lucky few get past the first couple years. When I bought my Mk II N I spent $8500 for the body, two lenses and a flash, it's not hard to drop 10K doing this, but you need the results to make it worthwhile. It's a lot of work and lot of time, it's nothing to work 60-80 hours a week or more, and much of the work is in front of a computer, not out shooting.

JS

[retroactiv]

I have to agree with everyone here. Being from the nikon camp, you are going to need atleast $1000 to buy a new body now you can get a used D2H off of ebay for around 500 for an eaten up one for a good used D2H prob 800 and that is just for the body there most likely won't be a lens in the deal. My suggestion is to go talk to your local newspaper and see if one of there photographers could talk to you and show you some of the equipment they use (preferably a larger paper that has a Full-time photographer on staff because most smaller papers don't even have a clue to how to shoot or what equipment is needed or the budget to buy it if they did). Have him or her show and tell you and explain the stuff and ask how much it would run, also check out bhphoto.com and look at how much Professional SLR and lenes F/2.8 and lower f/stops.

I know we all sound negative but we aren't trying to be we have all been where you are right now, the problem is that you have to know 100% that this is what you want to do because it will eat a hole in your pocketbook faster than putting quarters in a slot machine.

[amyanks22]

Thank you guys for all the help but i think one thing I left out is that I am just starting and wouldnt be doing this for the money but mainly to get shots of players and blow them up to 8x10s and get them signed. I am not looking to get into all the big time lenses and bodies here. I want to learn the ropes before I get into dropping that kind of money.

[gryphonslair99]

Alex,

The fact still remains that you need something at least along the lines of the XTi, Nikon D40 or some other entry level DSLR body and a lens with decent reach to accomplish what you want to do. At a minimum you need something in the 200mm range. If you are not planning to shoot in low light then you could use the 70-200 f4L or one of the consumer grade lenses such as a 70-300. That is still going to set you back more than the $500 you want to spend.

Unfortunately, even the basic equipment to get into sports photography is going to be more expensive by the nature of what you need. That is why there are no Prius' in NASCAR. While the Prius is an automobile and it will get you from point A to point B, it is not up to the standards of a automobile necessary to try and compete in NASCAR.

If you were looking to take say portraits then you could get by for about $500 with a used XTi at about $400-500 and say a 50mm f1.8 for $89.00. If you use that same setup for baseball the action will be so small that it will be unusable for something like 8X10's Maybe you could crop and get a decent 4X6 but I have my doubts there as well.

You saw JSPhoto's gear list, well here is my basic list that I use for sports. Keep in mind I am just a serious hobbyist, but I am willing to buy the gear I need to enjoy the hobby. Also keep in mind that I shoot football, soccer, hockey, cross country, track and field, baseball, softball, basket ball, volleyball, gymnastics and the occasional tennis or golf meet. I make the 40D and 30D body do so I can put the money into glass now. Someday maybe there will be a 1D MIII or two in my future, but for now I get buy just fine with the bodies I have.

40D
30D
(2) BG-E2 grips
16-35mm f2.8L II
24-70mm f2.8L
70-200 f2.7L
35mm f1.4L
50mm f1.4
85mm f1.8
135mm f2L
200mm f2.8L
300mm f2.8L
400mm f2.8L
EF 1.4X II

[amyanks22]

Ok thanks alot guys. Im probably going to get a used XT with the stock 35-55mm lens and get say a Tamron or Sigma 300mm lens and see how this season goes and do what i can from there.