New to Photography

[DodgeCard89]

I work on my school paper and was hoping to get a SLR camera for next year. I would be shooting all kinds of sports and group shots. Also, I'm very into motorsports. I was wondering what type of camera i would need to get to be able to stop things. I'm always hearing that stopping the action seems to be the biggest problem, especially when shooting sports.

Would a Nikon D40x be good enough?

[JSPhoto]

It's not always about stopping the action, the best action shots show motion, especially motorsports, where tire blur shows movement. If your shooting a race car in a race you don't want the tires to be stopped as it takes away from the feeling of motion.
One thing you want to consider too is lighting, inside and outside. Does the gym have good lighting? The football field? If not you have to consider the noise from the specific camera your looking at. It's no secret that Canon is way ahead of all makers in the noise department. Nikon is a distant second. Also consider lenses, you will need at least 1 f2.8 lens, both Canon and Nikon have excellent lenses. An f1.8 50mm lens for really low light like musicals and plays won't hurt either. Canon has one for a whopping $79 that actually works! For most things a 70-200 f2,8 will work or the Nikon 80-200 f2,8. There are several versions of the Canon 70-200, one without IS (image stabilization) and one with single mode IS and the newest with dual mode IS and it has a price of around $1800.
As for the body, it depends on your experiance and your expectations.A good starter may be something along the lines of the Rebel, from the 300D which you can find used to to the XT and more recent XTi. You can also find any number of other bodies that are usable from Canon or Nikon, or others.Whats your budget? That makes a big difference too.

JS

[DodgeCard89]

How terrible would the lens that comes with a D40x or an Xti be? Could I upgrade that later?

[JSPhoto]

Sure you can always upgrade at any time. As for kit lenses, I have never had one as I always buy the bodies only, mainly because the bodies I buy don't have kit lenses. From what I hear they are OK for general photography, but thats about it. They are f4.0 at best, not good for low light unless you have a good flash.

JS

[JSPhoto]

Oh, I forgot... Welcome to the forum!
We have a Nikon sports shooter here from Ky, he's known as OT (Old Timer) so if you go with Nikon he will help you a lot.
Funny though, as I was respondng to your first message I got interupted by my brother in law who was going through Louisville at the time heading here from TN where he lives.

JS

[DodgeCard89]

Where are you in relation to IMS? Going on Sunday?

There's a nice camera store near me that sells some refurbished stuff. I might check in there and see if I can get a D80 before I go lower than it. I hear it's better than the D40x. I'll see what they have as far as lenses, but maybe upgrade later. Would a D40x take some decent motorsports shots? I'm worried they won't turn out.

[JSPhoto]

I am 30 minutes from IMS (East) and am there every day that cars are on the track. See the threads named Day 1 etc... Yup, race day I'll be in Sarah Fishers pit taking pictures.
As for what Nikon cameras do I have no idea, I shoot with Canon myself. OT may be able to help with that question, he usually checks in here in the daytime.

JS

[DodgeCard89]

Well, it's good to meet another race fan. I should be up there this summer for the Brickyard.

[DodgeCard89]

Also, I'm not set on one brand yet. I just happened to look at some Nikons and know someone who owns a D50.

I'm sure they ripped it out of the Indy Star, but did you see the article on the front of the Sports in the Louisville Courier Journal about Sarah's team? They, of course, had the fines with the whole methanol deal posted right above that article. How appropriate.

[JSPhoto]

No, I don't normally read the Star, and I have been really busy this month, 3 days off the entire month! Heck, I have 4 shoots on Monday, including two baseball games. The Star is a Gannett paper, and I think the Loiusville paper is too, so that explains the usage of articles.

I'll be at the Brickyard as well, have been at the last 5 or 6 as I am the only shooter for the paper here that goes to that one.
There are some shots of Kahns crash here from last years race, you can see the weights coming out under the car.

JS

[DodgeCard89]

Well, bottom line will a D40x or an Xti be good enough to shoot motorsports?

[JSPhoto]

They should both be able to do the job, although you won't get a lot in the fps (frames per second). I guess either body would work as a starting point though. I'd worry more about a good lens though, as poor glass will produce poor results. A slow lens isn't too good for motor sports, one that takes too long to focus or focuses improperly isn't going to help you much and most cheap lenses are like that. So you may be better off getting a used body and a good used lens instead.

JS

[Old Timer]

I think Johns advice has been spot on. Canon/Nikon it is all personal preference. Each has it's small advantages and disadvantages. I do agree that at the moment Canon has the high ISO noise thing more under control than does Nikon. To me however the ergonomics and the control locations and features keep me with Nikon, but than I've been a Nikon shooter since 1971. The most important thing to keep in mind is just what John has been emphasizing regardless of what body you go with get good glass that is fast enough for sports. That can not be said often enough or strongly enough. You may be able to get by with a slower lens under perfect conditions but in my experience 90% of the time you are not shooting under perfect conditions.

[JSPhoto]

AS OT points out you won't get perfect conditions very often, in fact your most likely in my experiance to have shadows to deal with and thats where the fast lens comes in. Don't worry too much about blowing the background out, as long as your subject is sharp and draws the attention of the person looking at the photo your OK.

Look through the threads here for sports that you will shoot for ideas on what to do and also what not to do. There are even a couple of "blooper" threads, kind of funny mistakes and accidental photos. Use the search thats on the bar where it says "My Account" not the one at the top of the page, put in whatever keyword(s) you want to find threads on..
In addition, ask questions, at worst we'll point you to a specific thread where it was already answered or normally give you an answer. It may take some time for us to get back to you as things are a bit busy right now.....especially my schedual this week and part of next week.

Hey OT, were short a photog......tonight... regional track, tomorrow the Infinity Pro series at IMS, Saturday a graduation, Sunday the race, Monday is where it gets wacky though, I start 5 miles North of me, Memorial Day deal, then 40 miles Northeast to baseball, both of these start at the same time no less , then at 1m 60 miles southwest for another Memorial Day deal, then Northeast 64 miles for another baseball game...and it too starts at 1pm LOL, I'll have plenty of mileage and time in this weekend.....it'll be a 40 hour weekend!

JS

[DodgeCard89]

Enjoy the race and thanks for the advice. I'll look at the Xti and the d40x and see which feels better, then consider getting a good lens.

[Old Timer]

John it seems to me that just a couple of months ago you were a little worried if you would have enough work or not. Seems like that is pretty much a moat point right now. Wish I was a little closer and maybe I could take a little of the spill over. I'm off to Nashville for my grandsons birthday this weekend. No sports on my calendar this weekend. Hope to maybe shoot the state track meet next weekend if we get enough locals qualified. Have a great shooting weekend.

[JSPhoto]

lol, yeah, I wonder how long it will last though....things get slow in the summer.

JS

[DodgeCard89]

Okay...just throwing this out there because I know nothing, but what is a good lens? Something that can shoot motorsports. Once again, I'm just looking for something on the lower end of things that a young'n like me can afford.

[JSPhoto]

Well the 70-200 I mentioned, there are several versions, the non IS one can be found used fairly cheap. Sigma has a 70-200 thats in the mid $600 range. No clue what the Nikon lens is though $$ wise, OT can help with that one.

JS

[Old Timer]

The 80-200 f2.8 Nikkor is $869 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...200_f_2_8.html but you can get the same Sigma 2.8 that John mentioned for the Nikon as well.

[Jaedon]

Sigma also has the most affordable 500 MM out there that I could find (also the only one to fit the Olympus 4/3 mount for now) 50 - 500 APO retails for $999 at B&H. Although not cheap it is the cheapes price wise out there for big glass. That price is for whichever camera body you choose as well as it is priced the same and made with all the different common camera mounts now. You just need to specify which body you are putting it on to when / if you order one.

[dhyravy]

If you're going Nikon, the 80-200 f2.8 is a great lens. Just make sure you get one that will AF with the body you get. Only the AF-S types will AF with the D-40/D-40x, the D80 has a body mounted motor drive for the AF-D etc. One of the reasons I went with the D50, along with the 1/500 flash sync.