Camera recommendations???

[Catch22Dem]

My digital takes nice pictures in certain environments, but in others it's just crap. First of all, I'm in no way a photographer, but I understand the concepts somewhat.

What I'm looking for is a digital that will take great figure skating action shots. So, think about the environment where you can't get close to the subject, the lighting is so-so, you can't use flash, but you want pictures of your kid twirling through the air at lightening speeds, and the ice around your subject is bright white.

I have a Fuji Finepix S3000 which takes nice photos, but every manual setting I've tried won't give me a good picture on the ice. I can set the aperature to 2.8 and tweak the lighting settings, but it still tries to keep the shutter open WAY too long when I have the flash down. So, at her most recent competition, I'd autofocus with the flash up (carefully) then, with my finger holding the shutter halfway down, I'd close the flash then take the picture. That kept the shutter speed down, but also let in very little light.

It's a decent camera, but just not for this kind of photography. The sport setting is no good with high speed subjects and low lighting. The continuous setting (2 shots per sec) didn't work either. The moving targets were too much and the pics were still blurry.

I mainly lurk on the photography group, but you guys seem so smart about this kind of thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Boo_Radley]

1. Any digital SLR

You can get a Nikon D50 for about $600, and you can either use (as you can with any SLR camera) a built in "sports" mode, which will almost always work, or, in a pinch, use shutter priority mode so you can control how long the shutter is open. Since it's an SLR, you can buy faster lenses if you really want to (though they're expensive), so you can use an extremely fast shutter speed to freeze-frame fast action.

I have a D70, which is just slightly more, and it does great action shots.



Flash used : No
Focal length : 105.0mm (35mm equivalent: 157mm)
Exposure time: 0.0020 s (1/500)
Aperture : f/4.2

The D50 probably does about the same, and you can speed the shutter up faster than that (by a factor of 8 on the D50, or by a factor of 16 on the D70) if you have a really fast lense or really good lighting.

The Canon equiv's are about the same. You can probably look around and get one used for a fair price.

[Catch22Dem]

4. My camera can take similar shots outdoors

But indoors, I guess the lighting is just too shitty. Either that, or I haven't quite figured out what to do just yet.

[Fovea]

7. If you really want to diy

then I second the D50/70.
But what you need is a good lens.
Nikon makes a Vibration Resistant zoom that would
be perfect but if you have to ask how much it costs...

The kit lens is too short 18-70 for this kind of work, and you would have to shoot 1600 and use noise reduction afterwards.

There is, if you want to be traditional, you might try a prime lens. There is an 85mm prime at F1.8 that isn't too pricey, and a 105mm F2.8 mircronikkor that is a bit more pricey, but an awsome lens (I have the old AI manual lens) that does macro shots as well.

The key here is in the DSLR world, you must think Body+Lens = Camera. What you a pay for in this system, is the flexibilty of having a lens for a given set of characteristics (focal len, min fstop, weird perspective tricks, etc).

The flexibility costs, but it also rewards.
The 'bright white ice' problem can be easily solved with a circular polarizing filter.

[Catch22Dem]

9. Thank you!

So much to learn!

[Boo_Radley]

2. Oh, also

Also try upping your ISO. It will make slightly granier pictures, but it allows the shutter to speed up a little bit.

[F.Gordon]

3. Hire someone???

:shrug:

What I'm looking for is a digital that will take great figure skating action shots. So, think about the environment where you can't get close to the subject, the lighting is so-so, you can't use flash, but you want pictures of your kid twirling through the air at lightening speeds, and the ice around your subject is bright white.

For around $3,000 you could get a Canon 20D with a 70-200mm f/2.8 "L" IS lens that would be just the ticket. In lieu of that.... you need a Point and Shoot that you can crank the ISO up to 800 or 1600. Not sure which ones do that, if any. Then ya' need some anti-noise software (you can get this for free).

If it were me? I'd hire someone to take the snaps of my kid. Maybe the parents can pool their resources to get someone. It seems silly to spend the money you'd have to fork out just for one subject. IMO

I honestly can't think of anything on "the cheap" you could get... maybe someone else does... you need reach, sharp high speed, in low light.. sounds expensive to me.
:crazy:

Check out the EXIF data on the Ice Skating shots here....(ISO isn't stated) lot's of futzin' going on. Not an easy setup.....

http://www.pbase.com/davewojeski/sports

[Catch22Dem]

5. Thanks for the link...

Headed there now.

They have people who do it, but I'm actually interested in learning how to take better shots. So, it's not just about the end result, which I can still buy from the professionals at the competitions, but also about taking good shots in practice just for fun.

Not necessarily looking for something on the cheap.

[F.Gordon]

6. Understood

It's the challenge. HypnoToad got a digie that I was pretty impressed with. Don't remember what it was. Never saw any photos from it ;) but I remember that it "spec'd out" very nice. Good manual control, all the good stuff....

Sorry bout' the "on the cheap" comment. Don't like spending other peoples money.

[Catch22Dem]

8. Please, no apology necessary

I'm ALWAYS trying to find people a better deal on something, or a cheaper way of doing something, so I'm not the least bit offended. I just wanted to clarify, for something like this, I'm willing to buy what I NEED to get the results I'm looking for. That's all. I really appreciate your help though!

[Boo_Radley]

10. Oh, something I just thought of . . .

Back in the days . . . I bought a cheap, like $20, camera somewhere. It was all manual, fixed focal length, manual wind, manual load, manual rewind, etc. Since it didn't need time to focus (was set to focus on the hyperfocus plane, so it was something like 4 feet to infinity), I could load relatively fast film and get good shots.





You couldn't zoom with it, but it did a hell of a job. You might consider looking at film cameras, since they're way cheaper if you're not going to be shooting a whole lot with them. Maybe not the $20 jobber, but something a little better, but costing way, way less.

[Bonhomme Richard]

11. On that...........

You could pick up a nikon N80 for under $400 and when you move to a digital SLR go with nikon and use the lenses for both. It will also give you great equipment flexibility down the road.