Hi - I am new both to the forum and to this level of photography...HELP! :-)

Hello everyone -

Thanks for reading this message and for any help you can provide. I

am looking to buy a Canon EOS 20D for general photographic use,

supplementing my freelance work with better quality photos and

hopefully moving into sports photography *eventually*.

 

I really want to grow with this camera - have not bought it yet but

want to be sure it can do everything I want before I put myself

completely in the poor house....

 

Anyone know what kind of flash sync is needed for the various sports?

I think this camera has a 1/250 (please forgive me, I am still

learning everything about cameras and photography as I go)

I am most interested in photographing ice hockey, rugby, football,

and perhaps volleyball, in terms of sports. I am sure I'll enjoy

others too, but those are the main ones for now. Thanks!

 

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated! Thanks so much.

- Kate

Hi, Kate. I don't use the 20D (I have a D70 I use myself), but a friend of mine does, and he gets great results shooting high school football (notorious for poorly lit fields) with it. The 1/250 flash sync speed should do you for most sports--hockey might be a little problematic, as the players are moving so fast, but for most other sports you will be okay.

 

The important thing is nice, long fast lenses. Don't know what you already have, but for most purposes, a 70-200/F2.8 lens will be your best friend when you are just starting off--and can be used for plenty of things besides sports.

 

Obviously, with the more expensive bodies, you are going to gain advantages: better/faster autofocus, faster frame rate, etc., but I'm sure the 20D would be a great learning tool for you. It's a good camera--just make sure it feels comfortable and right for you.

Volleyball - 1/250 is fine . For most of your shots its a requirement as the indoor lights are hideous in thier color temp. They can be a mix of Mercury vapor, sodium vapor, Tunsgsten.

 

Rugby - Nevre shot it - however its outside so most of ypour daylight shots wont be using flash as you will be using a large lens to captur action at different points on the field.

 

Football - same as rugby. Even at night flash is useless. Your best friend is fast glass f2.8 and faster , high iso and monopods.

 

Hockey- 1/250 is fine for closeups, however 90% of your shots will be with no flash. Overexpose the ice and the players should be fine. Use fast glass and high ISO.

 

Flash is probably not going to be used in real world situations all that much shooting live action. You will howver need fast glass.

 

On a budget get the 50 1.8 ,next get a 85 1.8 these two lenses will help you shooting both volley ball and hockey. Baskteball too.

 

As budget allows get the 80-200 2.8 as this can be used for the football - however it may be less usefull for rugby. But you can get the endzone and the goal for either sport.

 

Get a good monpod with a ball head - bogen makes some good and afforable monopods for around $60

 

 

Hockey is fun to shoot - and you learn aloot becaue the ice will fool most cameras meters.

forgot to mention that my pro sports camera form another brand has only 1/250 flash sync and that works great for the sports shots I do. ( extreme sports, motorsports, and a few others)

To add my 2 cents again: Loren's advice about getting a monopod is excellent. For football, soccer and baseball in particular it is extremely valuable.

 

However, flash *is* important for high school football & basketball, in most cases. In football, where the players are not moving quite so fast as in basketball, I use the flash for fill purposes--to get a little light on the players' faces under their helmets.

 

For basketball, freezing the action is a little more difficult (and high school gyms are often quite poorly lit), so in most cases I use my flash as the key light, and try to keep a shutter/aperture combination that allows enough of the background light in that the shot looks at least somewhat normal.

 

Now, if you have the luxury of shooting in college/professional venues, which are lighted well enough for TV broadcast (or, if you can afford radio-controlled, rafter-mounted strobes :) none of the above applies. Best of luck.

Hi Bernard and Loren:

Thanks so much for your help and the time it took to type all that stuff for me. I am SO excited... I just ordered the camera for a pretty good price, though I am still going to have to suffer without the best-friend-lens for a while... Thank goodness I have at least two (small) paychecks coming before the Visa bill!! If you have any tips for using the general 18-55 lens that they provide in the starter kit, I could sure use them.

Thanks again for the help - you guys sure made me feel better making this huge investment! (It wouldn't be *so* big, but I just bought a car in November... I think being out of college is a recipe for disaster!)

 

THANKS AGAIN!!!

Take care,

Kate

Kate,

 

I shoot with a 10D and have had some really good results with the 70-200 F/2.8 (IS) and 2xTC for sports. My advice would be to shoot RAW and experiment with avaiable light before jumping into a flash as most of the sports you mentioned would only benefit from "fill" if it even reached your subject in teh first place. Therefore I would recommend as others before me to look at the 70-200 (IS)as it is an excellent all around lens and when combined with a TC can pull double duty if the lighting permits.<div></div>

For Daytime (college) football, a nice alternative to the 70-200 f2.8L is the 70-200 f4.0L. Yes it is slower but it's --oh--a thousand or so dollars cheaper ($600 vs $1500) than the 2.8 and really very good during the daytime. I've used the 4.0L as an official photog on the field but also when I was relegated to the stands as a common fan, and I've had really good results.

 

HS football at night is a real challenge. Flash helps but it does cast a weird glow especially on some the shiny nylon fabrics used these days. Monopod is the way to go.

The other lens for someone doing sports, and on a smaller budget, is the Canon EF 200mm f2.8 L and 1.4x or 2x converter. I don't know if camera stores give the flexibility of buying the 50/1.8 with the body instead of the 18-55 but it would be more useful to you for some of those indoor venues on a 1.6x factor DSLR. A flash with an extremely high GN and zoom head is definitely useful for some of your subjects to help bring the colours alive. Of course we are talking lots of money again, especially since it is going to take the 3rd party flash manufacturers awhile to catch up.