Olympic Photographers

Now that the Olympics are under way (the opening ceremonies anyway) i'm just curious to see what percentage of

these pro sports photographers have switched over to Nikon gear.

 

Anyone watching yet? if so, any observations? From what i've read, Nikon was holding back supply from consumers

so that the Pro shooters would have enough equipment to work the Olympics, and i'm wondering if there philosphy

of this worked out for them.

it would be interesting to see how many chinese made cameras are used in the games. are there any chinese made prosumer or pro cameras?

I think most point & shoot cameras are made in China, yea?

even prosumer bodies?

Any shots online yet from the 300,000 (yes, that's 300 thousand) surveillance cameras which have been installed in Beijing to watch the photographers (and others!)?

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-snoop7-2008aug07,0,7333292.story?%3F

 

I think London has 500,000+, so the chinese have some way to go.

 

For street photographers who wonder if they should ask before taking someone's picture, it's been estimated that someone walking around London (and maybe Beijing) is photographed around 300 times a day!

>> "are there any chinese made prosumer or pro cameras?"

 

I don't even think there's a single chinese camera manufacturer that make prosumer/pro/DSLRs that are on-par with international standards. There are a bunch camera manufacturer that makes "classic" or cheap cameras for lomography: Seagull, Holga, and so on...

 

I think there are Chinese manufacturers that make products for major "foreign" manufacturers. I own 2 Chinese made Nikkor lenses.

 

From as far as I see, photographers for traditional/government-sponsored press are generally equipped with Nikon; while others that don't fall into that category use Canon more.

My Nikon 50mm 1.8 is made in China.

<i>i'm just curious to see what percentage of these pro sports photographers have switched over to Nikon gear.

</i><P>

In last week's Formula 1 race in Hungary, when coverage showed the groups of photographers covering the race, I

only saw one guy who didn't have a big white lens. I don't expect that hordes of freelance sports shooters will

be selling their $20,000+ worth of Canon lenses and bodies so they can switch over to Nikon.

Agencies/magazines/papers that have an even bigger investment will be even less likely to do so.