What would you all recomend for a digtial camera to photograph horses at churchill downs during the breeders cup, our seats are on the 3rd floor so would need something with good zoom, looking at either a point and shoot or SLR. Friend has a horse that should be running and want to get photos of it as it's in the strech run. Thanks in advance.
Chris First of all I would not recommend any point and shoot as you need to be able to adjust shutterspeed. there are dslr (digital single lens reflex) that would be up to the task like the Olympus evolt e500 which is a very good camera.
I would also see about being able to go to any press area they might have to take the pictures as they will be better than from the stands.
The Olympus e500 has the ability for interchangable lens, and think that if you got the 40-150mm lens you would be in pretty good shape. (that is equivalent to 80-300mm in a film camera lens)
You might find this blog of interest in making a choice
http://photographmuse.blogspot.com/
and this site usually has some pretty good deals on cameras as well as links to some of the better outlets that have cameras on sale.
http://www.silvaspoon.net/cameras.html You not would be happy with the quality from any point and shot digital camera. And SLR is perfect for what you are talking about shooting. Depending on how big u plan and printing the prints will help you decide how much resoultion u will need. Right now there are three cameras I would suggest. The Sony A100, the Canon Rebel XTI, Or the Nikon D80. All are 10 Megapixels, And all cost about $1000. They all have really nice lenses, but the cheepest is Nikon for accesory lenses. But what's cool about the Sony is that It takes all Monalta mount lenses. Hope my advice was helpful
Check out :
Sony A100: http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/EP5316...
Canon XTI: http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/541161...
Nikon D80: http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/SLR114... It would help to know your budget allocation for this. Canon DSLR cameras are the dominant player for fast action. The new 30D would give you an 8 megapixel camera with the ability to shoot fast action in RAW for more frames than would it's little brothers. It also has a brighter LCD screen for viewing in daylight. With an 8 Megapixel sensor, you can blow the photos up pretty big without losing detail instead of trying to handle a huge zoom lens.
Canon has a 70-200L 2.8 IS lens. It is almost $2,000.00 but would be a good solution for your application. This IS means "Image Stablization" and would help counteract the camera shake as you are panning the horse. The 2.8 is brighter and would allow for shallow depth of field to isolate your subject and make it possible to use higher shutter speeds to freeze action. This lens would bring your subject roughly 8 times closer. If your seating allows access at a specific stretch, you could take photos of others and make some of your money back. These types of sequence shots are useful in diagnosing the horses' procedures for making the turns as well as running.
Longer zooms are nice, but they require expert skill in handling. With a longer lens, you may have trouble even locating or tracking the horse. By the time you find the horse...he may have completed the finish line.
If you are going to use, say a 500mm lens, then set it up on a tripod and anticipate the horse's position and then use the burst mode to fire away. Hope that no one jumps up in front of you or causes vibration on your platform. The longer lenses are more difficult to keep still and the images don't seem as sharp if you try and hand hold them.
These super long lenses are used by experienced photographers and often used with monopod or tripod. In the wild, the photographer sits in a blind and "sandbags" the camera while focusing on a spot where he anticipates the animal will be (like the watering hole).
I'm sure you will find a variety of answers to this question. I am assuming you are new to digital photography or you would already know the answer to your question. New folks are enchanted by the long lenses, but are often disappointed by the results. The glamourized version of the "HUGE" zoom is only in the movies. A big lens is expensive and a lot of work to learn to use effectively. I have a learning center in Dallas and will soon offer online webconferencing if you'd like more help with this. Point and shoot is not going to work, so you need to look at digital SLRs. Depending on your budget, try to aim for a body with the biggest sensor size and the most complex dynamic auto focus you can find, since you will be shooting at moving objects from a distance. If possible, look into lenses that have vibration reduction, since these will allow you to rely less on the tripod. There are also a couple new dSLR bodies that incluce vibration reduction into the body, not into the lens. |
