cricket photos with a 300mm lens

[Mack]

Hey,

I'm purchasing a Fujifilm Finepix S9500 and i was hoping to take some photos at the recent cricket matches. I was wondering if 300mm is enough to get some decent close up pictures? And if i can take the photos fast enough to catch the action? Hope you can help ;-)

Cheers,

Mack

 

[Chase]

300mm should definitely get you close to the action. The only downfall with a 300mm, unless you spend TONS of money, is that it will likely be a slower lens (f5.6 maybe?), which means you'll need more light to get the fast action shots. If you're shooting outdoors on a relatively sunny day, you should be just fine.

 

[Xmetal]

300mm should be able to reach the pitch fairly easily, what Appeture sizes does the Fuji come with? If you're shooting on a cloudless day the camera should do it's job well but Cloudy skies might be a bit of a pain if you're wanting action shots. :?

 

[Mack]

This is my first proper camera ive bought (getting soon actually) i don't have much clue about what your saying, heres the dp review link - http://www.dpreview.com/news/0507/05072803fuji_s9000zs9500z.asp and also some guy has made a site with his cricket pics using a D70 and a 300mm and a 500mm mirror lens, heres one of the pics using the 300mm

The D70 is 6.1MP so my 9MP will be better, And will that be the closest ill get?

Cheers for the replies,
Mack

 

[Marctwo]

Your 9MP will not be better than the 6.1MP D70. It may have a few more pixels but that really doesn't matter. What's important is the quality of the pixels. The sensor on the Fuji is about 8 x 6mm - the sensor on the D70 is 23.7 x 15.7mm. This is very significant in terms of quality.

At 300mm, you won't get very close. Expect the frame to be about twice the height of the batsman in the crease. You'll have to crop to get proper close-ups.

What do you mean by 'proper camera'? Don't be fooled into thinking this is anything more than a compact camera. It may look big and flash but it's not in the same league as a dslr.

If you plan to be serious about your cricket shots then you'll most likely out-grow this camera very quickly.

 

[Rob]

As Marc quite rightly says the camera is not ideally suited to the task. Cricket is one of the more difficult games to photograph as you will be very far away and the action is very concentrated.

Ideally you'd be using a 600mm f4 lens on a rapid-firing body with movement tracking auto-focus to freeze everything at the choice moment. This is a pretty expensive way to do it though!

You could try an attachment lens teleconverter, but this will probably make things even darker and more difficult to shoot. Personally, I'd stick to crowd candids and player portraits as they are leaving/arriving on the field.

Rob

 

[DocFrankenstein]

The D70 is 6.1MP so my 9MP will be better, And will that be the closest ill get?

D70 is in many ways a better camera than the one you picked.

If you're serious about photography, I would urge you to stay away from Fuji and go with either canon or nikon.

The bigger chip and interchangeable lenses are worth it.

I'm sure many people here would agree.

 

[Mack]

Yeh, its just my first camera and i don't really wanna blow 1.5 grand on it

 

[Marctwo]

Just out of interest, how does the AUS $ stack up against the £ - any idea?

<edit> Sorry, I just googled it. £1 = $2.33 </edit>

 

[Mack]

yeh its alot of money for a first camera it comes with a free 1gig CF so ill get it

 

[thebeginning]

the d70 or the fuji?

i completely agree with Rob, Marc, and Doc that the d70 is a far better choice, especially if you already have it. If you dont have it, i'd look into buying a dslr from canon or nikon as Doc suggested.