anyone do any skateboard or snowboard photography?

skatephoto · Nov 14, 2003

i was wondering what SLR cameras would be good for this. I talked to Grant Brittain and Andy Wright and they told me about the F5 and the eos 1V, but i guess i forgot to tell them i didnt have two grand. Any moderate priced cameras that are good. I have been looking at the n90, n80, and elan 7E, any others?

Jovian · Nov 16, 2003

yeah, those would be great, but honest to god... I LOVE shooting skateboard pictures, one of my all time favorite things. I shoot with a Minolta x370, as long as you have decently fast shutter speeds, 1/1000s, you can get some awesome shots. People just don't move that fast to need faster. If you want top of the line, yeah, you could go with something a little more expensive, but no matter how much equipment you have it all boils down to the basics if you want a great picture. That, and being at the right place at the right time.

~Andrew~

TwistMyArm · Nov 16, 2003

I haven't shot any skateboard of snowboard photos, but I'm definitely going to try to get some nice snowboard photos while ridding this winter.

Anyway something else you'll want to look for in a camera is the motor drive. Most new cameras will have drives that will allow you to shoot consecutive frames. Basically this will allow you to fire off several quick shots while someone is flying through the air.

The following are the approximate frames per second that the cameras you mentioned (plus my own camera a Pentax MZ-6) will shoot.
Elan 7E: 4 FPS
N80: 2.5 FPS
F90X: 4.3FPS (in continuous high-speed mode), 2FPS (continuous low-speed mode)
Pentax MZ-6: 2.5FPS (best guess)

urameatball · Nov 17, 2003

maybe you want to consider a DSLR if you REALLY want to stretch your budget. You have to take quite a few shots to get that shot you really want and in the long run, the film costs will be equal to that of just buying a DSLR.

simnine · Nov 17, 2003

be careful if you do buy a digi. some have a write time that will make them undesirable for this kind of photography. they are often able to take many photos in a row to an extent, then you have to wait for them to write before you can take more photos.