Best sport camera?...

[TheLost]

TPF's TheLost shoots for some kind of company that does school sports coverage...he likes the D7100, and gets stuck shooting in a lot of poorly-lighted H.S. gyms and dingy H.S. football fields.

Well, i don't shoot for a company.. I just have three very active kids and i get roped into being on booster clubs and parent boards. That also lets me shoot High School Sports (Football, basketball, track, rugby and water polo) and Youth 'Super League' Sports (Football, basketball, rugby.. etc).

The top crop-sensor Nikon body right now is hands down the D7100. It's AF speed and accuracy is amazing. I've said it before... but i like it even better then the D300s (this has been argued.. but that's my opinion). What you give up with the D7100 is buffer. But using fast SD cards it has never been a huge issue for me.

Low light is where you want a FX body... The D7100 is good.. but not great...

Example: Indoor football last saturday @ 10:15pm inside a local university's indoor Field house (very poor lighting at night)...

D7100 | F/2.8 | 800 sec | 6400 ISO

I also had the chance to play with a Canon 70D that night...
(Canon 70D | F/2.8 | 800 sec | and i forgot the ISO.. i'll grab the orig file when i get home)

(its a bad picture... but it shows my point.. The canon handled the low light about the same.. but it had a harder time finding focus in this building then my D7100)

The D7100 shot above may have massive grain and detail loss.. but on the full size image you can still read the stickers on the back of the helmets... and thats @ 6400 iso.

My choice for shooting sports would be (in order)...
D4/D4s
D3s
D800
D7100
D700 (i couldn't handle the 12mp.. i've been spoiled by 24+)
D300s
D600

I've shot with all of those (except the D4s).. The D7100 is what fits my needs the best. However, if/when the D800s comes out i will be taking a VERY hard look at it.

 

[shadowlands]

D300 best bang for the buck... $450.00 & 8 frames per second with a grip. Bam!!

 

[Derrel]

I'm sorry TheLost--I was confusing you with FjRabon, who I am pretty sure does work for a yearbook company...but I KNEW you shoot indoor football in a dungeon-like facility...WOW--that *is* some sucky lighting they have there in that fieldhouse!!!

We're pretty lucky these days...I grew up with Tri-X pushed to 3200 with basically ZERO shadow detail after 15 minutes in HOT,76-degree HC-110 developer...and "HIGH-SPEED color meant Scotch 640-Tungsten slide film....

I am still pretty impressed with modern, digital SLR image quality indoors in bad light, shot at 1600 or 3200 or 6400...yeah...there might be a bit of digital noise...but the image is fundamentally "okay!". The one thing chloe needs to keep in mind is that photo buyers are looking at THEMSELVES and their HORSES in the photographs, and not really focusing on "the pixels"...it's about the pictures...the "event"...the "winning"...the "ribbons"...and so on.