Great North Swim, Windermere, English Lake District

[thereyougo!]

This is the first time I have done any sports photography. The Great North Swim finally got underway today on Windermere after being rained off for two days. I grabbed my 5D mk III and my 7D plus a couple of long lenses: 28 - 300L and Tamron 200 - 500. I haven't gone through the 7D shots yet, but here are some from the 5D:

Canon 5D mk III Tamron 200 - 500 at 500mm f/8 ISO 400 1/800



Great-North-swim1 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Same lens and camera f/8 1/1600 ISO 400



Great-North-Swim-2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Same lens and camera f/8 1/2000 ISO 800



hreat-north-swim-3 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


1/3200 ISO 800



Great-North-Swim-4 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


The media are here in force, BBC2 covering the elite parts of the race and someone is being interviwed on a boat while the elite women swim in water that's below 14 degrees (55F)



Great-North-Swim-5 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

 

[LaFoto]

Brrr. Yes. Looks cold.
But your photos look good.
But then you also have seriously fancy equipment. Wow!
I guess I might just envy you your 5D and lenses (just a little).

 

[thereyougo!]

The 200 - 500 Tamron isn't bad, it's certainly not the sharpest lens I have, but to get a Canon L lens at that focal length would be talking thousands. Could have used the 28 - 300 on these shots (and did with the 7d, but didn't want to crop in too much.

 

[LaFoto]

I might look into the Tamron at some point in time, but I haven't photographed any sports of late, so I don't really-really need it right now.
Therefore I might just as well stop envying you?
Invested in the 7D only a couple of months ago, and decided against the full frame, as I don't do my photography professionally at all, so why? I'm never going to use it to its capacity...

 

[thereyougo!]

Some with my Canon 7D:


Canon 7D EF 28 - 300L at 300mm f/8 and 1/2000 ISO 400



Great-North-Swim-6 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Canon 7D Tamron 200 - 500 at 383mm and f/8 1/3200 ISO 400



Great-North-Swim-9 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Canon 7D Tamron 200 - 500 at f/9 and 500mm 1/1600 ISO 400



Great-North-Swim-7 by singingsnapper, on Flickr


Same camera and lens f/9 500mm 1/640 ISO 400



Great-North-Swim-8 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

 

[pgriz]

Hmmm... all the kayaker escorts/safeties are wearing drysuits. Yep, that is pretty cold water. As for the photos, how much cropping did you do? I'm trying to get a sense of the image quality of your setup.

 

[thereyougo!]

They were nearly all cropped a fair bit - most of the full size cropped files are around 10mp from the original 18 on the 7D and around 10 - 12mp of the original 22mp of the the 5D mk III. If I shot sport more frequently, I'd get faster (and sharper) lenses than the Tamron or the 28 -300L. I found that the Tamron worked better with the 5D mk III strangely.

 

[Jaemie]

I really like #7 for the arms and eyes. Cool shot.

Yes, 55°F is pretty cold, but you get used to it after a little while and it can become almost comfortable, if you keep moving. I used to swim naked off the San Francisco coast (same temp) when I was younger. Of course, I had a full 4/3 wetsuit, booties, gloves, and hood for surfing, because you're moving less and sitting/lying more, but for short playful swims it wasn't necessary.