Hockey Photography

JrHockeyFan90 · Mar 13, 2006

What is a good digital camera for hockey photography ?

Rob · Mar 13, 2006

Canon 1Ds MKII with a 400mm f2.8 L lens

thebeginning · Mar 13, 2006

lol. don't you mean two 1dmkIIN's?

seriously though, any dSLR on the market is capable of being 'good' for hockey shots...it depends more on you as a photographer. If you just want to know about equipment, then just go with whatever you can afford (the d50 or the 350d are priced quite well (under $800) and would do fine). A long lens is good to have, but not absolutely essential. a 70-300mm zoom is a nice range, but you'll sacrifice sharpness at wide open and you will have relatively high max apertures (although that wouldnt matter quite as much for hockey since there is so much light bounced around by the ice). I personally would recommend a medium length prime (like a 200mm 2.8 ) with a 1.4x teleconverter. on a 1.5 or 1.6 crop camera it would be a fairly long lens with great sharpness (canon's 200mm 2.8L is an extremely sharp prime). however, that would cost you around $700. if price is a big issue, there are several point and shoot digital cameras that have long zoom ranges, so you may want to look into those.

Big Mike · Mar 13, 2006

Actually, the lighting is most hockey arenas is pretty bad. A good camera is nice but a good lens is much more important.

You didn't tell us much, like what your budget is and what you want to do with the photos...print, publish etc.

Shooting hockey with a digi-cam (non SLR camera) would be pretty tough.

JrHockeyFan90 · Mar 13, 2006

Big Mike said:
Actually, the lighting is most hockey arenas is pretty bad. A good camera is nice but a good lens is much more important.

You didn't tell us much, like what your budget is and what you want to do with the photos...print, publish etc.

Shooting hockey with a digi-cam (non SLR camera) would be pretty tough.

I post my sports photos here-
http://www.freewebs.com/jrhockeyfan90/index.htm

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Thanks for the information.

Big Mike · Mar 13, 2006

Every one of your hockey photos are underexposed. The reason for this, is that a camera's meter is programed to make everything a middle (grey) tone. So when it sees lots of white ice...it tries to make it grey.

What you have to do to overcome this...is adjust the exposure in the + direction. In other words, give it more exposure. This will mean a slower shutter speed or a wider aperture. I'm guessing that the camera/lens is already at the maximum aperture...so the shutter will have to open longer. The problem is that it will be even harder to freeze the action...and it looks like you were having trouble freezing shots where there was not much action. Also, turning up the ISO will help...but at the expense of digital noise.

This is why we are suggesting expensive lenses. Pro sports photographers use some of the mose expensive lenses in the world...because they need to use them to get sharp shots, in low light, that freeze the action.

bantor · Mar 13, 2006

I would suggest a camera with the fastest conitnues shooting as possible. If you can get like 12 frames a second, with a good lens you could get the actual bend of the stick on slap shots.

thebeginning · Mar 14, 2006

bantor, not sure what you mean by 'bend of the stick'...because if you are saying what I think you are saying...then you could get that with a 1 frame per second camera...I honestly think 12 is overkill. I'm not sure you realize how much that is. i have a camera that shoots 5 fps and one that shoots 10, and even for sports 5 is more than enough.

snownow · Mar 14, 2006

Going to have to agree with the crowd, its all in the lens for events like this. Any Dslr will do but the fast lens helps. Here are some from our last Vegas trip.... Most are also under exposed (i have a slow cheap 300mm lens) I cant wait till my new VR lens gets here

. I shoot with a D70, I'll try to post some old ones with my good lens so you can see the differance. Also you might try playing with your white balance a little, it might help out your photos.

My $.02 on the frames per second, one per is a little slow if your going to try to get that "perfect hockey shot" but getting a $3000 d2hs is not needed. The d50 would work great, (sorry all Im a Nikon guy)

http://sierraphotography.org/Hockey.htm

Jeff Canes · Mar 15, 2006

1) Better lenses: one or two lenses that cover the range of 35-300mm, under $4000 US new
2) Get nearer to glass or net so it’s not in your DOF
3) Use lower f-stops with higher shutter speeds for a shorter DOF (better for outside sports)
4) A camera that shots 5 FPS (Canon 20d or similar)
5) Lot of practice
6) Learn to anticipate the action (more practice and learning the players)

Also for hockey and basketball most pro use 2 remote flashs mounded on the upper deck or catwalks