Tips for Sports Photography...

[usayit]

Technicals and camera aside...

It is very important to know the sport that you are shooting.

 

[Wandering_Pugilist]

Technicals and camera aside...

It is very important to know the sport that you are shooting.

I posted that I'm only interested in boxing (training and fights).

After doing some more online research, it seems like the biggest advantages of the d50 over the d40 is 5 focus points instead of 3 and you can use AF lenses. I think the only lens I would be interested in for this situation is a 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4

How much of a hassle/difficult is it to manually focus lenses?

 

[TamiyaGuy]

It's OK to manually focus lenses in boxing, but it's more of a hassle when you're shooting a maniac 4-year-old running through a living room . Seeing as you have a ton of SD cards, I'd probably recommend the D50. I think the D40 has a better high-ISO performance, though, so it's a close call. I'd recommend trying both of them out before you buy them, and weigh up the pros and cons of each camera. Best of luck deciding!

 

[Wandering_Pugilist]

It's OK to manually focus lenses in boxing, but it's more of a hassle when you're shooting a maniac 4-year-old running through a living room . Seeing as you have a ton of SD cards, I'd probably recommend the D50. I think the D40 has a better high-ISO performance, though, so it's a close call. I'd recommend trying both of them out before you buy them, and weigh up the pros and cons of each camera. Best of luck deciding!

eeeek..i was worried you would say that. Well I've had a year of experience with the D40. Overall satisfied but the lens limitation was a bit irritating. I'd be interested in getting the standard 18-55 lens but with VR since VR seems to make a huge difference in low lighting situations.

It seems like I could get a used d50 with the VR for the same price as a new d40 with the standard 18-55. Does the variety of lenses and possibility of a VR lens make up the slightly better low light performance of the d40?? What would you all suggest??

 

[keith204]

Focusing -

I've gotta explain an earlier thought. I mentioned that MF in boxing should be ok. That's relative to MF in basketball, football, kids (as Tamiya said), etc. It'll be a lot easier for boxing than those situations.

That being said, now we're talking about AF. For shooting MMA cage fighting, I rely heavily on a good AF system. To get the good shots, you've gotta be able to mash the button and take the picture. From experience, there is a dramatic difference between USM and non-USM lenses. I started using a 17-85 IS w/ USM. Then, I decided to get a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 for the aperture. However, the lack of a fast AF absolutely crippled me, since I had to prefocus before pushing the button the rest of the way. USM lenses would allow me to mash the button without having to think about focusing. That is very nice .

If you're planning on using AF, I'd say be sure to get a lens with fast AF (the nikon equiv to USM).

 

[kundalini]

One last thing: I would recommend getting the SB-600 over the SB-400.

What he said.

... plus I probably won't have enough room in my bag to carry an external flash.

Both the SB-600 and SB-800 have belt loops on their cases, so you don't necessarily have to have room in your bag.

 

[Wandering_Pugilist]

Well I finally decided to get the D50 with a 18-55 stock lens and a 50mm F1.4D (I know the 1.8 was worlds cheaper but BH were out and it would have cost the difference to ship from another retailer). I decided on the D50 over the D40 mostly because of the ability to autofocus with the 50mm, which in my situation, (low-lighting, fast action) would really make a difference. I never used the ISO3200 when I had my D40 anyways so I figured that I wouldn't utilize that upgrade anyhow. I also took all your advice and went with the sb600 (I'm just going to toss out a handcrank flashlight that I've never used which appears to be the same size).

Thank you all so much for the help and I'll try to get some photos up once the stuff gets here. This is a great forum!