Which would you rather have for fast sports...?

[penfolderoldo]

Thought i'd throw this out there to see if there's a consensus...

If you were shooting fast action sports like football, rugby, etc and assuming the price was roughly equal, which would you rather have - a used 50D or a used 1D mark II? Different AF systems I know, and a faster fps rate on the mk II, but if you were printing large would the extra 7MP on the 50D make up for it? Would the 8MP on the 1D mk II be enough for 11 x 14 prints?

The AF on the 50D comes in for some stick, just wondering how true to life that is for sports?

(and no, opting for a 1D mark III / IV isn't allowed, cos they're both well outside the budget!)

 

[MLeeK]

I've shot sports with the 50D and the 1d3, but not the 1D2, so I could be off the mark on the 1d2...
I did very well with the 50D and I really loved it, BUT I was maxing out the ISO for football AND in MANY of the gyms I worked in.
I was able to remove MOST of the noise in adobe camera raw, but if printed huge? I'd expect it to show that I removed noise. For 11x14? I'd say yes,not a problem.
The 1D Mk2's ISO maxes out at 3200. It won't suit on a dark football field or a crappy gym. Even though the larger pixels and full frame should handle noise better, you will have to underexpose the image which will result in big noise problems.
So... it's the 50D.
If you already have a 1D3 why are you looking for a 1D2 or a 50D? backup? I am guessing at budget around $1000USD?
What about the 7D body only? You already have the lenses, so the 7D body only should be somewhere around there.

 

[penfolderoldo]

I've shot sports with the 50D and the 1d3, but not the 1D2, so I could be off the mark on the 1d2...
I did very well with the 50D and I really loved it, BUT I was maxing out the ISO for football AND in MANY of the gyms I worked in.
I was able to remove MOST of the noise in adobe camera raw, but if printed huge? I'd expect it to show that I removed noise. For 11x14? I'd say yes,not a problem.
The 1D Mk2's ISO maxes out at 3200. It won't suit on a dark football field or a crappy gym. Even though the larger pixels and full frame should handle noise better, you will have to underexpose the image which will result in big noise problems.
So... it's the 50D.
If you already have a 1D3 why are you looking for a 1D2 or a 50D? backup? I am guessing at budget around $1000USD?
What about the 7D body only? You already have the lenses, so the 7D body only should be somewhere around there.

Already have 1D3 and a 7D, but could do with another backup and sometimes need to position one behind the goals on a remote, hence don't want to splash on another mark 3. Budget is indeed around $1000. Used 7D's over here go for around $1600, plus i'm still not massively sold on it, the AF takes a bit of getting used to! Looks like it'll be the 50D if you reckon the noise can be pretty effectively dealt with.

 

[jaomul]

The 50D would imho be fine for a backup sports camera. It would have been the backup crop camera of choice before the 7d came out (if you were canon shooter). The AF is great, but i am not very experienced with many other dslrs so this may be taken with a grain of salt. It is a bit noisier than newer cameras of similar specs but I have never printed a shot that I wasn't happy with from the camera. Some shots looked grainy on computer but printed great. 11x14 will not be a problem. If you have lightroom 3 or noise ninja or similar you can get very good results at iso 3200.

 

[gsgary]

No brainer 1Dmk2 all the time, i shoot with 2 had a mk3 but it went back years ago not a match for mk2 except low iso, still use a 1dMK1 and the focus is as fast

 

[MLeeK]

I've shot sports with the 50D and the 1d3, but not the 1D2, so I could be off the mark on the 1d2...
I did very well with the 50D and I really loved it, BUT I was maxing out the ISO for football AND in MANY of the gyms I worked in.
I was able to remove MOST of the noise in adobe camera raw, but if printed huge? I'd expect it to show that I removed noise. For 11x14? I'd say yes,not a problem.
The 1D Mk2's ISO maxes out at 3200. It won't suit on a dark football field or a crappy gym. Even though the larger pixels and full frame should handle noise better, you will have to underexpose the image which will result in big noise problems.
So... it's the 50D.
If you already have a 1D3 why are you looking for a 1D2 or a 50D? backup? I am guessing at budget around $1000USD?
What about the 7D body only? You already have the lenses, so the 7D body only should be somewhere around there.

Already have 1D3 and a 7D, but could do with another backup and sometimes need to position one behind the goals on a remote, hence don't want to splash on another mark 3. Budget is indeed around $1000. Used 7D's over here go for around $1600, plus i'm still not massively sold on it, the AF takes a bit of getting used to! Looks like it'll be the 50D if you reckon the noise can be pretty effectively dealt with.

You can definitley work with the 50d in that situation. And if I were placing it on a tripod un-manned I probably wouldn't want to have it be any more expensive than that anyway.
I don't have any of last year's 50D shots handy right this second, but when I get home I'll see if I can pull a few and give them to you to look at in all their glory at max ISO's. You do have to use the noise removal in ACR or Lightroom, but I don't run them through any other noise removal. too much time!