Another which camera question...

[El Nebuloso]

OK, a friend of mine is asking for advice on what camera to buy. He is looking for something for shooting his son's gymnastic competitions - you get the idea, poor lighting, long range, no flash allowed, moving subjects - pretty much worst case. He'll need a short shutter lag and would like something with ~3 fps (or more).

My first question to him was, of course, what is your budget? His answer was tell me what you recommend and that will become the budget. Well I'm sure that a Nikon D3X or Canon 1DS MK III with a 200-400 mm 4.0 would do the trick but I'm guessing that in reality his budget is somewhat south of that threshold. So here are my questions:

1. What lens would be best with an entry level DSLR (70-300? - too slow?)
2. Is there a superzoom bridge camera that might work? I'm not familiar with these so I'm totally out of my element here.

I'm sure I'm leaving something out here, but I've already blathered on long enough.

Thanks!

 

[boBQuincy]

A workable combination might be Canon's Xsi and 70-200 f/4 (not IS). The combination can be had for about $1200. The 70-200 is sharp even wide open and is much smaller/lighter/less expensive than the f/2.8 version.

Anything less than this may be too far out of it's element to get really good photos under those conditions.

 

[VVFF]

A workable combination might be Canon's Xsi and 70-200 f/4 (not IS). The combination can be had for about $1200. The 70-200 is sharp even wide open and is much smaller/lighter/less expensive than the f/2.8 version.

Anything less than this may be too far out of it's element to get really good photos under those conditions.

I don't think f4 is gonna be enough to stop the motion of gymnasts. He'll definitely be using the highest iso's and that's limited to 1600 on the XSi. I would actually suggest the 2.8 version if not a prime if he can walk around but I doubt he can.

or he could get the f4 w/ the 5D and utitlize the high ISO's provided by full frame cameras.

 

[GrumpyOne]

Assuming he mostly wants the pictures for memories, web-shots and/or small prints, he can probably go with something less than the ideal (D700 with 70-200 f/2.8), more like a 50D with either a f/2.8 zoom or maybe a couple of good primes at various focal lengths, say 85 f/1.8 and 200mm f/2.8.

If he's serious about money not being an object then the D700 will vastly outperform the 50D.

If he wants keepers that are more than snapshots, he won't want to use the highest ISO on the camera, it's almost always too grainy for anything other than shrinking down really small so what he needs is highly dependent on what he wants the final result to be.

 

[El Nebuloso]

Thanks for the input I think I'll point him in the direction of this thread, I'm sure it will help.

 

[mabas9395]

Since you want the fastest shutter speed you can get, I used my 85mm f/1.8 when my daughter was in gymnastics. Better results than my 70-200 f/2.8.