Michael Sherrard
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I have been renting a 1D with a 2.8/300 lens on a weekly basis to photograph high school football games. These are night games under poor light. I have been learning the camera week to week and the pictures are coming out better than I could ever believe. I love the fast focusing, even in the low light. The 1D will focus almost instantaneously on whatever is in front of the crosshairs. I have to be careful and aim well, or I get the coach on the sidelines focused instead of the action, but with practice I can turn to the action, set the crosshairs on the action, get the focus and shoot in tenths of a second. I don’t want a camera thinking for me. I want to focus on the eyes of the principle figure. And this camera can do it! The limitation is me, not the camera. The fast focus, 8fps, minimal shutter lag, big buffer, and raw+jpeg capture modes are what make this camera.
Image quality is outstanding. I have read some complaints about soft images. But understand. This is NOT meant to be a studio camera on a tripod. This is an action photographers dream. It is meant to be handheld (or put on a monopod if you have a big lense.)
And if you think the pictures are soft, get a better lens or some software. I often underexpose slightly, even using 1600 or 3200 settings so I can get 250 or 320 speed. I use Photoshop Elements and routinely use levels, unsharp mask and then crop. This gives me just what I want. I have been working with max size JPEG images so far with excellent results, and plan to go back to the RAW files for the images that I want to blow up.
Would I buy one? With the 2.8/300 it is a serious piece of equipment that requires a beefy monopod. It is a professional tool, not something you take on a picnic. Renting seems to be the way to go for my one season of high school football games. But I am getting spoiled. I may buy a 10D for my everyday camera. But I’d still rent the 1D for night football games. There is nothing like squeezing off 8fps with that shutter snapping out of the way faster than you can blink to let you now that you are holding the best sports camera on the planet.
Problems:
It took me a while to figure out how to set the manual white balance. And it is awkward to have to go to the custom menu function to be able to use the 3200 ASA mode. Finally, it took some time to figure out how to import the raw files in Photoshop Elements. But that is all part of the learning curve. There is a lot to learn with this camera. Keep the manual in your camera bag!
Image quality is outstanding. I have read some complaints about soft images. But understand. This is NOT meant to be a studio camera on a tripod. This is an action photographers dream. It is meant to be handheld (or put on a monopod if you have a big lense.)
And if you think the pictures are soft, get a better lens or some software. I often underexpose slightly, even using 1600 or 3200 settings so I can get 250 or 320 speed. I use Photoshop Elements and routinely use levels, unsharp mask and then crop. This gives me just what I want. I have been working with max size JPEG images so far with excellent results, and plan to go back to the RAW files for the images that I want to blow up.
Would I buy one? With the 2.8/300 it is a serious piece of equipment that requires a beefy monopod. It is a professional tool, not something you take on a picnic. Renting seems to be the way to go for my one season of high school football games. But I am getting spoiled. I may buy a 10D for my everyday camera. But I’d still rent the 1D for night football games. There is nothing like squeezing off 8fps with that shutter snapping out of the way faster than you can blink to let you now that you are holding the best sports camera on the planet.
Problems:
It took me a while to figure out how to set the manual white balance. And it is awkward to have to go to the custom menu function to be able to use the 3200 ASA mode. Finally, it took some time to figure out how to import the raw files in Photoshop Elements. But that is all part of the learning curve. There is a lot to learn with this camera. Keep the manual in your camera bag!