A bit off topic ah, let me guess, you are preparing yourself to take lots and lots of pics for the upcoming Belgium Open??..
That's actually not bad at all for such a small camera. Besides, you weren't supposed to bring in cameras unless you had a pass.
Yes, they don't allow people to bring in their camera. I brought 2 and they took one of mine . Of course I will not use flash when I take a pic in the stadium. However, I don't know why other people want to use flash as it will not be bright enough to expose the object. I think AE is more strict compare to other tournament. Do you think WC is Madrid will allow people to bring in their camera?
5 frames per second This sequence shows how timing is so important in taking a badminton photo. I thought higherfps would help a lot. Yes, it does, but not as much as I thought it would. These were taken at 5 fps. Today I went to the Canon centre in HK. Hmm, they had a lot of cameras out to play with. 1Ds Mark II and mark II N. Yucks - they felt really good! I had to put them down quickly otherwise temptation sets in.. Also setup there are the really big telephotos. I was playing with the 600mm looking into HK's Victoria harbour. I'm impressed!
Cheung, how many fps can a P&S camera do? This can be done using a continuous shooting mode. Wow, those cameras u mentioned are extremely expensive. If i want to get a DSLR, where do you think will be the cheapest and any recommendation from you?
Elwin, those pics I posted were actually to demonstrate that fps is not the most important factor. I had a 350D before but it's more difficult to take photos because the AF system is not good enough. Also, the time it takes for the camera to actually take the picture after you press the button, to me, is more of a factor. It's very important to have the right lens. All those recent HK Open pics were taken with a f2.8 lens (Red, myself, AChan etc.), Above all else, you need to learn the equipment to get the best out of it. Which means using it. 1) AF system - Canon's 20D, 30D, 400D all use the same AF system. 400D is very new - I don't if the shutterlag is longer than the 20D/30D, but it looks very promising as an entry level DSLR 2) F2.8 lenses - If you go for the brand name lenses i.e. Canon/Nikon brand, Canon is definately more expensive for the 70-200 range. The lens is all important and you should place as much emphasis on this as on the camera itself. Sigma is cheaper, Kwun and Jonassen have this lens. 3) I don't know about the Nikon D80,D200 but you should definately have a look at those. Where to buy? Can check the prices between Msia and Sing. If I remember correctly, Msia is not that different to HK for other things like mobile phones but I haven't compared camera prices. Accessories are more expensive in Msia though. Current HK prrices can be found here. http://www.ygdragon.net/index.php?page=photo/cameraprice.htm
Cheung, I think using the continuous drive mode doesn't help much under indoor condition. Moreover, I am just using a P&S camera now and I do need a tripod and at proximity to have sharp images. The current camera I got can do 2.2 fps only. Gosh, I think I need a DSLR soon. 350D is 7 point and 20D and 400D is 9 point AF. Thanks for the link and I will keep an eye on that. I am actually very hungry for a new camera already.
elwin81, cheung in right. in sports photography. continuous drive mode help a lot. with a tripod, u will only be able to solve one problem. that's the sharpness of a background. but most importantly is to "freeze the player". they are moving. by using a tripod alone. still, u won't be able to get a nice baddy shot. coz players will appear to be blurry in your picture. so, for indoor sports photography. nothing can really help other than a big aperture lenses with fast shutter speed.
Elwin, the is is the key for indoor sports. That's why the lens is very important. Without a large apeture lens, you get blurry pics for indoor sports(shutter will have to stay open longer and t'fore cannot freeze the player). Events like the badminton opens also have another quality - they have the lights for TV which means they are brighter than the average sports hall. Another lens I have is the 50/1.8. It's cheap and has a large aperture and so good as a starter lens. As for 350D, my advice is NOT to buy it. Although it is cheaper, if you really want to take indoor sports photography, it is false economy! The AF system cannot keep up with the badminton player and misfocuses in low light conditions (I know from personal experience) You can get around that by doing manual focus with the lens but I found that really difficult. And anyway, why buy an AF camera if it can't focus well in the situations you want to use it?l hehe, you'll be having a very expensive dSLR meal soon!!! Once you get started, it's almost an insatiable appetite. That's why when in the Canon shop, I had to put down the 1D series very quickly after picking them up!! [hmm, got thinking about the 1Ds mark II - sheesh, imagine full frame sensor. (hmm, tasty))
often it depends on which university your kids wanna to study the 1Ds mark II, isn't that an 'old' (2 years) dslr? any rumor of a R2 from sony?
Yes, red. Thanks for pointing that out. I really need to get a good pro camera with big aperture for badminton photography. I think what I can do now is to have setting with high ISO, fast shutter speed and largest possible aperture now until I get a DSLR. Just a question here, why P&S camera can't have aperture larger than F2.8? Cheung, thanks for the suggestion for the lens and 350D. I will note this down for future reference. But lots of people suggest 350D as an entry DSLR, maybe it is not applicable to badminton photography. So, have you sold you 350D? Yes, I will need to save lots of money and get a good camera with the accesories as I know I can't stop after I got my first DSLR.
actually, they do. there are some P&S or prosumer level P&S cameras that have f/2.0 lenses. however, the problem with P&S is not just the lens, but also the ISO setting. their sensors are smaller so noise is much worse than DSLR. so you won't get more than ISO800 or so and it looks really bad even at that.
Those people suggesting 350D as an entry DLSR are not taking badminton photos. This is a crucial point. Kwun has pointed out in this thread (a long time ago) that badminton is a really challenging sport to take good photos of. Trust me, do not get a 350D if you want to take a lot of badminton photos (except perhaps if you want to focus manually ).[Even with manual focus, the 350D is difficult because it doesn't have those things like split hair(?right term) focus screens that manual cameras have. And the focus screen cannot be easily changed on the 350D.]I passed my 350D on to some family. Given a choice, a 2nd hand 20D would be preferable to a new 350D!
yes. in fact, if you dig through the recent posts of this thread, the recommended minimum is a Nikon D200 or Canon 20D/30D class bodies. badminton is unfortunately not only the toughest sport to play, also the toughest sport to shoot as well.
unfortunately, that's a wrong term! in fact, we just simply call it split image. when i was using nikon F3 in the past. i'd changed the original split image focusing screen to a all matte with grid lines f.c. the problem of split image f.c is that. when u are using some lenses with miximum aperture smaller the F2.8. in most of the cases u will find that split image in the centre is halfly black. therefore, it lose it's function completely. with the all matte one. no matter what the lighting situations are! i can get an object in focus even more faster! that's why most of the photographers in my field those years were using all matte focusing screens instead.
