# Rented Two Cameras, Sat First Row At A Phillies Game, Should Not Have Rented a 1DX



## Hof8231 (Sep 5, 2013)

Here are some of the pictures I took. Bodies I rented were 1DX and the new 70D. Any C&C always appreciated. I posted it in the sub-forum because I'm not a photojournalist and am looking more for critique than just general sharing. Hope ya like 'em!

1. Taken with 70D with 135 f/2 w/extender






2. Taken with 1DX with 70-200 f/2.8





3. Taken wit 70D with 135 f/2 w/extender





4. Taken with 1DX with 70-200 f/2.8





5. Taken with 1DX with 70-200 f/2.8





6. Taken with 1DX with 70-200 f/2.8 w/extender






Would love to hear what you guys think as sport photography is something I'm really looking to get into!

Also, for anybody wondering, based on my experiences the 70D is an incredible crop sensor body that I love much more than my 60D. If you're on the fence about getting, I suggest trying it for yourself.


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## JacaRanda (Sep 5, 2013)

My wife just purchased the 70d and is learning the improved AF system over the T3I.  

Shot #1 is my favorite.  I would have no complaints if the combo gave me those kind of results.


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## Hof8231 (Sep 5, 2013)

JacaRanda said:


> My wife just purchased the 70d and is learning the improved AF system over the T3I.
> 
> Shot #1 is my favorite.  I would have no complaints if the combo gave me those kind of results.



I am in love with the 70D's AF. I never used the 7D so I can't compare it to that, and while it obviously wasn't as quick/responsive as the 1D, I didn't find myself missing any shots because the AF was too slow. I know many sport photographers like using the 7D, but I can definitely see a possible switch over to the 70 for a lot of them. Only 1 less FPS, a better sensor, and I actually found the touch screen to be quite helpful. Basically, in short, I'll be buying one of these very soon lol.


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## cbarnard7 (Sep 5, 2013)

Great shots!


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## Hof8231 (Sep 5, 2013)

cbarnard7 said:


> Great shots!



Thank you!


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## JacaRanda (Sep 5, 2013)

Hof8231 said:


> JacaRanda said:
> 
> 
> > My wife just purchased the 70d and is learning the improved AF system over the T3I.
> ...



Indeed!  We had been thinking about the 7D for a while.  I am glad we were patient and waited for the 70D.  The difference in build quality was not a factor either because I don't think my wife would want the extra weight.  Most of the time she has the 100-400 attached.  Now I wait and see what the specs will be on the 7D MII.  Looks like I have over a year to find out .

I actually saw a guy this weekend with the 70D and the 400mm 2.8II on it.  I hope I run into him again to get his thoughts (he had only taken 1 picture at that point).

btw, I am also using the 60D.


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## canonbraden (Sep 5, 2013)

I like them. Great job on stopping the action


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## kathyt (Sep 5, 2013)

You did a good job. I like #1, and 5.


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## Woodsman (Sep 5, 2013)

Nice job with #1 being my favorite.


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## Hof8231 (Sep 6, 2013)

JacaRanda said:


> Indeed!  We had been thinking about the 7D for a while.  I am glad we were patient and waited for the 70D.  The difference in build quality was not a factor either because I don't think my wife would want the extra weight.  Most of the time she has the 100-400 attached.  Now I wait and see what the specs will be on the 7D MII.  Looks like I have over a year to find out .
> 
> I actually saw a guy this weekend with the 70D and the 400mm 2.8II on it.  I hope I run into him again to get his thoughts (he had only taken 1 picture at that point).
> 
> btw, I am also using the 60D.



I think she'll enjoy the 70D very much. It's got the same awesome ergonomics of the 60D and better performance. I was very impressed with how well it did at a professional sports game. No way the 60D would have even come close to doing as well as this did. 



canonbraden said:


> I like them. Great job on stopping the action



Thank you! I try my best to anticipate the action as best I can. I grew around baseball so it's not all that hard for me, but once you start taking pictures of it you truly realize just how much is going on in what many people call "the most boring sport ever" lol.



kathythorson said:


> You did a good job. I like #1, and 5.



Thank you very much, I appreciate it!



Woodsman said:


> Nice job with #1 being my favorite.



Thanks!


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## matt.garnett (Sep 7, 2013)

1. I think you missed the peak action here. I don't know what the rest of the frames look like, but this is an awkward crop. The runner is still a little too far from the plate and you have cut the umpire right down the middle. At 10 fps on 1DX you should be able to get those perfectly timed.
2. Maybe it's just my screen, but the runner looks a little soft. On top of that, this image doesn't work for me at all. There is action, yes, but there is no faces and no ball. You can barely see what's happening. Not that that is really you fault based on your position, but that's not a keeper that you want to post online.
3. This image looks a little warm. Also there are no eyes. They're hidden by the cap and the caps shadows. Again, if that's the lowest angle you can get from the stands it's no big deal, but you always want to try and shoot from as low as you can so you can get up under those caps.
4. Definitely your strongest shot. I know that even in a pro stadium it's hard to shoot at f/5.6. At 1/3200 you can take your shutter down a _little. _Do that and kick up your ISO to about 12,800 and over expose the dog out of your photos. They'll look terrible when you preview them, but once you bring it over to LR or PM or PS and take the exposure down, you'll loose a ton of noise and retain a ton of detail.
5. Surely there was at least one left handed hitter? Sports photos of the backs of peoples' head don't really do anything for me.
6. This looks like a pretty big crop on the 1DX. Between that and you back-focusing on scoreboard, I'd toss this one. Had the outfielder on the left been sharp, it would've a very good photo, but since he isn't, it can't really get away with being soft.

I'm going to go out on a limb and agree with you that you probably shouldn't have rented the 1DX. The 1DX is a very complicated pro-body. You could spend all game digging around the menus. However I can't blame you for wanting to shoot on the 1DX a little ahead of yourself. I used to have my school rent me a 400 2.8 to shoot on my T2i  

I'm not a professional photographer, and I have no idea what you skill level is or where you want to take this, but I'm going to assume that you want to improve and become the best you can. These photos are very average and to me I probably wouldn't rate any of them over a star. It's okay though, because you're just starting out. You have a killer setup already. The 5D Mark III is probably the second best camera on the market right now, behind the 1DX. Just continue to practice as much as you can, because sports photography is like everything else: you need to practice it a lot to get better. Goto all the high school games you can goto. Look at USATSI and Getty and SI to get an idea of what the best in the world are doing. Keep posting your photos for critiques, and you will keep improving.

Good luck!


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## cbarnard7 (Sep 7, 2013)

matt.garnett said:


> 1. I think you missed the peak action here. I don't know what the rest of the frames look like, but this is an awkward crop. The runner is still a little too far from the plate and you have cut the umpire right down the middle. At 10 fps on 1DX you should be able to get those perfectly timed.
> 2. Maybe it's just my screen, but the runner looks a little soft. On top of that, this image doesn't work for me at all. There is action, yes, but there is no faces and no ball. You can barely see what's happening. Not that that is really you fault based on your position, but that's not a keeper that you want to post online.
> 3. This image looks a little warm. Also there are no eyes. They're hidden by the cap and the caps shadows. Again, if that's the lowest angle you can get from the stands it's no big deal, but you always want to try and shoot from as low as you can so you can get up under those caps.
> 4. Definitely your strongest shot. I know that even in a pro stadium it's hard to shoot at f/5.6. At 1/3200 you can take your shutter down a _little. _Do that and kick up your ISO to about 12,800 and over expose the dog out of your photos. They'll look terrible when you preview them, but once you bring it over to LR or PM or PS and take the exposure down, you'll loose a ton of noise and retain a ton of detail.
> ...



Matt, 

I'm struggling to understand what you mean by "peak action?" Have you watched baseball lately? 

In the first picture the guy's trying to steal second base and Hof caught all 4 main subjects (the 2nd baseman, the ball, the runner and the umpire). Sure, the umpire could have been a little more in frame, but dang, that's a pretty great shot. I actually enjoy that wide crop better than if he just got the runner and the 2nd baseman IMO. 

Second picture is Utley trying to slide into home plate with the catcher literally diving after him

Fourth picture is the second baseman trying to turn a double play.


...If anything, the last two pictures are the most "average." I'd like to see a left-handed batter in this one and I'd rather see Utley more in focus than anything.

Either way, this is pretty much as close to "peak action" as you can get IMO


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## Starskream666 (Sep 7, 2013)

I was hoping to hear why you 'shouldn't of rented the 1dx'


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## cgipson1 (Sep 7, 2013)

matt.garnett said:


> 1. I think you missed the peak action here



REALLY?   They are also sharp, with focus in the appropriate places... not bad. I took the liberty of going through some of your threads... and I feel that the shots you do for your school newspaper are not quite up to this level... but that could be the T2i you use.


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## matt.garnett (Sep 7, 2013)

cgipson1 said:


> matt.garnett said:
> 
> 
> > 1. I think you missed the peak action here
> ...



cgipson1 & cbarnard7  -- Last night when I was viewing this on my laptop all of these photos seem to be back-focused and/or soft, but when I looked at the thread on my phone earlier it showed up quite sharp and all the photos appeared much more in focus. I would like to apologize to the OP, since my tone was mainly based on this person renting some high-end gear yet not being able to hit the focus!

1. It's more of an opinion, I guess, and I would rather have a tighter crop on the second baseman and the runner and maybe a frame or two later with the second baseman reaching for the runner. Still a good shot though.
2. It is a cool picture. Technically sound, but eyes would make it more powerful.
3. WB is still off, but the photo is very sharp. Again I'd rather see some eyes
4. Good shot
5. Good stock shot
6. I like this shot, but 3 could be a little more in focus. Originally it looked like it was focused on the back wall for me.

Again I apologize for the tone of last post, I did not realize that these photos were pretty sharp until I was reading this thread on my iPhone.​


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## weepete (Sep 7, 2013)

Wow, really nice shots mate. I'd be well happy if I captured any of these!


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## Hof8231 (Sep 7, 2013)

matt.garnett said:


> cgipson1 said:
> 
> 
> > matt.garnett said:
> ...



No worries. I appreciate any input. I wouldn't post pics for criticism if I couldn't take it. I didn't take it personal. 

And thank you everyone else as well for comments! Always appreciated!


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## Gavjenks (Sep 7, 2013)

> I'm struggling to understand what you mean by "peak action?" Have you watched baseball lately?


Touche. There *is *really no such thing as peak action in baseball.

(That's what you meant right?   Right?)


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## imagemaker46 (Sep 8, 2013)

I think you did a pretty good job on most of these, considering you're also using gear that is new to you.  Of the two bodies the 1Dx is a superior camera, including the over inflated price tag Canon attached to it.  I entertained the idea of buying one last year and went with the 5D Mklll, which is pretty much the same body, slower fps, but that so far hasn't been an issue with any of the sports I've been shooting, and I have shot more than 25 different sports with it.  Sports is still all about timing and the need for 12-14fps isn't always necessary.  I have also found that photographers that lean on the shutter are compensating for a lack of understanding and experience in what they are covering.  I will add that for some sports it is *very *helpful to have the faster frame rate.

I think you should head out and shoot some more baseball once you buy your new camera, you'll only get better.


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## Robin_Usagani (Sep 8, 2013)

You should have rented a big ass lens and 1 body instead .


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## imagemaker46 (Sep 8, 2013)

Robin_Usagani said:


> You should have rented a big ass lens and 1 body instead .



With the big MP on the two bodies, I have found that a lot of the time you can get away with using a shorter lens(70-200mm as in this case) and the crops are still producing a great final image size.  However I do agree Robin, I always use a 300 2.8 and usually a 1.4 as well, it's nice to have the ability to crop, but nice to have a full frame image to work with.


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## Hof8231 (Sep 8, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback everybody! And to the person who asked why I shouldn't have rented the 1DX, it's because I really, REALLY want one now, but I also need to eat lol.

And I would have rented a longer lens, but the MLB (or at least Citizens Bank Park) has a restriction on the length of lenses (in terms of actual inches, not focal length.) I technically wasn't even supposed to have my 70-200 2.8 because it exceeded the size limit, but I hid it under some other gear in my bag. I figured since I was in the front row, having a longer lens wouldn't really bother anybody. Nobody seemed to complain and I even had a few people ask me to send them pictures I took, so that's a plus I guess


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