sports photography

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sonic freak

sonic freak

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I was just wondering why more pros don't shoot nikon at sporting events. every place i look, including last nights ducks vs. canucks (NHL), I see canon. no nikons in sight. i went down and talked with the guy shooting at the hockey game. turns out he is a staff photog for Sports illustrated. he just said canons are better.

i'm sure it's comparing apples to apples at that high level (D200 and above for Nikon, D30 and above for Canon) but does canon have a slight edge when shooting sports if the frames per second are the same?

literally everyplace I look in pictures nowadays from snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, baseball (angel stadium) hockey (mighty ducks), football, etc, are shooting canon.

Just wondering why it SEEMS like the majority shoot Canon.

peace!
 
Every pro DSLR goes up to 1/4000 sec or something, even faster. In a normal hockey game you get up to 1/500 or 1/1000 at best (and that is fast enough).

I would say that the reason for Canon dominance is:

- better ergnomics
- better sensors
- less noise at high ISO speeds, important in sports (especially with 1.-2. generation cameras)

In our company Canon/Nikon/Minolta film camera user ratio was 9/8/1. After going digital 4 years ago the ratio is now 17/1/0. More or less the same thing in all photo agencies and publishing house I know.

Canon had a head start in digital because they had a big office machine departement and high level of expertese in electronics. EOS-1D 5 years ago was clearly better than anything Nikon had to offer and Nikon has not yet recovered. And even if Nikon did catch up there is nothing spectacular in sight that would cause companies to switch after such high invertments to lenses.
 
As a previous shooter of Nikon and owner of their first pro digital SLR, I switched to the Canon line when they came out with their first EOS1D, it surpassed Nikon at the time in all way's, speed, functionality, etc. At one point Nikon even made a public statement that they were not going to compete which I think may have startled thousands of pro's and consumers. They have of course changed direction on that stupid thought but now play catch up.

If I was to start from scratch now I would probably go back to Nikon, I think there glass is better and now their flash technology is superb. The above link for Dave Black is great example!

Just my opinion!
 
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