[Recovered Thread: 55622]

[zwdb08]

I AM FROM Minnesota and want to purchase a dslr to photograph my kids in sports .I am no pro but would like to get a camera ,lens set up that would allow me to achieve a good 8x10,11x14 or larger print size . IS there a camera/ lens set up you recommend ? I would be shooting softball, wrestling, volleyball,and football. I have been looking at the d70, and the 20d .I thought the d-70 would be a little cheaper and allow me to spend the extra on a better lens.But everyone tells me that the 20d will blow it away for photo qaulity as it has two extra meg ,and shoots faster at 5fps ,and can go upto iso 3200 I think ....Is there that much difference between them ? Thanks Bill B

[djb]

correct me, folks, if i'm wrong, but, Canon also has more image stabilized lenses than Nikon. that only matters if you need IS or VR in Nikon terms.

dennis

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Bill,

I have a Canon 20D and I shoot sports for a local town paper.

The Nikon has one advantage that it can do flash synchronization up to 1/500th, and the Canon only up to 1/250th. So if you ever want to do a little "fill flash", you're slightly more limited with the Canon.

The 20D has the ISO 3200 feature which is very handy for indoor shots.

The 20D has two extra meg, which doesn't necessarily mean it will "blow away" the D70 for image quality, but certainly the extra 2 meg means you can shoot wide and crop later and still have lots of file size to print a nice enlargement.

The D70 or the 20D will produce a great 8x10 enlargement.

The 20D is good for about 4fps, but to be honest, I almost never use it. I think it's more imporant to get a good composed shot than to rapid fire and hope to get something good out of it.

Here's an example of what the 20D can do for you (keep in mind this is a 100K file size image scaled down for the web, whereas the orginal file size was 2mb).

-- Terry

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Bill,

Oh yes, lenses.

Well, you have a pretty wide grab bag of sports you want to shoot.

For indoor sports like volleyball and wrestling, the light is probably going to be low. You want to get a pretty fast lens, like f2.8 or faster. As for focal length, it depends how close you can get to the action. If you can get right beside the court or front row on the mat, you could get away with a tamron 28-75 F2.8zoom or something equivalent.

I have the 28-75 Tamron, which at first I liked, and now I love. The shot above was taken with it. I have quite a few "keepers" I've taken with this lens.

As for football, you will need a long zoom, something like 300mm (equiv. to about 400mm with the 20D crop factor) to reach the action. If you're shooting night games, then you could need a really fast lens, which could cost huge dollars.

So there is always compromises to make. No matter which DSLR you buy, you will likely eventually want to own two or three lenses. That's the whole point of having a camera with detachable lenses.

-- Terry

[bugshutter]

Thought Id represent the D70 Bill.:-) Terry presents some really nice photos with the Canon. This shot was taken with the D70, and a 70-300G lens. Im pretty much happy with the camera. Im not sold on the 2meg difference as a blowout though. Infact I have a 4meg Olympus E-10 that has produced some stunning 20x30 enlargements.

I pretty much left this shot intact with no crop because everything seems to go.

[PeterP]

One of the biggest differences is not only the ability to do ISO 3200, but to do ISO 1600 and 3200 relatively cleanly.
The new Digic II processor is quite amazing in its abilities to pull out high ISO low noise images.
I also believe, and I can't for the life of me find the link, that the 20D has a better dynamic range than the D70.

The D70 with its older technology starts to get quite noisy when you get to the top of its ISO range. It is still a very good camera though.

Peter.

[bugshutter]

Thisphoto was shot indoors with no flashinadvertently at ISO 1600, D70 with 50-1.4. I thought the noise exceptance spoke volumes.

[bugshutter]

This photo was magnifide 300%. I would say the D70 would stand up pretty well at its top ISO1600.

[thatsanicepicture2]

OH NO !!! A Canon vs Nikon fight is brewing....

I will not contribute too that but here is some links to reviews:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/20d.html

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_...nikon_d70.html

There's a lot more out there on the net.

dale

[thatsanicepicture2]

You should post this question in "What Camera Should I Buy?" forum. It's
the first one in forums.

dale