What to look for when buying an SLR
The only way to get really good photos at fights is with an SLR.
It would be a waste of my time to rewrite an explanation of all the terms I use so check wikipedia or photography sites like DPReview. If you really can’t understand something, please leave a comment with a question and I’ll do my best to explain it. Also unless I specify exactly what to look for, check sites like DPReview to see how different models stack up in the areas that I mention.
High ISO performance
Although the ring isn’t really that dark usually, we need fairly fast shutter speed to eliminate motion blur. I generally shoot at around ISO1250 for smaller shows or ISO640 for big shows. Reasonably clean images up to ISO1600 and ideally ISO3200 is desirable.
Focusing
A lot of focusing speed and accuracy comes down to which lens you choose but the focusing system in the camera is also important. Generally, the more “high precision” focus points the faster and more accurate focusing will be. On high end cameras, most of the focus points will be high precision whereas on a lower end camera there may be the one center point.
I always choose the focus point myself so I get the focus exactly where I want so for me, I like a camera that makes it easy to set the focus point.
Exactly how I focus will be the topic of a future article.
Frames per second
Like I said when I was talking about compact cameras - the frames per second aren’t as important as you might think. They help a lot, don’t get me wrong but you really need to time the shots yourself. Just because can shoot at 10 frames per second doesn’t mean that the fighters will be punching at the same interval as your camera.
With that said, the faster your camera can shoot the better. I consider 3 FPS too slow, 5 is OK and 8-10 is great.
Lens options
Lenses are the most important part of an SLR setup so the lenses you have available to you is important to take into consideration. Canon and Nikon have by far the best lens selection. As they also make the best bodies for sports, I only recommend Canon or Nikon bodies.
Specifically, to get the best photos at ringside you need to have good, fast focusing f2.8 zoom lenses. From the stands you need fast telephoto lenses in the range of 300mm - 600mm.
Build, ergonomics
This really only applies if you are ringside. If you are shooting a whole event you really want something that fits in your hand well. I find the lower end camera’s too small for my enormous man hands and the pro level cameras or gripped mid-level cameras perfect. The extra shutter button for the portrait orientation on gripped or pro-bodies is also great for when things are cramped ringside.
Your camera needs to be nice and solid as it isn’t uncommon to get a stray knee or foot and I have seen lower end cameras break because of it. Try to avoid plastic where possible.
Specific camera recommendations will be the topic of a future article.
What to look for when buying a compact camera
The two most common questions I get from people about photography are:
- What camera should I buy?
- What settings should I use?
This is the first of a series of addressing those questions.
This advice is solely for getting better photos at fights. This is not a general photography guide. Basic things like discussing what “aperture” and “ISO” are is outside the scope of these posts. Again, just check any photography review site. They usually explain this kind of stuff. For things that you cant check by looking at specs alone (like focusing speed or ISO performance), check the reviews on a site like DPReview. When buying a compact camera, these are the things I recommend looking for.
Manual
Your camera must have manual settings. Fights are one of the most difficult things to shoot for a camera that is in auto mode. The ring is bright, the background is dark and the action is fast. Manual mode is usually denoted by a M in the mode selection.
Decent focusing speed
It is not as critical as most people would think if you aren’t ringside but a camera with acceptable focus speed would be ideal. A lot of it comes down to technique but generally, if you aren’t ringside drying to follow the action - focusing shouldn’t be too difficult. Technique will be discussed in a later article.
Acceptable shutter lag and buffer
Again this is less of a problem if you have proper technique, but you don’t want a camera that will force you to wait a few seconds in between shots and you certainly don’t want a camera that will wait a few seconds after you press the shutter button before it takes the photo. It would be impossible to time the action if either of these were the case.
Reasonable high ISO performance
Notice I say “reasonable” and not “good”. A compact camera has a much smaller sensor than a DSLR so the noise in high ISO photos will be much higher. The higher the usable ISO is the better you will be able to freeze the action. Usable up to ISO 1600 is ideal but impossible. Usable ISO 400 or 800 is more likely.
Note that by usable, I mean that the noise level in the photos is acceptable to you.
Lens speed
Lens speed is the maximum available aperture on the lens. Aperture is actually a fraction so the lower number is actually higher. So f2.8 is bigger than f4.
On compact cameras it is most likely that the maximum aperture isn’t constant throughout the zoom range. It will be slower at the long end of the zoom - where we will need it when we are back in the stands shooting fights. Aim for the largest aperture you can get at the long end.
Zoom range
This is sometimes hard to work out because cameras often don’t list their zoom range in 35mm terms (which is the standard).
You really need all the zoom you can get if you are going to take photos of the action. To give you an idea, I use a 520mm lens (in 35mm terms) when I am about 40 meters back at events at Saitama Super Arena. Even with using such a massive lens, I need to crop the image down about 50%.
Really it is a case of the longer the better, just watch that your lens speed isn’t too slow at the long end though.
Frames per second
Frames per second really isn’t as important as you think. Even when I am shooting with a Canon 1D mk2N which gets 8.5fps, all my best photos come at the beginning of a burst. Just because you can shoot fast doesn’t mean the camera will time the punches (or other action) for you. You really have to do that yourself.
Still, with that said - the faster that better of course.
Specific camera recommendations and SLR’s will be a topic of a future post.
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