High-end sports photography typically involves a combination of expensive camera bodies with even more expensive lenses. What compromises are involved when capturing fast-moving action using equipment that doesn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars?
David Bergman of Adorama runs through some of the fundamentals of why sports photographers use such expensive gear and where you can expect to compromise if you’re not using manufacturers’ flagship equipment.
Bergman’s comparison is between two DSLRs and it’s worth noting that even the more affordable mirrorless cameras offer some significant advantages that have started to close the gap between the professionals on the pitch side and the amateurs in the stands. Firstly, burst speeds on mirrorless cameras tend to be far higher when you switch to a fully electronic shutter. This does introduce other compromises, however, such as the effect of rolling shutter that can make a tennis ball look oblong or a golf club appear curved. For many shooting situations, this won’t be an issue and any stretching might give an indication of the pace of the action rather than presenting a distraction because of how strange it looks.
Smaller sensors offer some significant advantages here and shooting on an Olympus camera might be the way to go for anyone wishing to get started. Both lenses and bodies are cheaper and far smaller than their full-frame counterparts.
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