Monday 29 March 2010

Old Dog New Tricks

I have been following a trend for the past couple of weeks where I'm trying my hand at different sports. I've had quite a bit of experience at shooting ice hockey so, over the past two weeks, I've also been out to the football at Woking and gone off to Wimbledon for some banger racing. I've learnt plenty of new sports photography skills - especially moving my camera quickly, fast focussing and snapping in a hurry - and I'm pushing my D80 as hard as I can. Its low light performance isn't as good as the D700 or the D3, but it's just about good enough for me.

The cricket season is about to start in April, and it's rather unlikely I'm going to be able to get my hands on a 400mm lens. I might see if I can get hold of a teleconverter to make my 200mm into a 400mm f/5.6 - it might just be good enough on a sunny day, that way - but I've gone & spent all my money on a new SB600 flash and a Manfrotto monopod. One other thing I've learned over the past couple of weeks - a D80 with an 80 - 200mm telephoto lens on it is *heavy*!