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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [MKirk] [ In reply to ]
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MKirk wrote:
aerobean wrote:
A DSLR will certainly help her step up her game, but I think the bigger thing to consider is cropped sensor vs. uncropped. The uncropped sensor like Canon 1d, 5d, or 6d is that you will get a pretty awesome and crisp picture in all sorts of light. The beginner models are pretty simple, but they may not elevate your wife's game to a height that far exceeds that of a good cellphone camera. I'd suggest a 6d or a 5d Mark II or III. Those cameras can all be had for under $1000 (mark III might be hard) and there are some pretty affordable lens that will give you some awesome photos. I always thought there wasn't much difference between cropped and uncropped, until I got a full sensor camera and was stunned.


We are starting to get well beyond what I think he want's to do for his wife......some of these DSLR's will also start to get bigger and bulkier to handle. That being said, probably the best bang for your buck right now in my opinion would be used - Nikon D700 (full frame) and Nikon 70-200f/4....but I'm sure this is still well above your budget.

Also, unless you are getting paid for the photos, don't worry too much about how many frames per second the body can shoot. Want to learn how to be the best photographer you can? Shoot single frames and hone your skill of timing. I use to shoot sports semi-professionally back in the day and had many of my photos in many of the cycling mags back when there were actual mags. I rarely if ever shot machine gun style......


Great points and I agree completely on many points. If anyone is interested, I just remembered I have an extra D700 that I am selling. An EXCEPTIONAL FULL FRAME Body, Motor Base with inserts for both Nikon battery or AA, charger, THREE batteries and the original boxes and paperwork.
Last edited by: ggeiger: Feb 11, 19 8:39
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [lacticturkey] [ In reply to ]
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I definitely think it's about the quality of the single shot, not how many you can take in burst mode. The focal point in sports changes so much that having a burst pretty much guarantees a bunch of out of focus shots. I use a 6d to shoot sports photography for a summer camp and it produces some great shots.

For the person mentioning body weight, perhaps the sony a7r series, they take some great shots and have excellent video.

Team Zoot 2023
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [aerobean] [ In reply to ]
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aerobean wrote:
I use a 6d to shoot sports photography for a summer camp and it produces some great shots.

What lens are you using on the 6d?

To the original poster, it's the lens that is going to make the difference so put most of your $$ there. Lenses are for life, bodies are disposable/replaceable. I have a Nikon 300/f2.8vr and I could put that lens on a $200 DLSR body and the image will be remarkable! Heck, every f/2.8 or f/1.4 lens I have would take stunning images on any $200 body.
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [aerobean] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks to everyone who responded. I followed everyone's advice here and tried a few cameras before buying, looking into used cameras, etc.

- I purchased a USED Nikon D5500 with some lenses and a few accessories from someone at my workplace (different department, gigantic company, don't know him) and when I got it home it stopped working. Lots of drama with the seller but he ended up taking it back the following day. This turned me off of buying a used camera. I do buy EVERYTHING 2nd hand (bikes included) so I'm not normally against the idea of 2nd hand items.

- Went to a camera shop with the wife so she could try lots of cameras. I made sure she tried lots of the recommended cameras from this thread. She ended up really liking the Sony Alpha A6000, A6300 line. The shop had a bundle deal for a couple lenses so we ended up going that route.

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony 16-50 Lens (kit lens came with camera)
Sony 1.8/50mm "portrait lens'
Sony 55-210 telephoto lens

So far my wife loves it. The portrait lens is fun when messing with aperture so you can blur the background but really focus on the subject.
Next Monday I have a crit race that she can test the telephoto lens on.

Thanks again for all the help! Any other suggestions for lenses or other accessories that she would benefit from would be great!



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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [cbr shadow] [ In reply to ]
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cbr shadow wrote:
Thanks to everyone who responded. I followed everyone's advice here and tried a few cameras before buying, looking into used cameras, etc.

- I purchased a USED Nikon D5500 with some lenses and a few accessories from someone at my workplace (different department, gigantic company, don't know him) and when I got it home it stopped working. Lots of drama with the seller but he ended up taking it back the following day. This turned me off of buying a used camera. I do buy EVERYTHING 2nd hand (bikes included) so I'm not normally against the idea of 2nd hand items.

- Went to a camera shop with the wife so she could try lots of cameras. I made sure she tried lots of the recommended cameras from this thread. She ended up really liking the Sony Alpha A6000, A6300 line. The shop had a bundle deal for a couple lenses so we ended up going that route.

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony 16-50 Lens (kit lens came with camera)
Sony 1.8/50mm "portrait lens'
Sony 55-210 telephoto lens

So far my wife loves it. The portrait lens is fun when messing with aperture so you can blur the background but really focus on the subject.
Next Monday I have a crit race that she can test the telephoto lens on.

Thanks again for all the help! Any other suggestions for lenses or other accessories that she would benefit from would be great!

Yup, I was going to suggest a 50 f/1.8 portrait lens as it's the best $$ spent on a lens for the images it can provide......until you try a F/1.4 :) It's not a fast lens so don't look to shoot sports with it.
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [MKirk] [ In reply to ]
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MKirk wrote:
cbr shadow wrote:
Thanks to everyone who responded. I followed everyone's advice here and tried a few cameras before buying, looking into used cameras, etc.

- I purchased a USED Nikon D5500 with some lenses and a few accessories from someone at my workplace (different department, gigantic company, don't know him) and when I got it home it stopped working. Lots of drama with the seller but he ended up taking it back the following day. This turned me off of buying a used camera. I do buy EVERYTHING 2nd hand (bikes included) so I'm not normally against the idea of 2nd hand items.

- Went to a camera shop with the wife so she could try lots of cameras. I made sure she tried lots of the recommended cameras from this thread. She ended up really liking the Sony Alpha A6000, A6300 line. The shop had a bundle deal for a couple lenses so we ended up going that route.

Sony Alpha A6000
Sony 16-50 Lens (kit lens came with camera)
Sony 1.8/50mm "portrait lens'
Sony 55-210 telephoto lens

So far my wife loves it. The portrait lens is fun when messing with aperture so you can blur the background but really focus on the subject.
Next Monday I have a crit race that she can test the telephoto lens on.

Thanks again for all the help! Any other suggestions for lenses or other accessories that she would benefit from would be great!


Yup, I was going to suggest a 50 f/1.8 portrait lens as it's the best $$ spent on a lens for the images it can provide......until you try a F/1.4 :) It's not a fast lens so don't look to shoot sports with it.

Ok now I'm intrigued.. Is the F/1.4 lens better because it lets in a lot of light? That low F number means it's a brighter lense, correct?

What determines if a lense is 'fast' or not?
Is the lens below 'fast' enough for the cycling photos?
Sony SEL55210: E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [cbr shadow] [ In reply to ]
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Urgh, terminolgy soup.

In photography fast can mean 3 things. Speed the camera can take multiple shots before the memory fills up (frames per second), the speed that the lens focusses (controlled mostly by the elecronics in the LENS and the motors in the lens, and the time that the 'shutter' is open that is about the ratio of the length and diameter of the lens (the 'f' number).

So we've debated above if a f2.8 200mm lens is needed, or a f4 would do. That's about the time the shutter is open to prevent motion blurring or 'dark' underexposed photos.

The 50mm lenses are designed mainly for indoor portrait photos (ie of pets ;-) ) and there you're not needing the focus point to change by 50 metres every other shot as you may be in sports photography. So my $50 50mm canon lens takes beautiful photos of still objects, but can take half a second to actually focus. My $3500 70-200 lens is almost instant focussing - you barely notice it.

You've treat her to some great kit, she'll be able to take some great photos, just enjoy it without buyers remorse. However, get her to shoot in manual node (autofocus is fine, but set the aperture, shutter speed and ISO herself.)...... She'll get better photos very soon.
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [cbr shadow] [ In reply to ]
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Oh, and to learn what all the controls do... One of my friends did this years back and I still think it's the best example of teaching photography I've seen.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mojo74/albums/72157601430050918




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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [Duncan74] [ In reply to ]
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Duncan74 wrote:
Urgh, terminolgy soup.

In photography fast can mean 3 things. Speed the camera can take multiple shots before the memory fills up (frames per second), the speed that the lens focusses (controlled mostly by the elecronics in the LENS and the motors in the lens, and the time that the 'shutter' is open that is about the ratio of the length and diameter of the lens (the 'f' number).

So we've debated above if a f2.8 200mm lens is needed, or a f4 would do. That's about the time the shutter is open to prevent motion blurring or 'dark' underexposed photos.

The 50mm lenses are designed mainly for indoor portrait photos (ie of pets ;-) ) and there you're not needing the focus point to change by 50 metres every other shot as you may be in sports photography. So my $50 50mm canon lens takes beautiful photos of still objects, but can take half a second to actually focus. My $3500 70-200 lens is almost instant focussing - you barely notice it.

You've treat her to some great kit, she'll be able to take some great photos, just enjoy it without buyers remorse. However, get her to shoot in manual node (autofocus is fine, but set the aperture, shutter speed and ISO herself.)...... She'll get better photos very soon.


When talking of a LENS, fast means the maximum aperture, so for your 50mm f1.8, the 1.8 is the max aperture. On your zoom, the max is f4.5 at the 55mm length, and 6.3 at the 210 length (Max aperture is variable with many less expensive lenses). A major use of these wide apertures are what is called depth of field, which is relative to the lens length and the aperture. It is often used to isolate the part of the image you want to focus on. Thus shooting sports at f11 or similar apertures will have a larger depth of field (some call it depth of focus) and will likely give you less than desirable results as many distracting things will also be in focus. Practice lots as digits are cheap!
Last edited by: ggeiger: Feb 11, 19 19:58
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Re: Photography/Camera question for bike races [ggeiger] [ In reply to ]
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Great stuff. Nice kit
Looking forward to the results!
Do you get a monopod or similar. They can be handy sometimes.
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