First hockey px w/new 7D

cmkultradome

Just upgraded to the 7D on New Year's Eve!! Took it out of the box on Jan 2 for the first time. These were from my son's hockey game. Didn't get any great shots but was very happy with the performance of the 7D especially in regards to the autofocus and the way it handled a high ISO. My other camera is a 40D and I was a little nervous to look at these px thinking, I just spent all this money, will I really see a difference. I definitely noticed a difference, even my son commented when looking thru the px (he wanted to know if I did something different to them - he didn't know I got the new camera). Pictures below taken with the 70-200 2.8 at ISO 4000 thru the glass. They have been run thru noise reduction software but there really was a significant difference with noise in the original files. With my 40D I would usually shoot at 3200. There was much less noise on the 7D at 4000 than with the 40D at 3200. The camera tracked really well in AI Servo mode and I had many more in-focus pictures. Can't wait for my other son's gymnastics meet in 3 weeks.

Stephanie

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6

aktse

looking good to me

Enjoy the camera!

slipkid

Nice
Those look real nice, enjoy the new toy.

BradfordBenn

Looks really nice to me, really like #3.

JSPhotography

Nice shots. Glad you are liking that new 7D. I have my first working event this weekend using my new 7D upgrade from a 40D.

cr8ingwaves

looks like a very good combo. Glad to hear everyone saying they are happy with their upgrades. Soooo close to being ready for my own.

CFPhotography

These look good to me, although I think on the last one, you could crop just a bit tighter to remove the left arm and leg from the other player on the right, kind of takes away from the action in front of him.. keep up the good work!

cmkultradome

Thanks for the comments everyone. I am really excited about the camera. Two more hockey games this weekend (if they aren't cancelled because of snow). I really can't wait to see how it behaves next week at my son's wrestling meet in the extremely poor lit gym and then also at the gymnastics meet in two weeks (I'll be using the 85 1.8 for those two events).

Chris - that last one is one of my favorites (that is my son in the white). I agree with you on the crop - when I post to Smugmug, all of my px are in a 2:3 ratio. I'm using that px on a poster for him, and I did crop out that player on the right.

Stephanie

BayMare

Stephanie, those are terrific shots! The faces are so sharp and the colours are vibrant. Your son and team mates must be very pleased.

I have a 40D and take a lot of shots each week for a minor hockey team my husband works with. The best I can do is use my 85mm at f/1.8, 1/400 and 800 iso. Any other combination doesn’t work as well and that is the only fast lens I have.

Were you able to get good shots with the 70-200 2.8 with the 40D? I am leery of raising the ISO as I get a lot of noise that does not disappear well, even with ACR in Photoshop. At this point, I don’t know if I should save for the fast lens or if I should be saving for a used 7D. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Myra

cmkultradome

BayMare wrote: »

Were you able to get good shots with the 70-200 2.8 with the 40D? I am leery of raising the ISO as I get a lot of noise that does not disappear well, even with ACR in Photoshop. At this point, I don’t know if I should save for the fast lens or if I should be saving for a used 7D. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Myra

Myra - Thanks for the comments. I guess "good shots" is all relative. I was happy with my pictures with my 40D, as were the high school & college players and their families. I was shooting at 1600 & sometimes 3200 depending on the lighting in the rink. There was definitely a ton more noise than I am seeing now with my 7D but I ran all of my px thru Neat Image noise reduction software and that seemed to help with the 40D. If you want to look at any of my hockey px from the 40D you can find them here: http://gyshwysh.smugmug.com/Hockey. Any games before 1/2/11 were photographed with my 40D and the 70-200.

The evolution of my equipment is as follows: started with a Rebel & kit lens, then bought a used 70-200 2.8 (non-IS) to go with it (3 yrs ago), then sold my Rebel and upgraded to a 40D, bought an 85 1.8 (for gymnastics & wrestling), and finally upgraded to a 7D. Just my opinion and others may disagree, but I would save for the 70-200 2.8. That lens is useful on any camera. Who knows once you get the 70-200 and start saving again, I'm sure Canon will have a new camera model out and you can either start saving for that or a used 7D. Good luck!

Stephanie

Freezframe

IMO The 40D is OK!

BayMare wrote: »

Stephanie, those are terrific shots! The faces are so sharp and the colours are vibrant. Your son and team mates must be very pleased.

I have a 40D and take a lot of shots each week for a minor hockey team my husband works with. The best I can do is use my 85mm at f/1.8, 1/400 and 800 iso. Any other combination doesn’t work as well and that is the only fast lens I have.

Were you able to get good shots with the 70-200 2.8 with the 40D? I am leery of raising the ISO as I get a lot of noise that does not disappear well, even with ACR in Photoshop. At this point, I don’t know if I should save for the fast lens or if I should be saving for a used 7D. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Myra

Hello Myra:
I've raised four boys in Canada all in Hockey! I switch from film about 8years ago. I bought a 30D where at that time the difference between film grain (noise) was huge, and got great results with the 30D in rinks whether hockey or lacross. I've own sense then a 40D,50D,and a 7D,and I can tell you with confidence that you will get great results with the 40D with a 70-200-2.8. One thing I do now,and have practiced always is use a custom white balance for that rink you are in. This will make a world of difference in detail as well as noise. 1600 ISO will be no problem to fix with any noise reduction software.

Good Luck:

Brady

Freezframe

Whites are a little blown! (over exposed)
You've done a great job here indeed. This is a fast game and it's very hard to get the perfect shot, so you will have to rely on some post process. Try to keep the puck in every shot especially with a goalie. Also try not to be to tight to the play you'll drive yourself crazy because of the speed through the angle of view. AWB works good, but a custom WB works better.

Good Luck:

Brady

cmkultradome

Freezframe wrote: »

You've done a great job here indeed. This is a fast game and it's very hard to get the perfect shot, so you will have to rely on some post process. Try to keep the puck in every shot especially with a goalie. Also try not to be to tight to the play you'll drive yourself crazy because of the speed through the angle of view. AWB works good, but a custom WB works better.

Good Luck:

Brady

Thanks Brady - While the best shots are ones with the puck in it I'm just an athlete-mom trying to get photos of all the players on the team. A lot of times I'm not even following the puck because I'm watching one of the other players who I do not have a lot of px of. The players and player's families just like to see their kids faces and the fact they are playing in the game. My favorites are always the ones with the puck in it (although I do have to say that on the high school team, the players like to see the physical side of the play regardless of if there is a puck in the shot). I have always overexposed vs underexposed my shots at the rink - I think it helps with the amount of noise if I'm not going to get the exposure perfect right out of the camera. I also expose so you can see their faces. If anyone wants to buy a px or if I use it for something (program, poster, etc.), I do quite a bit of post processing. Since I shoot in RAW, I re-create two .jpgs of the photo, one exposed for the players face and the other for the ice. Then I merge them together. The shots above are all cropped to some degree (but as far as PP they were just tweaked a little in Canon DPP before converting to .jpg) - another reason why I like the 7D, seems like the image doesn't de-grade as much when cropping (I'm assuming its because I have more MP to work with). Thanks for the advice - my son's team is pretty bad this year and taking px at least lets me enjoy the game even when they are getting blown out.

Stephanie

BayMare

Thank you for taking the time to reply, Stephanie. I had a look at your hockey and other galleries. What beautiful work!

Looks like I'll be saving the pennies for the 70-200L. I'm not too worried about the IS as I tend to use high shutter speeds (dogs, horse sports, hockey...) and I have the 85mm 1.8 for other things.

Enjoy your new camera!

Myra