The Confession of a Canon User
I’ve been a Canon user since I bought my first digital DSLR nearly 15 years ago.
Don’t tell my wife but I bought a new camera this spring and it’s the Nikon D500.
I am a professional photography and while I make the bulk of my money from photography by doing team and individual photos for youth sports leagues and schools, I also love shooting action sports. Usually high school and middle school games. I have made a little money over the years shooting games for newspapers, but the money does not come close to paying for my Canon 1DX.
The new Canon 1DX, body only, costs more than $5,000, which is about the same as what I paid for my original 1DX about six years ago.
I justified paying for the 1DX because I was shooting a lot of weddings at the time and the high iso performance of the 1DX made it perfect for taking photos at dark reception halls. Plus it is great for shooting night games.
Because the camera is more than six years old, I pondered replacing it with a new body. Since the 1DX II body costs more than $5,000 and I’m no longer shooting weddings, I really couldn’t justify spending that much on a new body.
I looked for the best semi-pro body for shooting action sports.
The professional bodies for shooting action sports are the Canon 1DX II and the Nikon D5 QXD, which sells for more than $6,000.
The semi-pro bodies are the Canon 7D II and the Nikon D500.
I own both of these camera bodies, so let me tell you which one I prefer by looking at specs of each camera and my experience in the field.
This review is strictly aimed at those who want to shoot sports. That’s what bought the camera for and it is the primary backup to my Canon 1DX.
Listed Specs:
Canon 7D Mark II
- 20.2 MP CMOS sensor and ISO 100-16000
- High speed continuous shooting up to 10.0 fps
- 65-point all cross-type AF system
- Stunning Full HD video with Custom Movie Servo AF (speed and sensitivity)
- Dual Pixel CMOS AF enables you to shoot video like a camcorder
Nikon D500
- 20.9MP DX-Format CMOS Sensor.
- EXPEED 5 Image Processor;Monitor Size : 3.2 inches diagonal
- 3.2″ 2,539k-Dot Tilting Touchscreen LCD
- 4K UHD Video Recording at 30 fps
- Multi-CAM 20K 153-Point AF System
- Native ISO 51200, Extend to ISO 1640000
- 10 fps Shooting for Up to 200 Frames
- Built-In Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC
- 180k-Pixel RGB Sensor and Group Area AF
- In-Camera Time Lapse, Up to 9999 Frames
Price:
The Canon 7D II body only lists for a little more than $1,000. It’s hard to beat that price for a camera that is targeted for the semi-professional market.
The Nikon D500 body only lists for a little over $1,500.
Speed:
Both of these cameras list a shooting speed of 10 fps (frames per second). That probably sounds fast if you are coming from a Canon Rebel or similar entry level camera that shoots at 6 fps.
However, I am used to a camera (Canon 1Dx) that shoots 14 fps and the Nikon D5 will shoot 12 fps.
There is a notable difference between the speed of the Canon 1DX and both the Nikon D500 and Canon 7DII. When you are trying to get the perfect timing of things like the bat hitting the ball or the football touching the receiver’s fingertips, those couple of extra frames can be all the difference in the world.
Autofocus
The Canon 1DX and Nikon D500 have similar autofocus performance when dealing with action sports in the low light of a night game or indoor sports like basketball or volleyball. I can’t speak to the performance of the Nikon D5 because I’ve never used one, but I understand it has the same autofocus system as the Nikon D500. In fact, that’s why I invest in a Nikon D500. It was announced at the same time as the professional grade D5 and it has the same auto focus system.
They both have 99 Cross Type focus sensors and 153 focus points.
During my use of the D500 shooting basketball games in low lighting, I found great focusing with the camera, even though I wasn’t using any of the expensive Nikon lenses.
Since I previously only owned Canon cameras, I had to by some Nikon lenses.
I bought a Tamron 70-200 f2.8 IF lens.
With the D500’s crop factor of 1.5, this lens was almost too long for basektball, but its price tag of $769 was amazing and I found it pair well with the D500.
When the spring sports season came around, I invested in a Sigma 150-600 5.6-6.3 DG lens and I am blown away by the reach of the combination of the D500 this Sigma lens. With the D500’s crop factor of 1.5 this lens is the equivalent of 225-900. When you’re shooting daytime sports, there isn’t a shot that is too far away.
High ISO performance
The high iso performance, focus speed and frames per second are the three most important things to consider when comparing camera bodies for action sports use.
I got used to using the Canon 1DX at 8000 iso for sports and getting photos out of camera that need very little noise reduction.
At first I was disappointed with the Nikon D500 image quality, but after some research I so figured out it just had different noise that the Canon cameras and I just had to learn how to deal with it in Lightroom.
With the Canon 1DX 8000 iso was about as high as I could shoot before things started falling apart. ISO 10,000 was usable, but not without some work.
However, what made me decide to buy a D500 was an image posted online of a basketball photo shot at ISO 20,000. It looked amazing. I didn’t see any noise at all. I know my Canon 1DX would never be able to shoot at ISO 20,000.
I had also hear some professional photographers mention they had shot some images at ISO 20,000.
I started using the D500 at my basketball shoots and I was disappointed. After doing a lot of web searching on raw processing of the D500 files, I learned settings that gave me great files at high ISO.
In fact, I did a girl’s high school payoff game in a gym that had what you could only describe as “mood” lighting. It was very green and very dark.
I ended up shooting at the game at ISO1600, f2.8 at a shutter speed of 1/1000.
I now know that the D500 will shoot in places that other cameras fear to go.
EXIF Data for basketball photo.
Model: NIKON D500
Serial #: 3054610
Firmware: Ver.1.15
Frame #: 3297
Lens (mm): 70
ISO: 16000
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/1000
Exp. Comp.: 0.0
Flash Comp.: 0.0
Program: Manual
Focus Mode: AF-C
White Bal.: AUTO0
ICC Profile: sRGB Profile
Contrast:
Sharpening:
Quality: RAW
Weather sealing
The D500 also has a weather-sealed body that is made from a magnesium alloy chassis and carbon composite body. Weather sealing means you won’t ruin the camera if you’re shooting in brief rain showers and will hold up to years of shooting outside at dusty sports fields.
Conclusion
To me, the Nikon D500 is a great choice for action sports photography.
When I consider if a camera body is good for action sports, I have to consider:
- How fast will it focus and keep the focus of people running at you?
- How many frames per second will it shoot?
- How good is it’s high ISO performance?
The D500 ticks all of the boxes.
While it won’t shoot as many frames per second as the Canon 1DX or Nikon D5, an experienced sports photographer won’t have any problem capturing the action.
The focus system on the D500 is that same as that on the D5, and I think it is also about the same as the Canon 1Dx.
Where the D500 shines, is it’s high ISO performance.
I also love the fact that it has a crop factor of 1.5, while the Canon 1DX is 1.3. That gives you lens a little more reach. Some people see the crop factor as a negative, but when you are shooting sports, it can be an advantage.
That extra reach makes me want to go out and buy the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM sports lens before this fall’s football season.
Just don’t tell my wife.
