What is the best Canon body for volleyball action shots (not full frame)?

[cicopo]

1D mark lV, 1D mark lll, or 7D will likely top most peoples list. If it's indoors you will need a fast lens or 2 also.

[pjmacd]

I would also look at the 70D. It has the most astounding autofocus capability, even in quite low light.

[ebiggs1]

"1D mark lV, 1D mark lll, or 7D will likely top most peoples list"

I could live with either of these, very good choices.

Personally I am not a xxD fan but depending on other issues one may work for you. The fact remains virtually any current Canon crop body will likely do admirable for your shooting purpose.

A fast lens is going to be a must have, however.

[TCampbell]

Cicopo's options are pretty good. Canon doesn't make the 1D III or IV anymore (note ... not to be confused with the 1Ds III -- which is a full-frame body.)

On the 7D vs. 70D... one factor to consider for action photography is the buffer size. When using continuous burst shooting, how many shots can you take before the buffer fills and the shooting speed drops to a crawl?

The 7D has a big advantage over the 70D in that regard, but the 70D is still high enough that you might not care. If shooting RAW shots, the 70D can shoot 16 frames before the buffer is full. The 7D can shoot 25 frames before the buffer is full. If you shoot JPEG instead of RAW then it's 65 (70D) vs 130 (7D).

At that point... I'm not sure I can imagine needing to shoot more than 65 shots in a row (I can imagine shooting more than 16 given that the camera can do that in about 2 seconds) so it may not matter. The 7D is 1 frame per second faster... at 8fps vs 7fps on the 70D.

A 1D IV will outperform them all (even faster at 10fps, better focusing system, etc.) but you'll want to pair them with GOOD lenses. Note that fast f/2.8 zooms mean that more cross-type points can be in use and even though the high shutter speeds for action photography don't typically require image stabilization to prevent blur from camera movement... the image stabilization DOES help the camera lock focus faster before you shoot.