Just ONE camera line-up at the Olympics

[Tronhard]

This was published as part of a series on CNN's website:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/26/sport/gallery/paris-olympics-2024/index.html

This is really just one tiny reminder of the massive investment in cameras required.
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/gettyimages-2165364014.jpg?q=w_1576,c_fill 

If you saw my post in this board you might have seen brilliant images from the games published by the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-c9425ca9-5c30-4ae0-b059-3eae6abcc18f

The really do underscore the massive infrastructure supporting the sports photographers and their own influence on the Olympics.

[Tintype_18]

Thanks, Trevor. Clicked on the second link. For curiosity's sake, I looked at the prices of some of the real big lenses. I have paid less for some cars. Looking at the lineup of lenses, I'm curious why the huge lenses are used at baseball games when the photographer is along the edge of the field.

[Tronhard]

It's a big field and the action takes place wherever the ball goes, and many photographers are tasked with shooting all of the players, even in the out-field - and they want tight shots as there are interests from social media, marketing and news - nothing like catching a player leaping up on the front of the stands to catch a shot that would otherwise have been out of the park.
This image from CNN original from Kelly L Cox - USA Today, Reuters, is an example: 

[Tronhard]

In looking at these videos, and also watching the videos by BYU on their sports photography, it really drives home that their absolute priority for their cameras is to get images out to editors and agencies in as close to real time as possible. 

That means the best connectivity one can achieve and the file sizes that are suitable for social media, digital display and magazines, but no bigger (hence 20-24MP) so as not to slow down the data bus from sensor to editing suite, and not fill up cards.  In the football video the presenter is shooting 15 thousand frames in a session!  That's also a huge number of files to downsize and process afterwards, even with their Photo Mechanic software. That file size might get bigger as the data pipeline improves in speed (as it has from 20 to 24MP from the 1D series to the R1 and R3).

[Tronhard]

The compression of photo delivery timelines for Olympics: influenced by the social media revolution.
From presentation by Jeff Cable: pre-2024 Olympics

Here is the full video:

[Tintype_18]

Trevor, it would be interesting to see what the range of "mm" is for those huge lenses. My 150-600mm is big but those are huge! I note that many also use a monopod for quick shots. Tripod would be a handicap. Cheers.