New equipment priority

[bmcknc]

I am needing to shoot some indoor sporting events (swimming) over the next few months and am looking for some opinions on purchasing new equipment. I currently have a 1D Mark II body and the main lens I would shoot the swim meets with would be a L series 135mm f2 with and without a 1.4 converter. This is short course swimming so the swimmers are swimming 25 yard laps (not a significant distance to cover).

I am looking at picking up a 7D Mark II and a 70-200 2.8 zoom, but cannot purchase both at the same time. Would I be better off to pick up the 7D MK II body first and use the 135 or pick up the 70-200 for use on the 1D Mark II? I also have a L series 300mm f4, but am not sure how much use this would be under the lighting conditions I will be faced with.

I could be looking at several months between the purchases, and just want to get the maximum improvement in shooting experience with the first purchase.

Thanks!

[bmcknc]

Thanks RexGig for posting your experience in shooting indoor swim meets. My original post was a week or so before the meet and I went ahead and purchased the 7dII body. The particular venue was extremely challenging with a combination of poor quality overhead lighting and large tinted plate glass windows adding difficult reflections in the water. I had the 7dII only a few days before the meet and had limited time to gain familiarity (tons more options than the 1DMII). I was quite pleased with the results from the new 7dII and the 135/2. I tried a number of exposure and metering options during the different sessions.

I am a bit surprised by the learning curve on the 7DII. In particular, all of the different auto focus scenario settings will require some experimentation to determine ideal settings.

If you'd like to see some of the resultshere is a link:

http://www.qwikpixel.com/Swim-Meets/2015-BC-States

A previous indoor meet with the 1dMarkII a few weeks before purchasing the 7dII (youll see why I was looking for an upgrade!)

http://www.qwikpixel.com/Swim-Meets/Photos/High-Point-Swim-Club-2015

Looking forward to the netx two meets I'll be shooting this summer both outdoors in a pool with great color

Thanks again for your post!

[cicopo]

I hear you re the learning curve, and I've shot a lot of Canon bodies including the 1D2n (which I still use occasionally) I bought a very lightly 7D2 10 days ago & have spent most of my time learning the AF menu / selection system. I'll be using for Radio Control flying events once the season starts up again. Now I'm off to look at your photos. 

[cicopo]

I think you did very well with the new camera. Just imaging how well you'll do once you master the controls.

[bmcknc]

Thanks cicopo for your comments and for taking time to look at the photos. I'd love to see some of your RC aircraft work, sort of birds in flight on steroids.

[cicopo]

When I went to the link the first time (I looked at both links) I thought the 3rd image over looked GREAT and even though there was water on the goggles you could nearly see the eyes as being in focus. Then I looked at the other set & then back to set 1 & clicked on that image to see if it enlarged but it took me to a much bigger set & there were lots in nice sharp focus.

R/C stuff is here.    http://picasaweb.google.com/tcprcphotos

[bmcknc]

Great body of work. My brother in law does some R/C flying here in North Carolina. I may have to tag along some time with camera bag in tow.

[cicopo]

Thanks. It's great for panning practice. Unlike full scale you can get prop blur with about 1/800 sec shutter speeds but slower is better. If you want something swim related try here

http://picasaweb.google.com/CozumelTimeCapsules

I've been a water person for a very long time.

[ebiggs1]

Yes, your shots look very good, indeed.  I am surprised at the 135mm f2 but I have never been a fan of that focal length although I have two of them.  One is an old FD. It is a very good lens just doesn't seem very useful to me.

Good job by you, though.

[RexGig]

I concede that the 1D Mark II N is not a true, full generation newer than the II. Some of the menu, software, and perhaps other internal changes were quite significant, however, which prompted me to shop for pre-owned Mark II N, rather than Mark II bodies. I cannot recall many of the specifics, as that was over two years ago. I remember not wanting to have to learn a menu much different than my oldest DSLR at the time, the 5D; the 5D and 1D II N were announced at about the same time.

I got my II N cameras for birds in good light, but when I thought one of my 7D cameras might have had a failing shutter, I elevated a II N to night-time forensic/evidentiary/documentary duty, and found that a modern Speedlite will enable a II N to be quite relevant, today, in low light. (Actually, I had, somehow, fumbled a setting; my 7D was OK, but learning the II N could be so versatile was a good thing.)

[bmcknc]

Agreed that in general the 135 focal length often falls just short or long of ideal. However, for winter indoor short course swimming with a 25 yard lane length the 135/2 is a pretty nice option for low light, and the 1:6 crop factor on the 7dII bumping up the effective focal length. Switching to long course 50 meter lanes often in outdoor pools in summer, the 135 stays home in favor of the 300 for shots down the lane and I'm hopeful of picking up the 70-200 for the closer side shots of swimmers in the outer lanes.

It's going to be interesting to compare image quality between the 7dII and 1DII when using each for outdoor swim meets in midday sun. The newer camera should have the advantage, but I think I the difference may be more marginal than I was originally thinking.