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]

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.

[ebiggs1]

"... I think I the difference may be more marginal ..."

Are you in for a surprise!  But you are right "marginal" isn't the right word. 

[cicopo]

Although I haven't had time to really run my 7D2 through it's paces re fast moving targets I'm very impressed by the few test shots I've taken including one last night using the built in flash, 100-400 L IS (ver 1) in very poor light. Focus locked on & the flower detail is amazing. I'll have to compare some similar shots between the 7D2 & 1D4 to see how close the images are but for now I'm happy with what I'm seeing.

[bmcknc]

I hope you are right ebiggs1! A big surprise on the upside regarding the 7dII vs.1dII daylight image quality will be very welcome. I have certainly seen this already in low light high ISO, no complaints there. Still, every time I load a raw image shot in daylight with the 1dII into Lightroom, I'm amazed at how little needs to be done.