Canon camera for indoor equestrian.

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niv2

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David
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I have been using my 50d for external showjumping and dressage but the indoor season approaches and I know that I am going to struggle to get good results indoors (I managed ok last year with the 50d but I felt I was on the limit of the camera at times). The 50d works fine for me outdoors.

I do not need fast burst rates as I tend to use single shot only.

The 1d Mkiv is an obvious choice but is way above budget. I guess I am looking at the 7d or 1d MKiii.

7d is no heavier than my 50d whereas the 1d is quite a bit bigger and heavier.

7d is also likely to be slightly cheaper than a 2nd hand 1d MKiii.

Which will give me good real life results indoors for equestrian?
 
If you can keep the 50D outdoors and you are only going to be shooting single frames, then I'd have a serious look at a 5DMkII for it's high ISO capacity.


Failing that the 7D and MkIII aren't exactly worlds apart when it comes to ISO except that the 7D has an extra stop in hand.
 
I've had great results with my 50d at indoor show jumping. I normally use it with my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8. Will post up some images in a few mins...
 
odd jim said:
I've had great results with my 50d at indoor show jumping. I normally use it with my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8. Will post up some images in a few mins...
Click to expand...

I've had reasonable results but ended up having to do a lot of NR. Also depends on how well lit the venue is!! Some are really dark as you probably know!
 
Here's some all shot on the 50d with very little NR (only slight chrominance adjustment before conversion). All converted with Canon's DPP which is bar far the cleanest high ISO raw convertor for Canon kit;

50d, ISO 2500

Alana jumping 2 by Odd Jim, on Flickr

50d, ISO 1600

_MG_6569 by Odd Jim, on Flickr

50d, ISO 3200

George jumping 10 by Odd Jim, on Flickr

Depending on who I was with, I've also shot with both the 5dmk2 (which I thought would be the holy grail) and the 7d so I feel I can comment! The 5d was impressive with its high ISO but indoors it wasnt the jump in improvement I had hoped. I found the AF while OK, would hunt a little with the Sigma which it didnt do with the 50d, and of course its only 3 fps. The overall best IMO was the 7d. Very good high ISO with the best AF and a very good FPS. That would be my choice but I'm moving away from equestrian stuff now so I'm re-assessing my kit requirements!
 
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niv2 said:
I've had reasonable results but ended up having to do a lot of NR. Also depends on how well lit the venue is!! Some are really dark as you probably know!
Click to expand...

Yes indeed! Thats where the 5d2 should have come into its own but this is where I found it hunting with the Sigma, but switch to the 50d and no hunting which was strange. When the 5d2 did lock and track the resulting shot was better of course, but the keeper rate was lower with the 5d which had me scratching my head? Probably user error though! I wish I could have had a bit more practice with the 5d2 but it wasnt to be! One thing I did find shooting inside with an FF body, the 70-200 range was far more 'usable' if that makes sense, as sometimes for the closer jumps 70mm on a crop is too tight, whereas on the FF body I found I was able to effectively use the whole range.
 
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The 5D2 hunts a lot more in low light than my 7D does. Back button focusing helps a lot with the 5Ds, so you can prefocus for a jump and then just take the shot. Depends a bit on your required output size but I'd say the 7D is probably good enough at high ISO even though the 5D2 is clearly better still.

If the crop factor ruins your chances for good shots, get the 5D2. Otherwise the 7D or 1D3 is a personal preference thing.

I need a full frame camera with 7D autofocus and 5fps, c'mon canon!
 
I've used the 1dmk3 and the 5dmk2 indoors recently and to be honest it's swings and roundabouts. If it's a dark indoor arena, which most are this time of year and going into the winter months, you're either going to have slow AF on the 5d from the lack of light or grainy shots from the 1d.

I've shot up to 6400 on both bodies and I think I prefer the 1dmk3. Reason being it's better to have an in focus grainy shot than an out of focus noise free shot.

But ultimately going in to winter as much as I'd like to be indoors and dry/slightly warmer, I'd prefer to be outdoors where the light is better (albeit gloomy requiring a higher iso) it'll maximise your keepers and at the end of the day profit. But then that wasn't your question :D
 
I shoot stressage tests for the wife's riding club and have recently done an indoor event and found the 7d with 70-200 f2.8is to be a bit unpredictable , the results were just haphazard. I was sat in the same spot for hours and the horses tended to keep to the same track and the hit rate of sharp, useable pictures ranged from 90% on one pass to 50% on another.
I'm looking at changing the 7d for indoor shooting
 
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