Cheap Canon body for surfing photography.

Matthew Grey

Matthew Grey

Messages
29
Name
Matthew Grey
Edit My Images
No
I've been shooting landacapes for some years with my aged EOS 6d mk1. An old body but it does all i needed...until now.

I've found myself more and more shooting surfers from the shore/cliffs/dunes etc... I have a 150-500mm lens and 1.4x adapter but my camera being full frame misses the reach of a crop sensor, and it's focusing is definitely lacking when tracking distant, moving objects.

So, I'm after a very cheap sub £200 body, obviously used, specifically for surf photography.

I'm leaning towards an EOS 7d but open to any advice. Even if you want to tell me to spend more money....not much more though please.
 
It has been a while since I used Canon (from 1989 to 2016 and most disappointing body was the 7D as it was a very IMO noisy sensor compared to previous and later bodies I owned.

I gather that the 7D mk2 has a much better sensor in regard to noise.

In some ways again IMO the 40D had some of the nicest clean raw files of any (at that time?) crop sensor files.
 
Thanks.


I did consider a 7Dmk2, but it's beyond what I wanted to spend. I get the comment about the 40d, I have a 50d knocking around somewhere, but both of these lack the number of cross type focus points on the 7d.
 
Box Brownie said:
It has been a while since I used Canon (from 1989 to 2016 and most disappointing body was the 7D as it was a very IMO noisy sensor compared to previous and later bodies I owned.

I gather that the 7D mk2 has a much better sensor in regard to noise.

In some ways again IMO the 40D had some of the nicest clean raw files of any (at that time?) crop sensor files.
Click to expand...
Have to agree, I had an 80D and it was far better to me.
 
I much preferred the 7D ii to the mark 1, but if it too expensive then the mark 1 is the obvious choice. It is noisy so you will need to be very careful with the exposure. Modern noise reduction software should help.
 
I have used a 7D mk 1 and 2 for still and moving subjects a lot before I went full frame, I didn’t have any issues with the image quality from either but you had to nail the exposure, i used plus a third exposure compensation
I did find the 7D mk 1 not so good for moving subjects the focus struggled to track , may have been me but I found the mk 2 a big improvement
Agree about the 40D really nice files
 
I'm not totally familiar with your camera, but I am a Canon photographer with 77D, 80D, and 90D experience. When shooting moving, especially distant shots, if your camera has back button focus capability, hold this button in as you are preparing to take the shot. The lens will continue adjusting focus and be in focus when the shot is taken. The half press of the trigger button focuses the lens, then shuts off, waiting for you to press the trigger button further to take the shot, and if using only this method, the surfer will be out of focus when the shot is taken. Back button focus tracks the surfer and keeps him in focus right up to the point when you take the shot. I think you will get much better results this way.

Charley
 
I too would avoid the 7D unless you're confident that you can nail the exposure every time.
I had one and laterly an 80D. The 80D was far more forgiving, albeit not so sports focused (it does have more focus points, but is 1fps slower).

That said, given they are about £150 on MPB (other second hand sellers are also available) I would hazard a guess you could re-coup maybe half of that selling it back to them if you don't get on with it, so maybe it's worth a punt if you're confident in your ability to nail the exposure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top