sports shooter

281:365

Froze my butt off shooting Zoe's soccer game today. Another win! The girls are playing so well and I'm having a blast photographing their games and editing the images.

I am trying to convince M that I need a new camera body to get better photographs. He lovingly reminds me that I've been known to say, "It's not the camera, it's the photographer." Especially in response to people who say, "I like your pictures. You must have a good camera."

Still. My trusty D300 isn't exactly a sports shooter body, and it's limited in ISO. Greatly. I hire a great pro photog at work to shoot the important liturgical events (ordinations, solemn vows, etc.) and wondered what the hell kind of lens he's been using to catch gorgeous shots in a challenging light environment. We were talking the other day about an insanely expensive lens he accidentally left behind on the last shoot (I was explaining to him that if he's going to leave gear behind he should at least shoot Nikon, as I have no use for Canon lenses) and I asked him what glass he's using to get those brilliant images. His eyes twinkled and he said, "It's not the lens." I know my eyebrows shot up when I asked, "You mean...it's THE BODY?!?!" We then had an intense discussion about ISO capabilities and how far they've come in the last few years. I'll say. If I go up to 800 I'm sweating bullets and dreading all the damn noise that will invariably fuzz up my photographs. He's regularly shooting at over twice that and pulling clean, crisp images.

I started drooling.

So I thought I wanted the D600. Surely that's enough for me. It's already obscenely expensive but it's not the most expensive so I figured I was doing good. Then I read a review of the camera, which said that if you shoot sports at all you shouldn't get the 600, you should get the 800.

I'm wishing - or rather, M is wishing - I hadn't read that review. Chances are I'd have never known there is a huge difference. But now that I know, I'd shoot every game with a 600 wondering what shots I'm missing that I could have gotten with the 800.

Oh, the dilemma!

(I love nights where my biggest worry is imagining what kind of camera I'm going to buy next. New guy starts tomorrow, so I'm allowing myself a little breathing room already. Whew!)