Hello all... i am looking for a little advice from those of you that have used the 1dx, 5dm3 and the 7d cameras...
to start, i consider myself an intermediate photographer, and learning and getting better as i shoot. I mainly shoot my sons high school sports (baseball, football and basketball). I also shoot cars and landscapes (still learning to shoot these better) on occasion. I started back in the day with the 20d and have moved up throughout the years to my current set-up.
I currently own at this time the 5dm3 and 7d bodies. At one time i had two 7ds, but needed to get higher ISO performance for our high schools football stadium's TERRIBLE lighting conditions. So i sold one of the 7d's and bought the 5dm3. Now i am lacking a little on FPS when shooting baseball with the 5dm3. I didn't have this problem when he was playing as a youngster with the slower action. Out of a hundred batter shots, i might get 2 or 3 with the bat on ball perfectly. So, i think i have decided to make the leap and purchase a 1dx to get the higher FPS.
here's my question for you... which body should i, or would be the best compliment, keep when i get the 1dx the 5dm3 or the 7d I REALLY like the 5dm3, but selling that one would sure help in the pocket book when i buy the 1dx..... OR... sell both and just use one 1dx?
OR... am i just nuts
any help, advice or suggestions is greatly appreciated...
My suggestion, sell the 7D and get the 1D IV to partner the 5D III. A lot less money than the 1D X, a lot more reach when FL limited, gives you the extra speed you miss in the 5D III, and still has excellent IQ even at high ISO. I'd always rather have two cameras than one. The one advantage of the 1D X is the same AF system as the 5D III so customizing them is almost identical. 1D IV + 5D III is pretty darn good combo IMO.
Are you dropping the 5D3 and spending all that money on the 1DX primarily to get more BOB shots? I'm not sure that's necessary. You're only getting 2-3% success now shooting at 6 fps, so at 10-12 fps you'll get what, maybe 5% max?
I think you'll find much better success trying to time a pitch with a single shot. I started doing that when I only had a 10D, and still do that now with the 7D. And I consider my success rate much better than 5%.
I think you'll find most of the sports forum guys will say to practice timing BOB, not relying on fps. If you go that route, you could keep what you have now, and upgrade lenses (not sure what you're using now). A 300mm f/2.8IS would be very tempting instead, if you don't have one already.
If the "reach" of the 5D3 is adequate for you now then I would keep it over the 7D. Better for you landscape shots or a more general travel camera. Also would depend on your lenses, do you have a lot of EF-S lenses?
Pixel Perfect wrote:
My suggestion, sell the 7D and get the 1D IV to partner the 5D III. A lot less money than the 1D X, a lot more reach when FL limited, gives you the extra speed you miss in the 5D III, and still has excellent IQ even at high ISO. I'd always rather have two cameras than one. The one advantage of the 1D X is the same AF system as the 5D III so customizing them is almost identical. 1D IV + 5D III is pretty darn good combo IMO.
+1
This is the route I'm taking in the next few days after much deliberation. I was tempted to put all my eggs in one basket and sell my 1D IV and 5D II to get a 1D X. However, I just can't bring myself to sell my 1D IV as I think it's a great camera with fantastic image quality (among other things), but the 5D II AF shortcomings drove me mad sometimes, plus I also like the extra 'reach' the 1D IV gives me. A 1D IV and 5D III combo would pretty much give me the best of both worlds.
I'm about to sell my 7D and for now I'll keep 1D IV even though I have 5D III and 1D X. I'm willing to give up the reach of the 7D for the better IQ of these larger format cameras and 1D IV will still be my choice for many situations where I'm FL limited.
im with msalvetti, i think getting your timing right (with practice) will net you more BOB hits than just throwing FPS at it .
I mean if your just going to throw FPS at the 'problem' then surely you'd be better getting one of the 4K video bodies which allow you to pull a single frame (at 8mp) out of the 24 (or is it 30) fps.
im sure the 1Dx is a great camera , but i wonder what extra % chance of hitting the BOB would be gained from the extra 2 fps over the mk4 .
1adam-12 wrote:
Out of a hundred batter shots, i might get 2 or 3 with the bat on ball perfectly. So, i think i have decided to make the leap and purchase a 1dx to get the higher FPS.
Even the 1DX isn't fast enough to get bat on ball other than by chance. The best bet for that is to just single shot time it. Yeah you certainly won't do it every time (but hey it just makes it more special when you do).
I bet you'd need a good 60fps for the camera to help do it for you often.
1adam-12.....I just moved from two MKIII's and previous, the MKIIn to a MKIV and the 5DMKIII.
I shoot mostly motorsports and wildlife
I can say that this combination is great!!! While I still would like the 1Dx for frame rate and slightly better ISO for doing my night racing action...the combo of these two is super!!
While I'm still learning the focus system of the 5d3...the ISO performance is super and the focus in low light is great. The MKIV handles low light better that that of the MKIII's and the focus is spot on and fast.
I still have a "pro" body at 10fps and a 1.3 crop factor as well as having full frame high ISO performance that will do fairly well in even racing scenario's.
My learning curve on the MKIV is that I can't push over exposure as far and recover like I could with the MKIII's (really helpful at harsh noon light), but I'm getting there.
Currently I find this a VERY satisfying setup. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss more off line.
onesickpuppy wrote:
1adam-12.....I just moved from two MKIII's and previous, the MKIIn to a MKIV and the 5DMKIII.
IMO that's the sweet spot right now. If I didn't need the 1DX's higher ISO performance for my low light sports work I would have kept my 1D4 and added a 5D3.
First of all... THANK YOU for the advice and recommendations.... The main reason i am considering moving up to the 1dx, is the 12fps the camera offers... some have suggested i practice at "timing" my shots to get the bat on ball shot i am striving to get more consistently... I have tried this many times, and while i do get the occasional shot, it is very rare for me.... the reason i thing the 12fps is going to help me is while i don't get bat on ball often enough right now... when i do miss, it is usually not by much... i get the ball in the frame many times... usually just out front of the bat... so the logic behind my wanting to go with the 1dx is that... if i am just missing at a high rate with 6fps, wouldn't the 12fps rate give me a 50% better chance of getting the bat on ball
So, I think i have pretty much convinced myself to get a 1dx... now my dilemma is which of my current two bodies should i keep the 5dm3 or the 7d?
Again, i really appreciate the feedback and comments offered up !!!!!
In general, I'd say keep the 7D, but you're probably going to buy the 1Dx for telephoto work, which means you will probably want something like a 24-70 on the second body...which should probably be a full frame camera. And if you're using the second body for nighttime sporting events, you're going to want good ISO performance. Sooooo, I guess I'd recommend keeping the 5D3 as a second body.
I have both the 1DX and 5DIII and 1DX is an awesome camera. You could also try "timing" your batting shots but keep both eyes open. I sometimes have a hard time doing this since I'm shooting from a wheelchair but when I can it's nice, viewfinder and whole picture with my left eye. Timing seems better this way.
Who's this Bob guy? I here those type of insults in the snobby Wedding forum. Get what you want and enjoy them while learning.
Your description of how you think your chances would improve if you had 12 frames per second is not real clear. The theory is that if you go from 6 fps to 12 fps, your chances would double. So your self described 5% keeper rate would go to 10%. A 1D4 at about 10 fps would be in between. If that gain to 10% is worth the extra $5,000 to $7,500 in cost to get or upgrade to a 1DX, go for it.
The 1DX is a very very nice camera, and I am glad I got mine when I did. I rarely use all of the 12 fps, but I really like the excellent autofocus, the low light performance, the very accurate auto exposure, the full frame, and all the little things like the built in camera level. But I do not like hauling around a big pro body on hikes or holding it for long periods of shooting, which is why I also just upgraded my 5D2 to a 5D3. A 1DX plus a 5D3 is a nice pair, but do not ignore the used 1D4 option, which is a very nice camera for action, and has that extra reach.
the 5dm3 or the 7d