Best Digital SLR Camera

So what is the best digital SLR camera? From a personal view, you've got two choices. Of course there are many that will disagree with me. And, I'd have to say from time to time I disagree with me as well. Truth be known, amongst professionals it is always Canon versus Nikon.

Canon is known in the sports photography arena. They offer digital SLR's with high FPS (frames per second), meaning the high end cameras are at 8-10 FPS. Canon also is notorious (in a good way) of being first to the market with high quality lenses.

Nikon is the choice for landscape and portrait photographers. When it comes to lenses that are known for having clean glass, the choice is Nikon.

High School Sports Photography

A few years ago I was bored in my job. So to break out of the doldrums, on weekends I would pick up my camera and head off to a nature park or zoo. I actually found myself taking my camera to work from time to time and spent my lunch hour walking around the city of Chicago and just snapping away. Nothing beat having a digital SLR camera where you could take image after image and get rid of what you didn't want.

My nephew played high school baseball so I would sometimes rush to the ball field with my digital camera. I was always quiet when I took pictures. My thought was that you don't want to bother anyone so I pretty much kept to myself. However parents would seek me out as I had my 80-200mm or 300mm lens attached to the camera. At the end of the baseball season I presented my pictures to the team and I was surprised when I was asked if these images could be put in the sports yearbook. Of course I said yes.

Still bored at work, out of the blue I decided to contact photographers that were local to my area to see if they might have any work. I was invited for an interview by a photographer about five miles from my home and he asked that I bring a portfolio of my work. I scrambled to put something together. At the end of the interview, he said that he had a job for me as a high school sports photographer. I guess he took one look at the portfolio and realized that I was great with action pictures but couldn't shoot anything that was sitting still. So, he didn't want any team pictures (he said he would take care of that), just action shots. When taking youth sports pictures, there is usually what is termed T&I or team and individual pictures. Team meant the kids sitting still, so I was only on individual action shots.

So, a couple of days a week I would grab my Fuji S2 Pro (not nearly the quickest digital SLR at about 2 frames per second) as well as a few lenses and flash. I had a blast. Nothing like taking pictures of high school basketball one day, track the next day, mix that up with some wrestling and soccer, and my favorite sport, hockey. I had the long lenses and the wide open aperture lenses for indoor basketball. Maybe the best part of all is that even though I would have taken the pictures for free, I was paid well for my images.

A couple of years later I found myself taking pictures of the Chicago Blackhawks and talking to the players as they left the ice. Today, a few of those same players are competing for the Stanley Cup. If you've ever thought about changing your career or following your passion into photography while making good money at it, I don't think you will find a better time if you learn how to shoot sports photography.