Sometimes it really is the gear...

One of my pet peeves used to be when someone would say' "Wow! Your camera takes great pictures!" My canned reply was, "gee, your mouth says interesting things." Obviously the camera is a part of the puzzle, but most often those comments come from a person sitting next to me at a game and they have their camera set to the "green arrow". When I ask what ISO they are using, they look at me like I asked for the solution to Fermat's theorem. That being said, there are times when the gear really does make the difference. I just shot a game in the "Pit" of UMaine. This is a great venue for the audience with lots of history (and it is about to undergo a multi-million dollar renovation) but it stinks for a photographer. There were three photographers covering the game. One was shooting with a Canon 40D (school newspaper issue) with a 70-200 2.8 lens and the other had a Nikon entry level camera with a normal length zoom..maybe a 24-70 equivalent. Her longer zoom was slow (F5.6 at the long end) I was shooting with the Mark IV and the lenses I brought were the 85 F1.8, 135 F2, 70-200 F2.8, and the 300 F2.8 My settings ended up being ISO 10,000 F2.8 and 1/640 or a variation of that. I used to own the 40D and ISO 3200 was really ugly. Without the mark IV and some fast glass, I think I would have left the venue. If I was on assignment, I guess I would have stayed but I would not have been happy. Here are a couple of shots: This one is ISO 10,000 (click on the image to see it larger)

Another: Still ISO 10,000 (click on the image to see it larger)

and the last is ISO 6400 1/400 and F2.5 (click on the image to see it larger)

So now when someone says, "Man, your camera takes nice pictures!" I nod and say, "yeah, it does." Keep shooting. Peter