Yonex All England 2012 – Canon 5D MK2 test

Hi Everyone,

Just a few thoughts on shooting the 2012 Yonex All England Badminton Championships on a Canon 5D MK2.

Now I have the London 2012 Olympics confirmed, I feel that I need to upgrade my ageing Canon D1 MK2n. With neither the 5D MK3 or the D1 X yet available, and rather than hire the “old” D1 mk4, I went for the 5D mk2 instead.   (I really wanted to see what a full frame, 21m camera could do compared to the 8.5m of the D1).

I know this camera is not really supposed to be any good for sport, especially one that is as fast as badminton and under quite poor light as well! but I thought I’d give a go anyway. If this went well I might consider buying one, at less two thousand pounds compared with thee and five for the new MK3 and D1 X, it could turn out to be a bargain!

So how did it go? well the simple answer is yes it is a great camera! and used carefully capable of producing stunning images. True the auto focus is not perfect, but then no camera is.

A back to back comparison of two images, one with my D1 mk2 n

Then below the 5D mk2. ( images are cropped and shot with the 70-200 2.8 IS). To see the full image please go to www.actionphotography.photoshelter.com and visit the Yonex All England Galleries.

Both images are fine but whth the D1 mk2 I’m having to shoot at around 1/400 – 1/500 at f2.8

I could easily shoot at 1/800 – 1/1000 at f3.5 or even f4 with the 5D mk2, making it much easier to get better quality images more often.

I suppose it would be nice to have the extra frames per second that the D1 X will offer and with the 5D mk3 getting the same auto focus system as the D1 X things are looking good for London 2012 – can’t wait!

Ciao

Alan

National Badminton Championships 2012

Congratulations to Liz Cann and Rajiv Ouseph, on both winning their Fifth English National Singles titles at the Bolton Area.

Great to see one of my photos used on the cover of  International Badminton Magazine, plus quite  a few more inside, link to view an on-line version here:-      www.isportgroup.com/InternationalBadmintonMagazine-March2012

The rest of my photos can be viewed and purchased at    www.actionphotography.photoshelter.com

Less than two weeks to go before the 2012 Yonex All England Championships at the NIA in Birmingham, perhaps your best if not your only, chance to see the best players in the World, before the Olympics in London.

Regards

Alan

Olympics 2012

Can’t Belive it! In the middle of really busy week I finally got the news I’ve waiting for, I’ve been accepted as a photographer for the Olympic Games 2012.

I as you would expect, I’m over the moon, ever since I first starting photographing sport at the age of 14 or 15 this is the one, the one that every sports photographer dreams of.

I will be covering the Badminton at Wembley, no real surprise there! 19 years after photographing the World Badminton Championships in 1993 (as well the Worlds in 1995,1999,2003,2005,2007,2011) and every All England Championship since 1994, I guess all the hard work has paid off!

I feel it only right that I thank everyone who has supported my efforts over the years especially my wife Sue my kids Rob and Jenna, and of course my Mum and Dad who brought cameras/lenses and god knows how many rolls of film in the early days.  Sadly Mum passed away last November, but I’m sure she’s smilling in Heaven – thank you all.

Alan

Hell Has Frozen Over!

Its official, Hell has frozen over! well at least for the 1,500 or so competitors in the Hel-in-the-middle event, Cannock Chase, 11th Feb 2012.

Braving minus temperatures and ice 2-3 inches thick, these hardy souls pitched themselves against the freezing weather and the devil himself to complete the 12 mile course.

Thanks for Rob at RandR phototos, it was great oppotunatiy to get out and get some good images. For the website and photo sales visit:-

http://www.hellrunner.co.uk/hell-in-the-middle/

Best regards

Alan

Swedish International

ENGLISH BADMINTON received a big boost this weekend at the Swedish International in Stockholm, First Jenny Wallwork and Nathan Robertson won the mixed doubles title beating the Danish pair Mads Pieler Kolding and Julie Houmann 21-17 21-17.

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Then Mariana Anglethangelou and Heather Olve took the Women’s title beating the American pair of Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana 21-15 21-12 in just 36 mins.

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Canon D1 X

Rushed in to Calumet Birmingham this morning. 9:05 am “Your the first person in the UK to get to hold one of these” Said the Canon rep, The new Canon D1 X, full frame DLSR.

Having not upgraded my D1 mk2 n for a mk 3, I was on course for D1 mk4, then  to my surprise Canon announces the arrival of a camera that will not only replace the mk4 but also the full frame mk3s, could this be the future of photography? I think for many pros that answer will be yes. if you ignore the Nikon v Canon debate and forget the megapixel race. I sure this will in time become the most important product that Canon has ever produced.

This is not a in depth report on the camera, just my thoughts on spending a few brief moments with one of the pre-production models. I wanted so have a quick hands on play with the camera while I had the chance. While I spend a lot of my time shooting sports in low light I’ve never really worried about really really high ASA speeds, I rarely push mk2 n above 1600 ASA (just hate the quality of the images). But I can now see why this camera will become a “must have” piece of kit – In the low light of the shop I took my mk 2 n along  to see how it would fair side by side – f2.8 and 1/320 at 1600 asa (mk2n) compared to f2.8 and 1/2000 (or even 1/4000) with the D1 X ! this is going to be a real game changer.

Can’t wait until March 2012.

Regards

Alan

English Men in Paris

Andy Ellis and Chris Adcock are the last English players still standing in the Yonex French Open 2011.

The pair beat the current Olympic Champions Makis Kido and Hendran Setiawan  21-17   21-19  to go in the quarter finals in just 31 mins.

Haile Gebrselassie

A Chance to photograph probably the greatest long distance runner of all time, is an opportunity not to missed, especially when its in your home town.

I hadn’t realised just how popular Halie is not just with his fellow Ethiopeans but with  the crowed and all of the 15,000 other runners taking part that day, I’m sure they all will remember the day they ran with Haile Gebrselassie.

Pretty happy with my crossing the line shot, just a pity the finish line was not another 15 feet further where the low sun was coming in from the side.

This with another 8 images published inAthletics Weekly

27/10/2011 – three pages sandwiched between AW regulars Getty Images and Mark Sherman.

All the best of my images from the event can be view here: http://actionphotography.photoshelter.com/gallery-list

Best regards

Alan

Yonex Shoot

At last a phone call I’ve been waiting for a long time, “Can you shoot some of the Yonex GB players for us?” Sure when? “Monday, straight after the English Nationals”. OK see you there.

Hopefully a chance to do something a little bit special for the number one badminton company in the world. With Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White having won the Women’s doubles title for the first time the day before, this would be a really great time to get them both in front of the camera, not that photographing Jenny is any hassle at all, to be honest stopping Jenny smiling is the biggest problem!

Down and Out in Belfast

Or the on going adventures of Rob Spink and Greg Mairs,

Hopes were high as we flew into Belfast to meet up with Greg, to take on the Irish on their own country, Alas any thoughts of taking home any precious metal from the U17 Gold event were soon dashed when first match opponent’s Jonathan Dolan and Adam Jermyn proved just too strong, the match being lost in two games 17-21 and 18-21.

 

However in their next match the English pair managed to rescue some pride, coming out on top of a very tight match against Matthew Getty and Martin Lau 22-20, 13-21, 24-22

Rob had a tough singles draw losing both his matches, Greg faired much better winning his group before losing to number two seed and the winner of Rob’s group, Ruaraidh Sim 16-21, 3-21.

 

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