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

Viktor Axelsen - Denmark - Canon D1 mk2 n 1/400 f2.8 800 ASA

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

Fu Haifeng - China - Canon 5D mk2 1/800 f3.5 3200 ASA

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

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

Frozen Hell in the middle!

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

Jenny Wallwork

Nathan Robertson

b

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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.

Heather Olver

Mariana Angethangelou

N

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

Andy Ellis - England

Chris Adcock - England

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 - Winning the 2011 Bupa Birmingham Great Run

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

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!

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.

Falling at the first hurdle - Greg Mairs and Rob Spink

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

If all seems lost you might as well prey!

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.

Ruaraidh Sim - N.Ireland

Jack Kinmond - England

Jonathan Dolan - Ireland

James Scott - England

More English success in the girls doubles saw Becky Crawshaw and Nicole Burgess win the final 21-12, 18-21, 21-18 against Rae Lamour and Jessica Wilkins also from England.

Nicole Burgess and Becky Crawshaw - England

To see and purchase all the Action Photographs from the U17 and U13 Tournament please visit the gallery page of www.actionphotography.co.uk best regards.

Alan.