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Top Cycling Photographers
Cycling seems to have more than it’s fair share of keen photographers. There seems to be far more than other sports - including sports with a far larger fan base. In fact it is rare to turn up at a race where there isn’t already someone there with camera at the ready.
I guess that must mean that cyclists have an above average interest in photography - or at least have been inspired to try to emulate some of the breathtaking shots that have been a major part of any cycling mag for years. Certainly I can still remember an historic shot in Paris Match - a huge close-up of Anquetil time trialling to victory in the Tour. Most amateurs would be happy to ever get just one shot like that in a life time - yet there are people who are expected to produce stunning images every day.
Why do they succeed when most of us struggle? Well they have that great combination that succeeds in most things - skill, experience, opportunity and resources.
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Key Photographers 2007 TdF
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L'Equipe (3)
Agence France Presse (2)
Associated Press
European Press Agency
DPPI - Paris
Photo News Belgium
Graham Watson
Cor Vos
Roberto Bettini
EFE Spain
Getty Images
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You can get an idea of who handles the images at major media events by this breakdown of the top photo assignments at the 2007 Tour de France (see panel). So that’s 3 individuals and 8 agencies with priority photo access and a seat on the motor bikes.
Graham Watson and Cor Vos seem to have had credits on top-quality cycling images for what seems like a life time but there are plenty of others. And Phil O’Connor, Andy Jones, Tim de Waele, Peter Witek and Luc Claessen are some of the more obvious ones that spring to mind. There are many more - and apologies if your favourite is missing.
Just like cyclists often need to know the exact specs of the bikes used by the top riders, photographers are keen to know what camera equipment is used. Campag and Shimano have their photographic equivalents in Nikon and Canon; who dominate the top-end sports camera market. The two brands offer a range of products of increasing sophistication with different price points (just like Campag / Shimano). For serious cycling photography my gut-feeling is that you need to aim for the higher-spec models. This comes through having tried and failed too often with the lower spec models.
Here is brief breakdown of the Canon and Nikon camera bodies that I recommend for cycling action shots -
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Cameras
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Main Features
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Guide Book
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Canon 30D - 8.2mp, 5fps, 30jpg buffer, 1.6x lens factor, 9 point AF
replaced by 40D
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Canon 40D - 10mp, 6.5fps, 75jpg buffer, 1.6x lens factor, 9 point AF
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Nikon D200 - 10mp, 5fps, 37jpg buffer, 1.5x lens factor, 11 point AF
replaced by D300
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Nikon D300 - 12.3mp, 6fps (8fps with MB-D10), 100jpg buffer (at 6fps), 1.5x lens factor, 51 point AF
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Canon 1D Mark III - 10mp, 10fps, 110jpg buffer, 1.3x lens factor, 45 point AF (the Mark II and Mark IIN are also commonly used)
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Nikon D2XS - 12.4mp at 5fps or 6.8mp at 8fps, 22-35jpg buffer, 1.5x lens factor, 11 point AF (the D2X and D2HS are also commonly used)
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Nikon D3 - 12.1mp, 9fps, 64jpg buffer, 1.0x lens factor, 51 point AF
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Canon also has the higher spec 1DS Mark II / III (16 / 21mp) and the full-frame 5D (12mp) but I have yet to hear of them being used by professional cycling photographers. Outside the big two there may be some pros using the Fujifilm FinePix S3 / S5 Pro, the Olympus E series or the Sony Alpha range (formerly Konica-Minolta) but their “market share” amongst the top photographers must be very small indeed. [corrections to the usual info e-mail address!]
Each of these cameras has an extensive specification but I have picked out these priority specs - image size, maximum frames per second, image buffer size, lens length multiply factor and the number of auto-focus points. For sports shots 8mp is plenty and the larger images just give you more scope to crop down. Even though digital SLRs have been around for a few years there are still significant improvements being made. This is most obvious with the latest Nikons (D300 and D3) where the image buffers and AF systems have major benefits over earlier models.
This is just the camera body. Both Nikon and Canon have an extensive range of lens - however almost everyone taking sports photographs has two “standard” lens at the core of their collections; the 24-70mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f2.8. These are essentially the lenses developed for 35mm bodies but updated for digital sensors. After the two standard zooms then the choice is yours - wider or longer or both?
After the lenses comes the flash gun - and the most powerful shoe-mounted model from the respective supplier is the one to go for. They are expensive but essential - even if they cannot keep up with the frames per second rate of the camera.
You can shop around for the best prices using various web sites but my favourite for the UK is Camera Price Buster. And if you don’t need to have the latest camera body then you can often pickup early example at a significant saving; but even I have taken over 60,000 shots on each of my current camera bodies so some used examples are going to be past their best.
Having got yourself a good working camera the next thing is to get out and use it - lots.
More in Part 2
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