Nikon for sport?

[Jeff Donald]

The press corp shoots with what they are given in most cases.  During tight economic times, newspapers (or corporate owners) don't have huge budgets to replace hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, in lenses etc.  Nikon was the first on the scene with affordable DSLR (original D1) and the papers snapped them up.  Now they are stuck with slower performing, lower resolution bodies.

However, when you view any major US sporting event, it's usually a sea of white (Canon), super telephotos lenses and an occasional black tele belonging to the few remaining Nikon shooters.  The superior Canon telephotos (all IS) out perform Nikon's long lenses.  For several years an ever increasing number of pros have switched to Canon for the superior optics and more varied line of AF lenses.

[Tony Collins]

It was noticeable that nearly all of the pros at the British cycling championship today were using Nikon dslrs. Is this merely a carry over from when they used film or does Nikon have an advantage in this application?

[sergio]

I recently switched to Canon after many years of being a Nikon user and found that Canon has better autofocusing for this type of aplications.

[Tony Collins]

Thankyou. That explains it. Incidently whilst still making up my mind on a DSLR I was shooting with an Olympus C2040Z. having blagged a press pass through some occasional writings for a British cycling magazine. Despite the camera's very obvious deficiencies in speed I still managed to come away with some good shots and sold one to a local newspaper. (Silver medallist was a fellow Devonian).