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Hi Guys,
Bit of a random question this but i was hoping that someone here is a good photographer and could give me a bit of advice.
I have just brought a canon eos 550D and it came with one kit lens (18-55mm)
What would you recommend for windsurf photography in terms of other lenses, also is it possible to get a lens which will be able to capture some good images of the main break at lancelin if i was setup on a tripod near werners hire school or is that just wishful thinking?
please excuse the ignorance but im completely new to digital photography and this is my first digital slr so just trying to learn a bit more with windsurfing being the main thing i want to photograph.
Cheers
Ali
I don't know about the distance from werners to mainbreak at lancelin but you can get some pretty big telephoto lenses for your DSLR, expect to pay over a grand for even the basic ones.
I have a sigma 150-500 mm tele zoom for my Nikon d90 and have taken some great shots with it out to about a 400m range.
The main problem with using a big zoom i have found is that when shooting from down near water level the water in the foreground tends to capture the autofocus so i switch to manual focus to overcome this.
www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/
i have found this site gives you a pretty good guide as to what quality lenses are available and their prices seem pretty good compared to other similar sites in australia.
Have fun with the camera they can be addictive when you learn to use many of the features
Back in the old days I used a 400mm lens to shoot surfing at Edward Island, wasn't really good enough, too far away, image small and even with a tripod a bit blurry, mind you I think the fastest film then was only 100 asa, so shutter speeds weren't super fast. Think a good DSLR can get much faster than that, also with modern image stabilization, motion blurring may not be so much of an issue.
I"ve used a 500mm lens at Avalon from the beach and it's not too bad, but main break is a lot further out. I think a 500mm lens would be absolute minimum.
It should be possible to work out the size of the rider one the image, just need to work out the angle of view and the distance out
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the advice i'll try and get as bigger lens as possible but looking at the prices of them (from $6000 - $11,000) it would be cheaper to buy a boat and get closer to the action 
I might try taking some pics in raw and then zooming into them as the camera is 18MP so i should be able to zoom / crop OK i hope.
The EOS550 has a 1.6x crop factor. Basically any lens you stick on the camera will result in an image 1.6x larger. So if you used a 400mm lens on the eos it would be equivalent to a 640mm lens on the film camera. You could also add to this (if you have a fairly sharp lens) with a 1.4x teleconverter - though depending on the orginal lens you might lose autofocus.
Try DWI digital cameras, is a bit cheaper than local stores. www.dwidigitalcameras.com/ lens come from hong kong, but they are very fast if the have the item in stock.
You will find that cropping will only work well if you have a sharp lens to begin with. I think you can get a 400mm f/5.6L for around 1500. The 100-400mm f/4.5-f/5.6L is around 2k. However to shoot mainbreak at lano from the beach I think you would need much much bigger than this.
Yeah I'm looking at getting a camera together aswell. Shame about the $5k to get into the game. I'm thinking Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm pancake then wait till they release a decent telephoto lens for the fourthirds.
AFAIK a teleconvertor (TC) would be the way to go to increase your lenses range but maybe a decent mid-zoom lens + a helicopter would be the better option! And cheaper lol. Check out this vid:
Yeah, FA is right...cropping doesn't work. Photos lack resolution and sharpness. See some photos I've posted...pretty poor quality when cropped. thinking the same question...would like a lens with greater reach, however the prices put on off
I'll definitely bring the camera down to the freestyle meets to get some pics of us all, really keen to get the vulcan cracked as well so its a two birds with one stone situation.
Yeah the price of getting into it is a bit crazy but then i suppose a lens with that reach is likely to cost a fair bit of money! Either that or we could buy a telescope and stick the end of the lens on it and hope for the best 
If you happen to be going to Dubai anytime soon get your gear there, got all my stuff there and for nearly half the price of getting it here, Sim Lim plaza in Singapore is pretty good too
Hi Guys,
Brought canon eos50d with 4 lenses online from states at 1/2 the price of local shop. Full manufacturers warranty and all genuine products
Cant go wrong
Link?
Did you have to pay any import taxes? I've been stung before with taxes buying OS from non-ebay stores.
I have a 40D and use a 70-200 f/4.0 for all my outdoor work.
For windsurfing, even when shooting at Pelican Pt, it's not long enough. I'm looking at hiring some longer lenses in the near future to find out what length is going to be ideal.
I'm looking at testing the 100-400, which is a good action lens, or the 70-200 f/2.8, with a 2.0x extender ring.
One of my friends has the 70-300mm and she uses it rather well for nature work.
Those 18 megapixels mean that you might be able to do some fairly serious cropping, which is the poor man's zoom.
Some examples of the shots I've done in the past with my kit.
pelican pt - http://www.flickr.com/photos/japester/sets/72157613989221723/
mettams pool - www.flickr.com/photos/japester/sets/72157623048187097/
lancelin - www.flickr.com/photos/japester/sets/72157612396390687/
The Lancelin ones were from the judging platform, not the beach and even then, there is some fairly serious cropping on most of them. :(
Nothing in our price range is feasible for shooting the waves from the beach. You'd need something like a 1200mm lens to make that work. A boat will be cheaper.
The 70-200mmL lenses are very sharp. From everything I have read they are probably the sharpest telephoto zooms canon makes. You will be able to crop down with these and primes because of the quality of the lens, lesser quality lenses wont let you crop down as much.
I have done some windsurfing crops on the 500D (15meg) with the 55-250mm kit lens, and I loose quality quite significantly (due to the lack of sharpness).
Got 40DNikon and got a second hand lens F=400mm 1:5.9 for less than $100 incl post.
Use it on tripod in manual mode and works very well.
So there might be a way to get closer for less!
The other thing to remember is that taking pics in WA after 2:30 ish in summer is pretty pointless (This gets you out from behind the lens and out there ). The sun going down into the ocean means that all you will get is white background and black people.
I have a Canon 40D and a Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=63167
see the above for the results.
I agree with the other posters, the quality of the lens will determine the level of cropping you can achieve, not the Mp count.
Sigma make F/2.8 zooms. From reviews a really good sharp lens (though it doesnt have image stabilisation) is there 120-300mm F/2.8, they also make zooms in the 70-200mm length with image stabalisation although they are not as sharp as canon's.
Some nice photos there westoz
and get a circular polarising filter. best thing for cutting the glare off the water.
