by Andy Johnson
Earlier this month around 1400 professional photographers descended on Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Earlier this month around 1400 professional photographers descended on Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Armed with a range of high-performance cameras these pro-level sports shooters witnessed the world’s best athletes competing for gold in Brazil.
They captured shots of Usain Bolt’s historic 3 gold medals for the third Olympic Games in a row; the treatment of French Pole Vaulter Renaud Lavillenie by local fans; and Australia’s nail biting one point loss to Spain in the basketball.
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| Figure 1 Usain Bolt competing in the mens 100m at the Rio Olympic Games Photographer: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images |
Not only did they share those moments with us in the media and on the internet but they did it all within minutes of it happening.
To ensure they are prepared for anything that might happen on and off the track, Olympic Photographers are seasoned professionals with years of experience and the industry's most cutting edge cameras and lenses at their disposal.
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Figure 2 Photographers
at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games
Photographer: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images |
Both Canon and Nikon set up support facilities at the Olympics, offering professional services like sensor cleaning and camera maintenance. They also offer equipment hire to news professionals and as a result they often take a huge amount of equipment to the games.
Canon alone stated they sent almost 1600 lenses and 900 DSLR bodies to Rio, with an estimated total value of $7.8 Million dollars.
If you’ve ever wondered what $7.8 Million of Canon gear might look like? Check out the pictures below, but be prepared they might inspire strong feelings of gear envy.
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| Figure 3 The Canon Professional Service Back Room at Rio 2016 Photographer: Jeff Cable |
On the surface it might look like the world’s worst documented case of GAS, or Gear Acquisition Syndrome, but it is it is in fact the Canon storeroom at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Jeff Cable, an American Photographer snapped some pictures of Canon’s Professional Services back room while he collected some rental gear. He managed to capture a mouth-watering collection of EOS 7D Mark II, 1DX Mark II, and 5DSR cameras, along with a ridiculous number of Canon telephoto lenses, tele converters and other highly desirable pieces of kit.
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| Figure 4 High end lenses and camera bodies fill the room Photographer Jeff Cable |
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| Figure 5 Not only Bodies and Lenses, the back room also stores hundreds of extenders, flashes and other accessories Photographer: Jeff Cable |
Nikon was also boasting an impressive stockpile of gear and Belgium photographer Vincent Kalut was lucky/sneaky enough to take some pictures in their Olympic backroom.
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| Figure 6 Nikon's formidable Olympic gear room Photographer: Vincent Kalut |
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| Figure 7 Boxes of D5 DSLRs for use at the Olympics Photographer: Vincent Kalut |
With such a high demand for captivating pictures Getty are focused on getting the best gear possible for their staff photographers and money appears to be no object.
Michal Heiman the Director of Sports events for Getty took a photo of the lenses the company shipped over for their photographers and it was an arsenal of high end glass.
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| Figure 8 Getty prepares for the Olympics by sending high quality Canon lenses Photographer: Michal Heiman |
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| Figure 9 Getty's full armoury as tweeted by their Director of Sports Events Photography: Michal Heiman |
But don’t let this vulgar display of optical power get under your skin; these guys still have one of the hardest jobs in the industry.
With the incredible technological advancements in recent years, from quicker autofocus tracking to fast drive modes allowing up to 16 frames to be shot captured in a second, you’d be forgiven for thinking the job of professional sports photographers is getting easier.
In actual fact they have never been under more pressure in today’s cut throat world of sports photography.
Shooting, editing and sending off to the media outlet within 15 minutes is no longer quick enough.
Getty claimed to have the ability to send images from camera to their media customers in as little as 59 seconds.
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| Figure 10 Getty photo editors prepare images for publication onsite Photographer: Michal Heiman/Getty Images |
Rio set the bar for sport shooters by using hard wired connections in the stadiums that allow pro sports shooters to be tethered onto a direct network, so as soon as the shutter slams down the image is already being copied to a network drive.
Photographers don’t even have the luxury of editing their own images anymore; the competitive nature of the industry has created an entirely whole new role of onsite photo editors who can start editing the shots as soon as they upload from the camera to the network drive.
Getty Images installed 100km of fibre optic cable to ensure that the cameras are copied over directly from the photographer’s cameras as soon as possible. Associated Press have 56km of cables connecting their photographers to their team of editors.
So what does the future hold for professional sports photogs?
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| Figure 11 A robotically controlled camera |
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| Figure 12 A remote robot camera captures Germany's Jurgen Spies during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Photographer: Pool/Getty Images |
