X-H2S: Sports photography x Itaru Chiba

Impression on X-H2S

The appeal of sports photography is to capture the story that the athlete is just making in front of us. I am able to tell the story through photography with my own perspective using my camera.  As a photographer in such a position, I have a responsibility to preserve the best moments of athletes.

I usually photograph football, and it is my pleasure to capture the smiling faces of athletes who make a goal with a powerful shot, the joyful moment created by a victory, or the tears of happiness by a player who has won a title. I am very happy to capture these athletes’ emotional images.
With the X-H2S, at 40 frames per second, I can capture all the moment. Even if I could shoot great moment but athletes close their eye in the image, the moment is spoiled. But, 40fps can avoid such problem. In other words, you can capture the best moments with the best expressions. Even in fast-moving sports such as table tennis, it is possible to capture the athlete’s energy and the ball in the same angle of view without difficulty.

Furthermore, thanks to the large buffer memory capacity, there is no need to worry when I have burst shooting, which is also important. For example, in the case of a football goal scene, I need more than 100 frames in the sequence to cover the players shooting and their emotion when the goal is scored. The X-H2S will be an ally of photographers who want to capture moment to tell the story in front.

To get to the sports field, the photographer carries a backpack while pulling a carrying case with one hand, and a monopod and works tool on one shoulder. The photographer’s access is naturally limited to areas outside the playing field, sometimes from the stands. For this reason, telephoto lenses are the standard for shooting. However, carrying around a heavy camera body and lens all the time is quite a challenge, even if you are used to it.

My first impression of the X-H2S was very simple: it is light. Not only does the body weigh approximately 660g, but the lens is also smaller and lighter because of the APS-C size sensor. I was surprised that even when shooting competitions such as football played on a large field, one backpack was sufficient to carry the body, XF200mmF2 lens, and 1.4x teleconverter. The X-H2S also features 7 stops of in-body image stabilization, which eliminates the need for a monopod.

Furthermore, as I often shoots oversea sports, it’s important for me to carry less equipment I can bring on board when traveling by plane. If the body and lenses are light, I can take one more lens with me.

When you go to a sports event, you will often see fans following the athletes with professional cameras and lenses. These people must want to take pictures and feel the excitement of the competition at the same time. With the lightweight and portable X-H2S, they may be able to capture their favorite athletes’ moment and their expressions with blackout-free continuous shooting, while also capturing the excitement of the sport in their own memories.

Special thanks to T.T Saitama/ Location: T.T Saitama Table Tennis Station, Urawa