Baseball for a change

bobcool

Howdy Everyone,

I hope you're having a good day. I forgot about these baseball shots that I took back in September with the non-VR 70-300 f/4 - 5.6. For ~$150, this lens does very well when coupled with plenty of light. This game was shot in the late afternoon, making for a great diagonal light source.

-1- I like the puff of dust from the ball in the mitt...


-2- This kid had a pretty good fastball...


-3- My nephew, played catcher and shortstop...


I just bought the 70-200 f/2.8 VR in December, so hopefully these types of pics will have better bokeh when baseball season opens this spring.

Anyone else have a new lens they are itching to use once baseball season starts up again?

DJ-S1

bobcool wrote:

Anyone else have a new lens they are itching to use once baseball season starts up again?

Traded my 70-200 f/4 for a 2.8 (both non-IS). Looking forward to letting it loose!

Nice shots, makes me wishing for warm weather again -

johng

Bob,

I think you'll be stoked when you see the quality difference the 70-200 will be able to give you over the current lens. The increase in sharpness will be amazing.

One word of caution though. 200mm is a bit short for baseball. The max range for quality results is about 75 feet. Beyond that you'll start to see a fairly steep decline in quality. So choose your shot selection with that in mind (i.e. it will be tough to get corner to corner shots). You may find that shooting from the dugout area will get you better results because you're closer to the players (as opposed to shooting from corner position which will put you too far away from many of the players).

I'm also looking forward to spring sports again

bobcool

One thing I'm looking forward to is taking some pics from behind the backstop and focusing past the fence. The 70-300 G didn't focus internally, so the lens extended in and out when focusing. Now with the 70-200 VR, I'll have VR as well with no lens pooch.

I usually can talk my way into a space between the dugout and home plate as long as I'm up against the fence for the youth games. The umps are pretty laid back, but I know I'll be outside the fence for UIL events.

Here's a funny story - in the game that I shot above, one of the umps saw that I shot a play at home plate and came up and asked, "So, did he make the right call?" So I whipped the D80 around and showed him that he... didn't! Doh! The runner got under the tag but he was called out. He ribbed the home plate ump about it the rest of the game....

dbaker1221

nice shooting .....love baseball can't wait for it to start

bobcool

Okay, I know it's not an action shot, but...
Holy cow, John, you weren't kidding.

I finally had a chance to use the new 70-200 2.8 VR lens mentioned above during my son's first t-ball practice. It was just before dusk, so the "good light" was present. This was a lull in the action (what little there was) and my son turned towards the light.

I'm amazed at the sharpness, color reproduction, and bokeh of this lens - I'm really glad I spent the money. I think it'll pay me back in spades.