Football Help

ipatry · October 30, 2012

So I recently attended my younger brothers last football game of the year. It was under the lights. I have a couple of questions. I was using an 18-135 f3.5 lens. Most shots were blurry because I was shooting without a monopod at usually anywhere from 1/200 - 1/300. I never asked but do most fields allow you to use flash? I wasn't sure so I didn't use it. Also how much will an f2.8 lens increase low light? Im torn between getting a 100-400 f4.5 or a 70-200 f2.8.... With an extender. Most games are during the day. The lens would be used for baseball to. Sorry for the overload of questions:( not sure how to post pics.

I am shooting canon t3i. hopefully picking up a 7d and new lens soon.

Thanks

johng · October 31, 2012

Not sure what the level of play is here - sounds like youth and not HS but can't tell. In most HS venues, flash seems to be allowed. But you need an external flash and you want to get it off the camera - a shoe-mounted flash will result in monster-eye - more reflection than typical red-eye so it is pretty impossible to clean it up. You should note that your 18-135mm lens is only f3.5 at the wide end - I believe it's 5.6 or 6.3 at the long end.

Unfortunately there is no one lens that does everything. Night football really does need f2.8. Not just for faster shutter but also to let more light in to help the focus system out. As for baseball - the right lens depends on the field - full size diamonds you need 300-400mm lenses if you're shooting from ON the field. If you're not allowed on the field to shoot you want 400-500mm. But smaller diamonds you can get away with 200mm. The 100-400 is a nice lens - useless for night football but it is fast to focus and has great reach so it makes a nice daytime fiield sport lens. The downside is the narrow 5.6 aperture really hurts in the subject isolation department. I prefer the more limited reach of my sigma 120-300 2.8 vs. the 100-400 (which I also own). I'd rather have a more restricted shooting range but be better able to isolate my subject. That's just my choice though. All-in-all since you don't own a sports lens yet I would buy based on what you will shoot most of the time - not one game a year. If you're shooting on smaller diamonds and can get on the field then 200mm is fine - if full sized diamonds the 200mm is woefully short. Here's a general rule of thumb - I find a 200mm lens is good for about 25 yards of quality coverage. A 300mm good for about 40 yards. Beyond that range you start to get a LOT more focus errors that show up when you crop the photos to fill the frame with the action.

ipatry · October 31, 2012

I shoot mostly my brother where I play highschool sports so I can not shoot that obviously:) I have a 75-300 right now that I got for about $300. My brother will have his last year in a little diamond this year then he moves to the big diamond. Do you like your sigma lens?? I think I need to pick up a f2.8 lens so I have low light capability. But also maybe getting a 1.4 or 2 extender? Would an extender do ok for day games? I shot pretty much all of the day games with the 75-300 baseball and football. And night games with the 18-135. I could only salvage a couple of shots at the night games. I am 14 by the way. I have been saving all my money for the past 6 months and I really need to buy the absolute right lens for my needs. I don't think either lens would fully satisfy but money doesn't grow on trees so I can only buy one.

Football Help

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