Looking for lenses f/2.8 (for sports/action)

dylansdigitals · September 6, 2008

I am breaking into sports action photography and am looking for a good lens. I need to get soccer and football pictures. I have a 70-300 4-5.6 LD currently but it does not get me quite close enough and I can not shoot once the sun starts to set.

The other one is indoor gymnasium (basketball, volleyball) - what is the optimum lens for indoors, poor lighting?

Thanks:scratch

dylansdigitals · September 6, 2008

Looking for lenses f/2.8 (for sports/action)
I am looking for a good zoom lens to shoot football, soccer, basketball, volleyball and baseball. Does anyone have or know where I can get a good fast zoom that we can be happy with?

Thanks

davidweaver · September 6, 2008

I'm a fan of the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8. But for basketball and volleyball you probably want something closer to a 70-210 or 80-200.

It would help if you told us what body you were using as the DX and FX formats also come into play here.

Cheers,
David

dylansdigitals wrote:

I am looking for a good zoom lens to shoot football, soccer, basketball, volleyball and baseball. Does anyone have or know where I can get a good fast zoom that we can be happy with?

Thanks

Art Scott · September 6, 2008

With your D50 I would opt for a Sigma 70-200 f2.8....you can usually find good used ones on Ebay as well as here and other forums.....if you go ebay just be sure and use PayPal and also buy their warrnty if you can.....I have purchased strobes offebay that were more than 5 yrs old and got replacement insurance for almost notheing................

donek · September 6, 2008

If you're looking for 1 lens to do it all, it's not likely to happen. Your best choice is a 70-200 f2.8 for the darker outside games. A good flash will be a big help at those night footbal games and may be a good option for your indoor games. Further reach in an f2.8 lens means a prime that's too long for your indoor stuff and will run several thousand.

For the indoor stuff, you have a couple options. You could go with prime lenses such as 50 f1.8 or f1.4 and 85 f1.8 or f1.4. Shoot at ISO 1600 or above with a very shallow depth of field (less than f2 is probable). The other option is to invest in a couple flashes and radio triggers with your 70-200 f2.8. If you go for less expensive flashes, you can likely get away with under $150 each. Catus (or e-bay) triggers are very inexpensive. Out of 3 receivers, I have one that doesn't cut it at more than 20 feet (the other two are fine throughout the gym). I just ordered another received and transmitter for my other camera body($30). This second option assumes you are allowed to use flash in your gym.

It sounds like your 70-300 isn't reaching the action because your not getting close enough. Are you on the sidelines? You need to be.

You should do all right with that lens until dusk if you push your ISO up to 1600. What body are you using? Don't be afraid of iso 1600. A well exposed image at high ISO is far better than an underexposed one at a lower ISO. There are lot's of good noise reduction solutions. If you're looking at improving the ISO capabilities of your camera, it looks like Nikon's D90 is on it's way. Looks like it has the D300 chip performing up to iso 3200.

DoctorIt · September 6, 2008

I've moved your post out of the flea market and into Cameras. Come on back when you have a specific lens in your sights.

EDIT: I've also just merged together your thread from the sports forum. Hope you don't mind, I'm just trying to help by keeping all your replies in one place. We have a small helpful community, so no need to cross post, thanks.

Also, as already mentioned, give us some more detais... like:

what's your budget? the 70-200/2.8 VR is one of the best lenses, period, but not everyone has $1600 to spend on a lens.

Looking for lenses f/2.8 (for sports/action)

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