New to Lenses... Need Advice!!!

[Gators300]

I recently purchased a Digital Rebel and am planning on taking it to a college football game. I want to take some good pictures of the action from as close as I can, (first row) but I don't know what kind of lens would allow me enough zoom to capture the quarterback/ball carrier. I am new to all of this, this is my first SLR, so I have little to no knowledge of anything technical, but I am eagerly trying to learn. So, I would greatly appreciate any help in this matter and if you could, explain why one lens is best! Thanks a lot!

Chris

[Morden]

Indoor or outdoor?

[Gators300]

It will be an outdoor game.

Chris

[robertwgross]

Use the two opposite ends of the Canon 100-400mm lens. Use the 100mm end to shoot a team formation, and then pull to 400mm to get the end catching the pass. Then, the whole rig goes on a monopod.

Daylight, right?

---Bob Gross---

[Gators300]

Yes, it is daylight, but I was hoping to find a lens for less than a grand (!) that would do a good job. Are there no lenses that will get a good shot that are in a modest-moderate price range?

Chris

[Mark_Cohran]

Try the 75-300 IS. It's a good, reasonably sharp, Image Stabilized lens that should work pretty well for your application. It's price is well under a grand, and if you bump your ISO up to 400 or 800 you should be able to do quite well.

Mark

[ant]

i Just bought a 90 - 300 canon lense for my 300D. pretty happy with it so far. im kinda new to all this also, and found this lense for $200 AUD, and thought id get it.

[ron chappel]

Ah-you want a normal consumer zoom i think.

My experience with (many) of these types is:

Avoid:
Sigma 100-300 DL
Sigma 70-300 DL macro
Canon 90-300 (get's some good pics but makes the whole experience waaaaaay to difficult)
Tamron 70-300 DL (at least the one i used was crud)

Worth using:
Canon 75-300 (AF is sloooow but at least you get some quite good pics)
http://members.dodo.net.au/~l8r_ron/
Canon 100-300 Very nice lens.Not much better optically than the 75-300 but much better in all other aspects-focus speed,build quality,etc
Sigma 70-300 Apo macro super II I haven't used this one but many owners praise it.Could be slightly better optically than the canon 100-300 ?

Canon 75-300 IS No better optically than the normal versions but the image stabilization is very usefull in low light/non action situations.Prob not what you want

Above these ones you have to go for the serious stuff.There really aren't any inbetween options sadly. :cry:
The next ones up are: (in no particular order) Canon 70-200L,sigma 100-300/4 EX,sigma 70-200/2.8 EX,canon 70-200 L,etc,etc