sports lens

[npuckhead]

Good morning,

I am a relative newbie who is falling in love with this great hobbie. I am currently shooting my kids sports events. As you all know a 70-200 f4 is not cutting it in many of these basketball caves although it works great for the soccer pitch and baseball diamond. I am thinking of upgrading and have two choices that is I see: Purchase the 85 1.8 or sell my 70-200 f4 and move up to the 70-200 2.8 (stretching the budget a little). Is there another route I should be thinking?

- How far will I be able to shoot with the 85 1.8 from the corner of the court? Only the lane and that side of the court?

Please share your wisdom with me.

Thanks?

[JoYork]

Well it's fairly easy to answer the last question - set your 70-200 to 85mm and have a look!

It's hard to know what to recommend without getting an idea of how dark it is. Can you take your nifty fifty there and try different apertures and ISO settings until you find a shutter speed you're happy with?

[royv]

the 85mm will do really well for Basketball, no doubt.
The 70-200 2.8 would be a more varsatile choice, however f/2.8 might not cut it in some gyms...

[drandtus]

Puckhead, I have the 85 and the 70-200 non-IS. Honestly, the 70-200 still doesn't cut it in most gyms. I'm still shooting with a 350D. I'm not sure what you acceptable ISO is. That may help you out. That being said the 85 1.8 is a great lense, but you're gonna have to get close. My son wrestles, so I am often in some caves. The 85 1.8 is also a fantastic portraiture lense.

If I could do it over, I would have purchased the 70-200 IS. That probably would have been the better option for indoor sports/reach. Get both :)
Of course, that why I have a non-IS 70-200 AND and 85 1.8.

JoYork has a great idea. I owned the 50 1.8 before all the other stuff. I actually have a lot of wrestling keepers from that, but I was really close. I found that acceptable shutter speeds were above 500, 1/640 being optimal. That really pushed me towards the 85 1.8, because of that extra stop. Hope all this helps.

[JC4]

1 stop of light with the 70-200 f/2.8 will likely not be enough, so look toward primes that give you two stops or more.

Look through your shots. See what focal length you use most often. Chances are either the 85 or 135 will do the trick. You'll end up with some shots that are tight on the near end, and need cropping on the far end, but I bet you'll end with more keepers than your f/4

[Paul S]

Good morning,

I am a relative newbie who is falling in love with this great hobbie. I am currently shooting my kids sports events. As you all know a 70-200 f4 is not cutting it in many of these basketball caves although it works great for the soccer pitch and baseball diamond. I am thinking of upgrading and have two choices that is I see: Purchase the 85 1.8 or sell my 70-200 f4 and move up to the 70-200 2.8 (stretching the budget a little). Is there another route I should be thinking?

- How far will I be able to shoot with the 85 1.8 from the corner of the court? Only the lane and that side of the court?

Please share your wisdom with me.

Thanks?


Shooting indoor sports with a 70-200 2.8 lens.

I'm fairly new to this but this past fall I purchased a new XTI and tried shooting swimming meets. Wow there was much to learn!
I quickly order a 70-200 2.8 lens. I'm very happy with this lens. I have also been shooting basketball. Yes 2.8 is a little dark and 85mm 1.8 would be my first choice after reading all these posts.
So I do a quick adjustment in PS and they look fine ( there for the local paper) So this lens is a very good all around lens for HS sports.

[danielyamseng]

70-200 f2.8 is great if you use it for zooming.But 85 f1.8 is lighter and has larger aparture.

[Paul S]

70-200 f2.8 is great if you use it for zooming.But 85 f1.8 is lighter and has larger aparture.

I would agree. It would be nice to have both :D

[chalib_alex]

135L ;)

[SoundsGood]

Anyone find a prime to be too restricting for sports, since the players tend to be here, there, and everywhere?

[chanth99]

since we are already on the subject of shooting sports.. i am interested in shooting football (that is soccer to some).. and i know someone who'd like to sell his Bigma (sigma 50-500) at a rather affordable price.

my question is.. will this lens be adequate for shooting football in various light conditions ? and it's probably worth mentioning that this is purely for hobby.

[JeffreyG]

Anyone find a prime to be too restricting for sports, since the players tend to be here, there, and everywhere?

Field sports? Yes a zoom is better. Otherwise you will want at least two bodies.

Indoor sports? Primes all the way. If you know the game and can anticipate where to sit you will get lots of great shots without having a zoom.

If f/2.8 is too slow (and it usually is unless you are shootiong college or pro) then you will get zero shots.

I have found myself at ISO3200 and f/2 to get 1/320 in some places.

[kidpower]

"Anyone find a prime to be too restricting for sports, since the players tend to be here, there, and everywhere?"

Not even the slightest concern whatsoever. I don't try to capture every shot and everything that happens at every minute. I wait for the action to come to me in my zone. If I need to go outside "my zone" I do (I just have a little cropping to do). I have never experienced a shortage of photo opportunities at any sporting event (crowd, cheerleaders, the game itself, etc.). Basketball, for example, if I sit at halfcourt with the 135L on a crop, the whole court is my zone.

Everyone approaches shooting differently.

[coleygm]

Good morning,

I am a relative newbie who is falling in love with this great hobbie. I am currently shooting my kids sports events. As you all know a 70-200 f4 is not cutting it in many of these basketball caves although it works great for the soccer pitch and baseball diamond. I am thinking of upgrading and have two choices that is I see: Purchase the 85 1.8 or sell my 70-200 f4 and move up to the 70-200 2.8 (stretching the budget a little). Is there another route I should be thinking?

- How far will I be able to shoot with the 85 1.8 from the corner of the court? Only the lane and that side of the court?

Please share your wisdom with me.

Thanks?

I use a 70-200 (2.8 IS) along with an 85 1.8 for all my indoor sports now as I've found this is the perfect indoor sports shooting combo.

Truthfully, the 70-200 works fine all by itself assuming you can shoot at 3200. I have twin bodies though and my backup being an XTi which only goes to iso 1600, which is where the 85 comes in and works great. Plus, the DOF you can achieve with the 1.8 for portraiture stuff is stunning.

i would go for the IS and 2.8 version on the 70-200 though as it really becomes more versatile with those options.

[JeffreyG]

As you all know a 70-200 f4 is not cutting it in many of these basketball caves although it works great for the soccer pitch and baseball diamond. I am thinking of upgrading and have two choices that is I see: Purchase the 85 1.8 or sell my 70-200 f4 and move up to the 70-200 2.8

Thinking about this further I would definitely just add the 85/1.8. Keep the 70-200/4 for outdoor sports and use the prime inside.

If you think you really might want the 70-200/2.8 be sure to look at the EXIF from some of the indoor venues you want to shoot and make sure that f/2.8 will cut it. I know I've been in places where ISO3200, f/2.8 will only get me 1/160 or so.