Lens Advice-Fast Action indoors

[FPSteve]

I am a novide to the DSLR world. I jumped in with the EOS 20D in the hopes that it would take care of most of this for me.

I shoot high speed hockey pictures (indoor mid-range mercury vapor lighting) and karate action pictures (also indoor Hg or incandescent). I thought this camera would provide much better pictures and I am hoping it is just my lenses.

Does anyone have a suggested lens for these purposes? It helps to have zoom to about 300mm.

[attu]

What lens are you using at the moment ?, to capture fast sports shots with indoor lighting your going to need a fast lens as in a lens that has a constant wide aperture.
Alot of people use the 70-200f2.8, either Canon or Sigma,Ive personally got a Canon 70-200f2.8 IS lens. If you want a zoom that will go out to 300mm the only one I can think of that will be fast enough is the Sigma 120-300f2.8, neither option is going to be cheep.
One question I would ask is what ISO are you shooting at ? as a novice to DSLR's you may or may not know that DSLR's like the 20D have less noise than compact SLR's do at higher ISO levels, so it may just be a question of increasing the ISO up to ...well try 800.

Andy

[photodogg]

I've been shooting HS Basketball from the top ot the bleachers... my Sigma 70-200 2.8 has been working fine, albeit at ISO 1600-3200 due to the poor lighting. You'll need to be shooting wide open at 2.8 or faster unless the lighting is better than most.

There is a great forum at Fred Miranda's that is dedicated to sports shooting where you can learn a lot also.

I'd suggest the 70-200 2.8's either Canon or Sigma, a 200 Prime or a 300 Prime.

I found that using my 1.4x teleconverter does not work well for indoor lighting at the high school level... the extra f-stop lost really slows down the shutter speed.

Tim.

[Cadwell]

There aren't many ways to get to 300mm with fast (f/2.8 or better) glass.

There's the lovely Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8EX, the gorgeous Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L prime (or it's bigger brother the EF 400mm f/2.8L), the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 EX prime, or the Tokina ATX Pro 300mm f/2.8 prime.

The thing that all these share in common is the price. Steep. The Sigma 120-300mm appears to be the only zoom on that list...

[FPSteve]

Thanks! I have a Canon 70-200 2.8 and the Sigma 28-300 2.5( I believe). I have been using the full auto settings and the repeated shots options with these reults. It sounds like I should try manual settings instead.

[Cadwell]

Thanks! I have a Canon 70-200 2.8 and the Sigma 28-300 2.5( I believe). I have been using the full auto settings and the repeated shots options with these reults. It sounds like I should try manual settings instead.


:lol: If that Sigma really was f/2.5 they'd be selling like hot cakes... I think the one you mean is the f/3.5-6.3 so it's f/6.3 at the long end. VERRRY slow.

The 70-200 f/2.8 is your best bet. Use it wide open ( f/2.8 ) and set your shutter speed to 1/200th or 1/250th. Adjust ISO to get the exposure right. You're probably going to need at least ISO 1600. If you can manage to stop down the lens a bit whilst maintaining shutter speed so much the better.

[digibeet]

Maybe it will help to set your white balance manually..

[Akreager]

The only addition to the good advise above is vibration reduction is not needed so you can buy the standard 70-200F2.8 and get great results. If you take your Tamron into a local shop that takes trades you can pick up the excellent Sigma version of this lens for well under $1000.

Andy K

[Jon]

Thanks! I have a Canon 70-200 2.8 and the Sigma 28-300 2.5( I believe). I have been using the full auto settings and the repeated shots options with these reults. It sounds like I should try manual settings instead.

If by "full auto" you mean the "sports" or the green square program modes, yes, you should definitely use one of the "Creative" settings, where you can set a higher ISO value. Use the 70-200 with Av set to 2.8 and ISO at 800 or higher as needed to get a fast enough shutter speed (not less than 1/250; without IS, you should use 1/500 or faster if you can't use at least a monopod). Don't forget to allow for all that white from the ice in setting your exposure though; You'll want to use exposure compensation for that (which will drop the shutter speed a couple of stops). Or take a default meter reading and crank that into full "M" manual mode.

Custom white balance will help in reducing your post-processing, since mercury vapour is a mess, but won't affect your action-stopping capabilities.