a good lens for zoom?

[ZipKicker]

lookin for a decent lens to use at sprots events and stuff like that...recommendations please?

[Fiml]

Zip, what's your budget?

[ed2day]

Welcome. Congrats on the camera.

I think what you're asking for is a telephoto zoom. Unfortunately that's where quality gets expensive, so the budget question was a good start. Indoor or outdoor sports? Indoor requires a fast telephoto and that's where things can get beyond expensive and into the ridiculous realm. So tell us what sports you're planning on shooting and distance, i.e. kids sports or professional.

[ZipKicker]

well i got a little brother that plays baseball outside and basketball inside..i want to use it for other shots as well..i.e when i goto stuff like MLB and stuff like that...kind of hard to explain...just something to shoot kinda far away...budget will get bigger if ineed to save something :P

[robertwgross]

For baseball, around the diamond, a lens like 70-200mm or 75-300mm is good. To reach to the outfield, something a little longer might be good, but 300mm might do it. Once you get beyond about 300mm, the prices go up faster.

If the games are mostly in bright daylight, then you might be able to get a fairly ordinary lens, aperture-wise. If the games are not in bright daylight (like a basketball court), then you will want the fastest lens you can find, like f/2.8 or better. Again, the prices go up fast.

---Bob Gross---

[ron chappel]

Ok,yep as the others say the outdoors stuff is pretty easily handled with a 300mm zoom.
It may possibley handle the inside stuff but most likely the indoor lighting will be abit dim to get high enough shutter speeds

And yes-prices do go up dramatically for fast lenses.The 70-200/2.8's start at about $600 for the cheapest (the sigma) and they STILL may not be fast enough

Shooting in low light is easy with something like the cheap but great 50/1.8 but if you need something much longer then you'll have to spend on an 85/1.8 or 135/2 for example

[ZipKicker]

ok thanks guys..im still learning about photography and what all these fancy names mean but thanks for the help!

[ZipKicker]

well i was on my vid camera today and i figured something that equals about 18x zoom or more is what im looking for...any ideas on that?

[Sean-Mcr]

18x!!!

You've got some serious lens research to do:)

Basically the lenses that you want to do some reaserch on are these.

Zooms:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-70-200mm-f-4.0-L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-70-200mm-f-2.8-L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-70-200mm-f-2.8-L-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

primes: (fixed focal)

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-135mm-f-2.0-L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-200mm-f-2.8-L-II-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-300mm-f-2.8-L-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

[tim]

ZipKicker - i'd recommend you do a photography class in your area to learn what "all these fancy names" mean. They're not too complex, but it helps to have a teacher who can explain things to you, rather than just reading about things. 18X zooms aren't common in photography, there's a chance you could find one, but it wouldn't give you very good pictures.

[JBillings]

I've been using the 70-200 2.8 IS for shooting basketball indoors. It does a very good job. It may be a little short for baseball. The results it produces makes it worth the $$ for me. Check my homepage, I've got a couple of galleries up of basketball.

[Jon]

Just guessing what your video camera lens was, you're probably looking at around a 400 mm lens on the DRXT. First off, all 18x means is that the long focal length is 18x the wide focal length. That could be any combination of focal lengths where one is 18x the other. 10 mm-180 mm is 18x, but so's 5-90 mm, or 100-1800 mm, and the last two don't even overlap in their coverage on the same format. Your videocam's probably around 2.8-50 mm focal lengths. Those would be maybe around 40-720 mm 35 mm equivalent focal length, after adjusting for sensor size ("crop factor"). Apply the DRXT's 1.6x crop factor and you're looking at about a 450 mm lens. That's an in-between focal length, so either 400 or 500 mm. But that would be at the long end;; you'll be wanting a zoom since the activity is going to be all over, and sometimes you'll want to catch some action with two or more players in the frame, so you need to be able to zoom wider. The two best lenses there would be the Canon EF 100-400 f/4-5.6 L and the Sigma 50-500 f/4.5-6.3 ('Bigma"), which weighs a ton. Not sure you'd be able to get into MLB carrying either of them, but they should be fine for school sports outdoors. Indoors you wouldn't want as long a lens, but you'd need a larger aperture (smaller f/ number, like f/2.8 say).