What lens should I get?

[tigerroar]

I currently have a Canon EF Zoom Lens - 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM but I want a better one because I use it a lot on Saturday afternoons at football matches. 300mm is the minimum range that I want and I appreciate that any suggestions is going to cost more than £1000. Any ideas?

[condyk]

Canon 100-400mm L IS £1100 typical, cheaper via ebay
Sigma 80-400mm DG OS Around £800 typical, cheaper via ebay

Try Kerso, who seems to be a well liked ebay seller working in UK/US. Never used him but many have who's views I trust:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/FLASH-CAMERA_W0QQsspagenameZL2QQtZkm

I think zoom will be more useful than a prime for football ground conditions. Both lenses will be happy hand-held and for use in normal outdoor light. You might want to check the weather sealing of each for UK football :lol: Both seem well loved by their owners.

I had the Sigma OS and liked the handling and OS capabilities. Unfortunately, I had to return it and ended up with my superb 100-300mm f4 plus 1.4x instead. At least as good optically, but cheaper as no IS/OS, but not really suitable for what you want as too big and needs a monopod/tripod much of the time. Same applies to the 50-500mm Bigma , which I owned and loved.

Likely I'll try an OS again at year end ... or I may look for a SH IS.

[Camo 757]

100-400L
70-200 2.8L IS w/1.4x
Sigma 100-300 f4
Sigma 50-500

[tigerroar]

I mean't to say that I'm happy with the 300mm but I want something that will do a better job in poorer light. In winter I might as well put my camera away in the second half.

[Andy_T]

3 lenses come to mind, if you need something faster ...

- Sigma 100-300/4.0 EX
- Sigma 300/4.0 EX (discontinued, might not be 100% compatible)
- Canon 300/4.0 IS

Best regards,
Andy

[condyk]

Canon EF 300mm f4L USM with the IMAGE STABILISER might be worth adding to the list and it's around £1000 I think. The above recommendations still hold too tho'. You need to think whether you normally would operate at 300mm anyway ... or whether you vary range a lot, meaning a zoom is better than a prime.

Andy mentions the 100-300mm f4 Sigma and I want to say that tho' I LOVE mine I think you will struggle with handholding it, and the length of it, for use in a pro game football crowd. If you're doing non or semi professional games, as it seems from your Sig, then crowd issues or tripod/monopod use would probably be Ok. In which case, it's a truly high value lens with great performance. Sigma 1.4x TCon works great giving you a 420mm lens at silly money.

Check the sticky here about outdoor sports lenses too ... though I'm not sure if people vote for what they own, have read about, what they aspire to, or what they just think is best. User reviews at fredmiranda.com, photographyreview.com and photozone.de are much more useful in my view, but it all adds up.

Dave

[CyberDyneSystems]

The ultimate 300mm for sports are the
EF 300mm f/2.8 L
Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX HSM :)