Dog show lens?

ceegee wrote in post #7818725
I shot them in AV or TV, probably AV. I've had a look through my files, and here's another shot of one of my dogs, also with the 55-250. It's a fine lens.

I mean was the lens on M or A ? or is this lens A only ?

Nice shot by the way !

kerrysroxy wrote in post #7818735
I mean was the lens on M or A ? or is this lens A only ?

Sorry, I misunderstood. It was on AF, but there's also a MF option.

kerrysroxy wrote in post #7818728
I already said outside

Sorry I missed that. For outdoor sports there is no better lens than the 70-200 F4/L. It is slightly above your budget but I am afraid that budget is not very realistic.

The 70-700 F/4 is incredibly sharp, fast focusing and with outdoor light the F/4 will still provide fast enough shutter speed to stop action. For my business it is the lens I use 97.6% of the time outdoors.

I shot a lot of shows...

I shot a lot of shows when we raised pure-bred Maltese and the lens that I most often used was the 70-200mm f/4L. IMO, either a zoom or a pair of cameras with two primes are almost mandatory for shooting from ringside. That way you can frame the dogs when they are at the nearside of the ring and also when they are at the far side.

The f/4L was quite sufficient for ring shooting since I often used a monopod in lower lighting conditions.

However, I switched from a 70-200mm f/4L to the IS model which allowed me a bit more flexibility in lower lighting conditions and actually allowed me to shoot in well lit interior shows. My decision to switch to the IS model was not predicated by any specific need when shooting dog shows. But, if I were shooting primarily indoor shows, I would opt for the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS rather than the slower f/4 IS model.

Since we were showing Maltese, which are small dogs (show Maltese usually run from 4-6 pounds) I added a 300mm f/4L IS lens on a second body to enable me to fill the frame with a Maltese from a further distance.

IMO, the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS lens or the 55-250mm IS lens would be perfectly adequate for shooting at conformation dog shows - especially outdoor shows.

However the focusing ability of the above lenses might be too slow for shooting canine sports such as agility because of the extremely fast pace of those sports. Since you can often place yourself close to the obstacles, a 70-200mm f/4L lens might be a better choice because of the fast auto focus ability of the 70-200mm (series) lenses.

By the way, there is at least one lens which I would not consider; the 75-300mm Canon IS lens. The IQ and IS of this lens leaves a LOT TO BE DESIRED. Either the 70-300mm IS, the 55-250mm IS or, definitely, the 70-200mm f/4 lenses would be far better (although more expensive) choices.

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kerrysroxy wrote in post #7818684
All he said was nice lens when I showed him lol

Sure he is worth keeping around? hehehehe...J/K...

kerrysroxy wrote in post #7818735
I mean was the lens on M or A ? or is this lens A only ?

Nice shot by the way !

For specs and what not on lenses I like to use this site:

http://www.slrgear.com

As to the 55-250. It is a full modern lens. WHile it does not have ring USM (the faster of the USM versions) it is still good for most situations. Only drawback is it's and EF-S lense which means crop bodies only, you know 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D and the xxxD bodies as well.

I've taken 1000's of shots with that lens and it is just fine. It's small, does not have a metal body but do not let that bother you, it's well built anyway. I have a handful of shots from last year's Dawg Show here, I looked through them when I could not sleep last night and while none are action shots, I think because I have a hundred or so shots I did not get to, but what is there are nice enough. Mind I had the lense only a couple weeks when the show rolled around. I also had just gotten my Bigmos so I spent the week learning to use the thing, ok, TRYING to learn to use that beast. The 55-250 is a lense you just slap on the body and use, not a huge familiarity curve.

Another thing to grab if your like me and exposure is not something you really understand, grab a copy of "Understanding Exposure". I did learn last year that I blew a lot of shots because I had not used any form of SLR in decades and had forgotten pretty much everything but the words. This year will be better!

And shoot manual if you can...you won't miss anything if you set your exposure up correctly and just go from there with shutter speed and aperture changes as the time of day requires.

Here a couple of the first shots I took with it, not a dawggie but they is handy as JPG's right now:

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RPCrowe wrote in post #7819943
IMO, the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS lens or the 55-250mm IS lens would be perfectly adequate for shooting at conformation dog shows - especially outdoor shows.

However the focusing ability of the above lenses might be too slow for shooting canine sports such as agility because of the extremely fast pace of those sports. Since you can often place yourself close to the obstacles, a 70-200mm f/4L lens might be a better choice because of the fast auto focus ability of the 70-200mm (series) lenses

Ceegee's shots looks very good with the 55-250mm IS lens. Not sure if you saw the agility shots?

I think I will get the 55-250 IS , I have not consider if I make it a business. Its just a hobby for me so I don't want to spend almost a Grand on a lens. If i find one of the other lens used and cheaper I might strive to get one.

Here are a couple of agility photos taken with the 55-250. It does a fine job if the light is good.

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ceegee wrote in post #7821780
Here are a couple of agility photos taken with the 55-250. It does a fine job if the light is good.

Was the standard poodle shot done with this lens ?

kerrysroxy wrote in post #7822696
Was the standard poodle shot done with this lens ?

Yes it was. All the agility shots on that web page were done with the 55-250.

ceegee wrote in post #7822866
Yes it was. All the agility shots on that web page were done with the 55-250.

I love that picture that is the shot that sold me lol I have a red standard poodle we are showing

I will keep you guys posted there is a show this weekend but i wont have a lens by then I will use my standard lens.

Just something else to think about. A lot of times the rings have kind of ugly backgrounds (like those orange plastic fences) and if you can you want to blur those out so a f/2.8-f/4 lens would be ideal.

While I'm a Canon newbie (only lens I own is the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 ) I think something like a used Canon 70-200 f/4 non IS (like someone else suggested) would be good or maybe a used Sigma 70-200 f/2.8. I think those would fall into the higher end of your price range (actually I just looked on KEH and they have an EX+ 70-200 f/4 non IS for $484).

John

Do not buy the 75-300mm no matter what.

palmor wrote in post #7823235
Just something else to think about. A lot of times the rings have kind of ugly backgrounds (like those orange plastic fences) and if you can you want to blur those out so a f/2.8-f/4 lens would be ideal.

While I'm a Canon newbie (only lens I own is the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 ) I think something like a used Canon 70-200 f/4 non IS (like someone else suggested) would be good or maybe a used Sigma 70-200 f/2.8. I think those would fall into the higher end of your price range (actually I just looked on KEH and they have an EX+ 70-200 f/4 non IS for $484).

John

We must have way different shows than you guys on the east coast lol. We usually NEVER have fences its usually a chain rope or something like a thread or nylon rope creating the ring.

I am still seeing if I can get the bf on the band wagon lol .

Also thanks for the suggestion on KEH I am looking at the website now

Vascilli wrote in post #7823257
Do not buy the 75-300mm no matter what.

I will make sure I wont

I cam getting confused of all the lenses posted in the same range.

A longer lens will allow you to get some better 'head on' shots, and the wider the aperture will help to throw out all of the background distractions.

So.... Obviously, go for the longest and widest aperture that you can afford.

Good luck with your decision.