night soccer lens advice

so i am in the process of organizing to be the athletic photographer at my school in the fall and the director told me to make a gear list of what i need to take photos as well as produce video spots each week. all my current gear is in my sig.

my question is that i am about to buy a 135L for myself and cant justify athletics buying it for me but they are definitely willing to get me a 70-200 as well as video gear. i told him that more than likely i can get away with shooting night soccer with the 70-200 f4 since it is only $700. am i right in my thinking that i can shoot this with my 7D?

i also plan on upgrading to a 50 1.4 which would be used for basketball. i dont have an extreme budget at my disposal for gear and it will all become property of the school so i have to give it all back once i graduate unless they hire me full time which i know he would like to do.

thanks for any advice.

Stadium lights vary. I would suggest using your existing lens or renting and test to see if you can get 1/800 - 1/1000 SS under those lights. You will need to crank up the ISO in your 7D. Take some test shots of people running under those light conditions. The results will tell you what you need or can or cannot do. I assume the school is getting a dedicated video camera. The 7D is great for video, but not for soccer.

f4 with flash will work under some pretty bleak HS stadium lights BUT...with 200mm as your longest focal length, I'd caution you to focus on shooting action close to you as even the 7D's ISO performance will show significant noise if you are cropping big and even the slightest bit underexposed under those conditions. for close action with flash 1/250s 800ISO and F4 should come pretty close to getting things done (at 1/2 flash pwr). Have fun.

so if i did manage to get maybe the 70-200 2.8 non IS i would be looking much much better. our stadium lights are sub par

Get a 70-200 2.8 non IS.

Brian_R wrote in post #12163055
so if i did manage to get maybe the 70-200 2.8 non IS i would be looking much much better. our stadium lights are sub par

That being the case I would say the 70-200 f/2.8 non-IS as well. For basketball you might want to consider the 85 f/1.8, it is a very popular indoor sports lens and focuses very quickly.

I shot the non IS 70-200 for years and will give a +1 to that suggestion. great lens that takes a 1.4x tc well too!

I shoot with a 70-200mm f/2.8 NON-IS at MLS matches with the 7D.

If budget is an issue, I would also consider the 200 2.8. 200 is about as short as I'd want to go for soccer, even on a crop body- my guess is that you will be zoomed in to 200mm on the 70-200 anyway. I have shot a lot of high school night games very successfully with the 40D and 200 2.8.

Night high school soccer with a 70-200 f/4.0 lens sounds difficult.

Never use flash on soccer unless you want chased out of the stadium. As pointed out a 70-200 f2.8 is more than sufficient with a 7D with the ISO expansion and the 1.6 crop factor effectively giving you 320mm. You don't need IS either for sports so scrap that one too.
Don't go any lower than 1/500 of a sec for soccer under lights if you can help it otherwise it gets messy. You may have to play around with your ISO settings until you get the right balance of light and shutter speed in AV. If the light is patchy, try and find an area where its brightest to shoot before the game starts. Sometimes directly under the floodlight stantion is a good place to start.

Red Dog wrote in post #12164543
Never use flash on soccer unless you want chased out of the stadium. As pointed out a 70-200 f2.8 is more than sufficient with a 7D with the ISO expansion and the 1.6 crop factor effectively giving you 320mm. You don't need IS either for sports so scrap that one too.
Don't go any lower than 1/500 of a sec for soccer under lights if you can help it otherwise it gets messy. You may have to play around with your ISO settings until you get the right balance of light and shutter speed in AV. If the light is patchy, try and find an area where its brightest to shoot before the game starts. Sometimes directly under the floodlight stantion is a good place to start.

Curious as to why?

toadhunter911 wrote in post #12164579
Curious as to why?

It is distracting to the players, the spectators, and you are potentially messing with any other photog's light.

frederiksenp wrote in post #12164590
It is distracting to the players, the spectators, and you are potentially messing with any other photog's light.

Flash is used for night HS football all the time...

toadhunter911 wrote in post #12164579
Curious as to why?

Firing a flash directly into the eyes of an athlete playing a fast-paced sport is generally not acceptable. If you were running down the field with the ball it would be distracting at the very least and possibly dangerous as well.