Lens for a cheerleading event...which one?

Hello everybody,

My name is Jenn and am new to these forums! I'm trying to soak up all the great information I've read so far. My question is: Which lens should I use to take photos of my daughter's cheerleading competitions? I have the 28-105mm f/3.4-4.5 II USM, the 50mm f/1.4, and also the 85mm f/1.8. Which one should I use?

Any suggestions/comments/a​dvice would truly be appreciated!

Thank you!!!

Welcome to the forum! The 50 and 85 will be your best friends for that show. I assume these are indoor so the 28-105 is going to be too slow for indoor light without an external flash.

It will be the two primes, i think you'll use the 85 most of all. The zooms going to be a too slow unless the lighting in the gym is very good.

How close do you reasonably feel you will be able to get? If it will be indoors and some on stage events, I would also look at the 28 1.8 as you may want to shoot wide to get the whole team in the shot... that is if you can get close enough.

Thanks so much for all your help, Jim and Sean! Yes, the competition will be indoors...I will definitely need the faster lenses. I'm so glad Santa gave me some pretty good prime lenses for Christmas.

Mark, thank you for the suggestion! I haven't even looked at the 28mm f/1.8. I may have to invest in that one just to get some group shots. There are about 18 girls in the team.

50 1.4 and 85 1.8 would be your best bet for medium telephoto range.

28 1.8 is a good choice suggested by Mark. It really does depend how close or far you are though.

As everyone has already stated the 50 and the 85 would be the ones to use. I would probably just leave the 28-105 at home as it is not fast enough.

Jenn

I have been shooting Cheerleading pictures for 5 years, I was happy minding my own business until I stumbled upon this site a few months back. I now realizes I know nothing about taking pictures or lenses and I have a real case of the wants. I want more L lenses, I want a Mark2n, I want CS2 and I want to know how to shoot cheerleaders running across a mat in bad lighting without using a flash. I feel I should place at the bottom of my post; I shot 9500 pictures and haven’t taken one picture yet. Here is one picture I shot without flash and a mile away. Lighting was good for a gym; I was using a Digital Rebel with a EF 70-200 2.8L

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sports and wildlife are all about long lenses and good tripods.
the 85 will be great. but it all depends on how close you are. you're tag line says you have the 28-200 so I'd take that as well and shoot at 1600 with the rebel.

but its a perfect reason to get new glass! a 200/2.8 (wow!), a 70-300IS (the IS will be great in lower light areas though the AF is a bit slow) even a 300/4 (the tokina can be gotten cheap and is good enough esp on an APS chipped camera where it will be 480mm)

What ever you do, do not get the 70-300MM IS for indoor shots/ sports at night...This lens is way tooooo slow. If your going to this field of focal I would personaly choose the Sigma 70-200 2.8 for this sport, since it's being held indoors/ or the 85MM 1.8 depending how far you are.

the 28-200 is *way* too slow for indoor action. the shot above looks like there is ambient sunlight. most gyms aren't like this, in my experience. hmmm - does the upside down gal remind anyone of Munch's 'Scream'?

lol, It's not the best cheer leader pic I've seen, but It's also an hard pic to take, low light, etc... But an 85mm 1.8 and ISO 8900 should help

It might be worth adding that the group shots don't need to be taken during the competition. It may be wise to take a posed group shot using some additional illumination - i.e. a flash - the easy way to do this is to get the cheerleaders to adopt a 'finish' position for you. This might mean that the 28-105 isn't redundant as it could be used at the 28mm end and it would be stopped down to, say, f/5.6 to ensure that the group is sharp from front to back. Using a flash in these circumstances would also give total control over the balance between foreground and background exposure.

The 28mm f/1.8 is certainly a very nice lens, but realistically would you be able to get close enough to the participants during their routine to benefit from it? I can't answer this, but I'd doubt it somehow... however, I am here to be proven wrong - perhaps someone could post a cheerleader action shot taken with the 28mm f/1.8?

---- Gavin

Use a 1DMkII and a fast lens like the 70-200 2.8 (don't worry about the IS version it won't help here.) A 200 1.8 is perfect but expensive. Set your white balance manually, shoot in full manual with a shutter speed of at least 1/320 and a high ISO. AI servo to track them while running. Running straight at you is the most dificult.

Easy!


Michael

Grego: Thank you for your input! In some competitions, the spectators from the team are allowed to get as close to the mat as possible. Sometimes, we just have to remain seated on the stands. It would be nice to get all the girls in the photo, but I've read the reviews on the 28mm and they weren't too positive.

Cheerdad: Hello to a fellow cheer parent! Like you, I would love to be able to shoot the action without a flash. I really haven't ventured into taking action shots because I've been busy with taking group and individual portraits of the girls from my daughter's team. I'm hoping by Sunday (her next competition), I'll be able to get some in.

Ducdubbbq: I really don't like the 28-200mm that I have. It's sooooooo slow and too cumbersome for me to carry. I love my prime lenses and would probably try to add more to my collection. I'm not much of a zoom lens type, although I do like my 28-105mm. I think I'll have to stick to the 85mm for all my shots for this event.

ACDCROCKS: I've never had a Sigma lens before, but I've seen a post where someone was saying that their 28mm is comparable to the Canon's. Is this true? What has your experience been?

Gavin: As always, thank you for your great advice! Yes, the parents/spectators can actually get close to the cheerleaders when performing their routines. This is not always the case, but we do have that opportunity at some competitions. I also would love for someone out there to post a cheerleading action shot taken with the 28mm!

Michael: I would love to own the 200mm f/1.8, but that is way too expensive for me right now. Maybe when I'm a bit more experienced like the folks here in these forums...