Been wanting something wider than 24mm for sports. Is the 11-24mm too much?

Wanted to get some sanity check and stop myself from impulse buying the 11-24mm.

The widest I have right now is 24mm which I feel is wide enough for on-field shots when the action/players happen to be close to me. However, doesn't seem wide enough when I want to get shots of the ambiance of the stadium including the stands/fans.

Originally I've been thinking about deciding between the 16-35mm and the 14mm but the 11-24mm came along. I'm a little concerned that the lens would be "too" wide and have too much distortion.

Is anyone planning to have the 11-24mm handy for shooting sports? Any experiences you can share if you already have shot an event with the lens?

Thanks in advance!

What body are you shooting with? I find the 16-35 wide enough for most things on a FF body. When I want the occasional "stadium ambience" shot, I do what most do. Grab the fisheye.

Honestly, I have no desire to have the 11-24 for shooting sports. I can't see getting enough use of it to justify that kind of money. And that bulbous front element scares the bejesus out of me. I figure it wouldn't make it more than a few games on the sidelines before I would have it nicked and scratched. Not that I am rough on my gear by any means, but in the heat of the moment, running sidelines or in a crowd, stuff happens.

Anyhoo, that is my $.02.

What sport can you get that close to the action and not risk injury to you or the players? I use my 17-40 on a 5D3 on the sidelines for players not involved in action and I even use my 8-15 fishy on occasion.
First is 17mm at graduation and second is 14mm at spring training. Top left at 14mm is actually the roof of the press box. It gets dark in the corners at 14mm and gets completely round at 8mm.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #17610836
What sport can you get that close to the action and not risk injury to you or the players?

Football. It's actually the players coming up right by me after scoring to celebrate. Got some good celebratory pose and grandstanding shots pretty close up with my 24-70.

I've decided to request a loan of both the 11-24mm and 16-35mm from CPS and taking each to a game to see what I could do with it.

For the sake of my wallet, I hope I don't get any good images with the 11-24mm.

The weight of the 11-24 would be a problem. Be hard to pan with. Only thing that would make the lens work is the fact that with that wide of an angle of view, who would need to pan?

Never used a 11-24mm but I have a 10-22mm which I use on a 1.6x crop behind the goal for soccer. The problem as I see it is the distortion on a wide or ultra wide lens when shooting people. My 10-22mm doesn't fit on a 1.3x crop, so its not quite 10-22mm in use. No experience of US american football, only in the UK on rugby fields, so can't see why you can't step back a bit?

I have 11-24, 14 and 16-35. I love the quality of the images from 11-24 but it is too big to haul around during a live event and front element is exposed so I need to be extra carefull. I use it on location shoots. For races and live events my go to lens is 16-35.
Last weekend we did a shoot and I used 11-24 http://blog.alienginph​otography.com/

It just seems like overkill for your stated purpose. Otoh, if $$$$ is burning a hole in your pocket, and you're cooking up an excuse for a new toy, then by all means get it.

Aliengin, your blog is amazing.

daharryone wrote in post #17657000
Aliengin, your blog is amazing.

I would have to second that, that's really great work.... Keep up the excelent job.