what canon lens to buy

ive been using a canon 70d with a sigma 17-50 2.8 ex hsm and a sigma 30mm 1.4dc hsm. i take most of my pics at low light kickboxing events that my sons club competes in. no flash allowed so some pics are terrible. dont want to raise the iso too much as that is just as bad. looking at paying £3-400 for a good second hand canon lens (or similar) that is good at very low light. not a fixed one as im at different distances at these events. any help much appreciated. sorry if this is in the wrong section

The 60D is very usable at ISO 6400. The 70D must be at least as good as the 60D. Perhaps your exposure and post-processing skill could use a boost. That is a lot less expensive than new hardware.

my pp is almost non existant. i use lightroom a bare minimum. took pics at one event at 6400 very noisy and couldnt really get rid of it in lr.

tjs42 wrote in post #17704733
my pp is almost non existant. i use lightroom a bare minimum. took pics at one event at 6400 very noisy and couldnt really get rid of it in lr.

You might already be doing this but just in case.... do your noise reduction before you sharpen. It makes a world of difference.

I hope you're shooting RAW... Your current setup should produce very good images at 6400 iso but I wouldn't dream of shooting jpeg on any event.

i shoot in raw. use manual mode. shutter 500 and depending on lighting 4-800 iso.any higher and the noise creeps in. will try and find a 6400 shot to show you. have used a slower shutter speed but didnt like the blur i was getting

Phoenixkh wrote in post #17704748
You might already be doing this but just in case.... do your noise reduction before you sharpen. It makes a world of difference.

ill try that as i was doing it the other way round

longbeachgary wrote in post #17704779
To me if you're shooting in bright sunlight at low ISO you can expect that there will be no noise but when you're in a very low light situation and there is no other way to capture the image except to use a higher ISO, then how can you complain? Your only other choice is to not shoot at all.

thats why i was asking if a better lens to what i have would make a difference to low light shooting. i wasn't complaining i was asking a question

60D at ISO 6400. Natural light. Processed exclusively in Lightroom. Shot raw, ETTR, +2/3 EC. Total processing time < 1 minute. This is not a crop, it is the full frame as shot. I can't find any noise in it on a 22" monitor.

I'd prefer to stay at ISO 3200 or below with the 60D. If you can tolerate this loss of detail, 6400 is very usable.

Phoenixkh wrote in post #17704748
You might already be doing this but just in case.... do your noise reduction before you sharpen. It makes a world of difference.

Completely and utterly not true.

tjs42 wrote in post #17704780
ill try that as i was doing it the other way round

It does not matter in which order you do this. What matters is that you look at the results of one, then go back to the other to refine your results. The effects of LR adjustments are the same no matter which order you do them in, or how many times you go back and forth. The key to noise reduction in LR is to keep both NR and sharpening to a minimum, while applying as much of each as you can get away with.

Noise reduction kills detail. Don't overdo it.
Sharpening enhances noise. Don't overdo it.

My method goes back and forth between sharpening and noise reduction several times looking for that happy medium. If order mattered, my work would be a mess. I do NR, then sharpening, back to NR, then more sharpening, until I get the best results. If you are adjusting one parameter first, then doing the other without looking at the results, you are not getting the best results available. Lightroom is fantastic at noise reduction, if it is used properly.

EDIT:
I can't find them, so I assume I deleted them. But I did some pretty intense noise testing over the summer. Somewhere in POTN, I posted some shots from the 60D at ISO 12,800 (EDIT: 6400, sorry) and from the 6D at ISO 102,400. Both had extremes of highlights and shadow. Neither displayed any visible noise, even in the shadows. Admittedly, those shots were staged, on a tripod, and processed heavily. The processing was a bit time-consuming, but I proved to myself that ISO settings are mostly irrelevant to your results. Shoot the ISO that gets the job done.

EDIT w/correction. The 60D shots are at ISO 6400, not 12,800. My point stands. Here is the link:
https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=17566142

GeoKras1989 wrote in post #17704793
Completely and utterly not true.

It does not matter in which order you do this. What matters is that you look at the results of one, then go back to the other to refine your results. The effects of LR adjustments are the same no matter which order you do them in, or how many times you go back and forth. The key to noise reduction in LR is to keep both NR and sharpening to a minimum, while applying as much of each as you can get away with.

Noise reduction kills detail. Don't overdo it.
Sharpening enhances noise. Don't overdo it.

My method goes back and forth between sharpening and noise reduction several times looking for that happy medium. If order mattered, my work would be a mess. I do NR, then sharpening, back to NR, then more sharpening, until I get the best results. If you are adjusting one parameter first, then doing the other without looking at the results, you are not getting the best results available. Lightroom is fantastic at noise reduction, if it is used properly.

EDIT:
I can't find them, so I assume I deleted them. But I did some pretty intense noise testing over the summer. Somewhere in POTN, I posted some shots from the 60D at ISO 12,800 and from the 6D at ISO 102,400. Both had extremes of highlights and shadow. Neither displayed any visible noise, even in the shadows. Admittedly, those shots were staged, on a tripod, and processed heavily. The processing was a bit time-consuming, but I proved to myself that ISO settings are mostly irrelevant to your results. Shoot the ISO that gets the job done.

thanks for the advice. i have some pics still to do in lr so will try it out

Good luck with those. It really is not difficult once you've done it a few times. It really helps to ETTR when working at these levels. My default at ISO 6400 is +2/3 EC, and keep an eye on the blown highlights. If they matter, back off.

Canon 70-200 f/2.8

I think it's difficult to recommend one lens, since I have no idea what focal length you're looking for. If you insist on zoom, then get the widest aperture/ image stabilization preferred. Assuming for kickboxing you're not that far away. I used to have a Tamron 28-75mm lens that's a pretty good budget 2.8. The newer Tamron 24-70mm is more versatile since it is 2.8 and has VC (image stabilization). I now have the Canon L lens, which I find has better contrast...the Tamron lenses are nice and sharp and are a great value.

Canon EF 85mm 1.8, super quick and accurate focusing faster speedside than zooms. I shoot live music stuff in horribly lit venues so I know all about needing fast shutter speeds and high ISO and still forced to shoot wide open.