Lens suggestion

I love taking pictures at football games here in alabama but they have a policy about the lens not being over 6 inches. What do you think would be the best lens for that size? I already have a 70-200 but its 7 and 1/2" inches and they stopped me with that last year. Thanks for any suggestions

Have you considered a prime like the 135mm f/2L?

would that do well for sports?

You won't get much reach with the 135L... for football even 200 is pretty far.

What about a 200 f/2.8 L? Witha 1.4xtc you'd be in business .

Yeah, ditch your EOS.

You need to use a small format camera that doesn't attract attention. If they don't know what it is, and it's small enough, you can get away with a lot.

If you got an Olympus E-P1, an adapter ring for Micro Four Thirds, and slapped on a 70-300 Zuiko you would get the equivalent of a 140-600mm zoom. Of course, good luck with fast AF, and you won't get anywhere near as good quality as, say, a 1Ds3 + 400/2.8L IS, but then again, you're not trying to get on the cover of SI, now are you?

People who impose size restrictions on camera equipment don't really understand that you can have a camera that is extremely small yet have a great deal of focal length if it is designed toward that goal. And on some level, they don't care--what matters is that Joe Sixpack isn't going to walk into a crowded stadium with $14000 and 15 pounds of camera equipment, obstructing the view of other attendees and perhaps exposing the managers to some liability.

Oh, don't get me wrong, it's all about image control, publication rights, and all that kind of nasty stuff too. But it doesn't matter--if you're willing to spend $1500 on a lens, you may as well spend roughly the same amount of money on something that is small, strange, and flies under the radar, relatively speaking.

I'd take a look at the 200 f2.8 prime. Smuggle in a 1.4 tcon and you're good to go.

what about the sigma 70-300 f4-f5.6 apo dg http://www.ephotozine.​com …mm-F456-APO-DG-Macro-4569

Canon 70-300 DO if you are shooting in daytime or under big lights - 4" long and great optics if you have the budget ($1200)

get a 70-300 IS.

wickerprints wrote in post #8411115
People who impose size restrictions on camera equipment don't really understand that you can have a camera that is extremely small yet have a great deal of focal length if it is designed toward that goal. And on some level, they don't care--what matters is that Joe Sixpack isn't going to walk into a crowded stadium with $14000 and 15 pounds of camera equipment, obstructing the view of other attendees and perhaps exposing the managers to some liability.

it's not really about the images, it's about the liability you mentioned at the end

Doemasters wrote in post #8410931
would that do well for sports?

Put your 70-200 @ 135mm. Do YOU think that that would be enough reach for you?

I would go for the primes 100/135/200 with a teleconverter in your pocket.