Sport Lense Question

chaotic_vr · 31-03-2009 12:57am #1

I wanted to get into sports photography so decided to get a start and contacted the local club about three weeks ago. They finally got back to me and said it was grand and I could come along and shoot the matches at the weekends and any events that might be going on. So my question is, I have a Sigma 120-400mm 4.5-5.6 that I bought for wildlife, would this be ok starting off or will I need to get a faster lense? I know I'll need something faster if I move up from junior soccer but will I get away with this lense atm?

soccerc · 31-03-2009 1:13am

chaotic_vr wrote: »

I wanted to get into sports photography so decided to get a start and contacted the local club about three weeks ago. They finally got back to me and said it was grand and I could come along and shoot the matches at the weekends and any events that might be going on. So my question is, I have a Sigma 120-400mm 4.5-5.6 that I bought for wildlife, would this be ok starting off or will I need to get a faster lense? I know I'll need something faster if I move up from junior soccer but will I get away with this lense atm?

I'll be blunt, No, too slow.

Borderfox · 31-03-2009 1:28am

Thats grand for during the day, I used a Sigma 50-500 for a year and got lots of great shots out of it. Start slow and build it up, no point rushing in a spending a load of dosh at first. Any shots I had published with the Sigma were going into coffee style magazines @ 300dpi.

chaotic_vr · 31-03-2009 1:41am

Thanks for the replies. I had a feeling it might be too slow. I'm covering the 7-a-sides on saturday, should't be too much of a challenge and I might get a few useable shots if the weather is good. Was looking at the 70-200mm f/2.8 or f/4. I'll prob go with one of them with a 1.4x for the bigger games when I have the money.

Borderfox · 31-03-2009 2:04am

Heres a shot of Horses coming straight towards me at 30mph shot with the Sigma 50-500

Ricky91t · 31-03-2009 7:07am

The easiest thing to first do in test it out,I've spent best part of 1.5 years shooting sport,wildlife,everthing at f/5.6 and i've still come out with some shots i'm happy with...Firstly if it's a sunny day you lens should handle it perfectly if however it's abit gloomy it'll struggle and hunt abit..I wouldn't go off and fund a new lens yet,Test it and see what your results are like and don't forget that as we move closer to summer we'll get more sunshine(well we should anyway) and then your lens will perform better due to the light

three shots of motorsport shot with it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/palpofa2008/3050381739/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/palpofa2008/3051222458/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/palpofa2008/3051224602/

njburke · 31-03-2009 12:31pm

Hi,
I've been shooting my eldest boys soccer matches on low budget nikon gear. I tried a few different lenses, 55-200 AFS-ish 4/5.6 , 70 300 ED 4/5.6 and eventually have settled on this one 70-210AF -D as its sharp and the AF gearing is higher ratio.

I've used an older D70/D70S body, but I recently borrowed a D300 and wow is the AF tracking and picture quality way better.
So the body you have does have an influence. I agree with Ricky these slow lenses do need light, but the gamesI shoot are usually around 11AM. Any hoo, that 70-210 cost me 150 euros, boxed and was well minded.

Heres two I took last Saturday, in camera jpgs and shot wide open, as of yet I don't PP, (or even straighten, lousy Nikon Editor software won't even do that),
click on them if you want to see every pixel.

Ballyman · 31-03-2009 12:42pm

LOL. I love the second one, especially the lad with his hands up to his ears!! Oh no, he's gonna score!!

Saint_Mel · 31-03-2009 1:02pm

Ballyman wrote: »

LOL. I love the second one, especially the lad with his hands up to his ears!! Oh no, he's gonna score!!

+1 ... and the little lad beside him looking like he's gonna cry.
As for the striker ... outside of the boot ... back of the net

njburke · 31-03-2009 1:16pm

Actually that happens fairly regularly, theres an average of 10 goals per game, some of which look like this.

(Focus isn't great on this one, I'll offer it up to the learning curve )

OP, sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread. Just trying to point out that whilst a fast telephoto with high torque focusing motor is optimal, there are still good frames for the taking with a cheaper lens, the kids and parents like them and I enjoy taking them.

Saint_Mel · 31-03-2009 1:21pm

njburke wrote: »

Actually that happens fairly regularly, theres an average of 10 goals per game, some of which look like this....

Tell him to dry his eyes ... game should have been abondoned due to not having nets in the goals :P

njburke · 31-03-2009 1:35pm

That wouldn't put them off at all, keen as mustard, all 22 of them volunteer as forwards for every match and our lads lose their hands as soon as they put on the jersey:D

kgiller · 31-03-2009 3:25pm

Sorry to go off topic a bit here, but i was taking some sports photos over the weekend with Sigma 70-300 APO DG and found it quite good. At f/5.6 most of the time and ISO 800-1600 i was able to freeze most of the action.

What kind of shutter speeds should a sports photographer aim for? I was taking shots at about 1/1250-1/2000 depending on light. Should i try for faster speeds?

Also, should i use AI servo, or just normal AF, or manual? I was shooting the ultimate frisbee intervarsities in Maynooth.

njburke · 31-03-2009 4:08pm

kgkiller, theres a bit of a secret sauce to it which I've not quite nailed yet. Some of the pro sports photogs might chime in with some advice. One of the regular sport photogs has put a few pages up which I read, I think it was PaulW, the link is in the most recent 'how do I start in sports shooting" thread.

For what its worth, I find 1/500th is enough to keep the motion blur down and freeze the ball, feet and limbs still have a little trail to them. If you can, set you camera to Aperture priority of wide open and to auto increment the ISO to keep the shutter at 1/500 minimum.

For auto focus,very dependent on the camera model you have, you want the AF servo running continuously either on half press of the shutter or the AE /AF L button, you then control when the lens starts to seek focus.

Trap focus is another trick I've tried and it works well for corners, where the player runs into the focus sensor area, with the release held down the shutter doesn't open until the focus sensor determines a subject in focus.

alternately, flick the program mode round to the sports setting and most of these will be set for you.

Hearvee · 31-03-2009 4:22pm

All the below are from a Canon 70-300mm f4-5.6, and I'm perfectly happy
with them. All in decent daylight though, it does struggle a bit under floodlights.

eeyore2502 · 31-03-2009 4:45pm

I have a canon 70-300 and take pictures for the local rugby club and it does the job fine. Hopefully when money is better I can upgrade to a quicker lens but it does for the moment.

chaotic_vr · 31-03-2009 5:14pm

Thanks everyone. There's some good pics here. ye the matches are all early morning and won't be near floodlights yet so provided the lights ok I should be grand. I'll hold off buying anymore lenses for the moment until I get used to taking the pics of the matches and need something better.

njburke · 31-03-2009 5:27pm

Hearvee>
They look good to me, detail down down to bits of grass and sand flying up, what camera body do you use and what kind of money does that lens go for.

Paulw · 31-03-2009 5:38pm

kgiller wrote: »

What kind of shutter speeds should a sports photographer aim for? I was taking shots at about 1/1250-1/2000 depending on light. Should i try for faster speeds?

Also, should i use AI servo, or just normal AF, or manual?

For shutter speeds, I start with 1/400 sec and then try for as fast a shutter speed as I can manage, while trying to keep down the ISO (noise).

For focus, I use AI Servo for action.

All a matter of personal preference though.

kgiller · 31-03-2009 8:52pm

The disc travels pretty fast in Ultimate, so need some pretty high shutter speeds, probably the same as soccer.

The thing about using AI servo is that you cant really do much with composition with the area of focus being in the centre of the picture (if you know what i mean). If i wanted to compose the picture differently to just having the subject in the centre, then AI servo doesnt really work. (i kno you can change the AF point in the viewfinder, but not really possible in high speed game.

Heres some shots...

sorry about the size, thats what picasa gives me.

eeyore2502 · 31-03-2009 8:58pm

Can't see the pictures.

Hearvee · 31-03-2009 11:45pm

njburke wrote: »

Hearvee>
They look good to me, detail down down to bits of grass and sand flying up, what camera body do you use and what kind of money does that lens go for.

Thanks!

Just got myself a 40D, so used that at the Westmeath-Donegal game for the first time. Anything before that was with a 350D.

As for the lens I got it from Kerso for £289 just over a year ago, but according to
http://camerapricebuster.com/Canon_EF_70-300mm_f4-5.6_IS_USM_pc.html
it was a bargain as the cheapest there is over £400!!!

njburke · 01-04-2009 9:13am

^^^
Cheers, so thats camera and lens combo for approx 1000 euros.
One of the other soccer coaches just brought himself back a 350D from Korea, I assume he'll have the same challenges shooting soccer with the 350D as I have with the D70S. He has older E lens from his old canon film body.

Sport Lense Question

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