What zoom lens for motorsport?

[G_Dem]

Hi guys and girls,

Going to tottenham court road on sat to buy a zoom lens for my canon 400d. I'll be going to the redbull air-race on sunday so I want something ideal for that reason and with a budget of £400 max.

I originally was going to buy the sigma APO 70-300.

Another lens i'm looking at is the canon 70-300 IS USM but i was worried that the 2 IS modes (vertical or horizontal IS??????) would not work for trying to track aeroplanes.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions of any other lenses?

[scraggs]

The 70-300 IS is a nice lens, but to be honest I dont think I would want to use it for motorsport, the AF seemed a bit on the slow side.
Also the 2 IS modes: one is for general shooting and the other is for horizontal panning.

[G_Dem]

Thanks. Is the AF on the sigma any quicker? I think the IS will be useful for other shots but mainly want to know which has quicker AF and better image quality? Or if there are any other lenses i could consider?

[djaphoto]

My Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro lens at full stretch gets me these kind of images:

http://www.djaphoto.co.uk/main.php/d/1913-1/DSC_3591.jpg

http://www.djaphoto.co.uk/main.php/d/1682-1/DSC_2993.jpg

http://www.djaphoto.co.uk/main.php/d/1923-1/DSC_3609.jpg

My Sigma cost me £180, and the shots are from a Nikon D50, which is 6.1MP :)

[chrisiow]

Canon 70-200mm f/4L from £420

[scraggs]

Canon 70-200mm f/4L from £420

You beat me to it :)
It's what I would go for.

[G_Dem]

just worried the 200mm wont be long enough for the redbull air-race. Apart from that, it looks like a great lens.

[brphotography]

Most sports photographers that I am aware of in Australia use a mixture of 70-200mm F/2.8 and 300mm F/2.8 and most times there shooting with a Canon EOSMKII .... at the end of the day sports is all about timing

[icecavern]

I'd go with x-300mm over an x-200mm for motorsport. I bought a 300/2.8 for the same reason. Whatever lens you get good look panning those red-bull planes as they don't hang about :D

[G_Dem]

I'd go with x-300mm over an x-200mm for motorsport. I bought a 300/2.8 for the same reason. Whatever lens you get good look panning those red-bull planes as they don't hang about :D

:lol:

I bought the sigma apo 70-300 today and im very very happy with it. Just took a pic of a high up helicopter - the sharpness and resolution seemed to be quite good and the auto focus wasnt too bad.

I guess i'm gonna need alot of luck on sunday. Just hope that over the few hundred photos i'll prob take that 1 or 2 come out good! :)

[StuartH]

I would have borrowed a few quid a got this http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=28411 superb lens and works very well with a 1.4x converter..