Lens for Football In The Winter

CaptainPenguin

CaptainPenguin

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Nigel Cliff
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Yesterday was the final straw for my Canon 70-210 f4 (The old one) as it was so dull that the floodlights were on from kick off and even at 1600ASA I was only getting 128th of a second wide open.So I need a new lens and the initial reaction was 70-200 f2.8.However I then thought about IS would say a 70-300 with IS be an alternative (and a cheaper one) The worry is that I am going to be shooting at 1/60 of a second so will the IS help when shooting football.Any advice greatfully received
 
Ahoy Captain!! I have very limited knowledge of things myself but reading alot of the sport posts it seems that many sports toggers prefer not to use IS as it has no real value when shooting at higher speeds. If you are going to use the lens for other types of photographs as well then I guess IS should be considered.
 
My recent experience has shown that my 70-300 IS is a bit hopeless in the floodlights. I've just got a 70-200 f2.8 IS and I had to shoot at the highest iso to keep the shutter speed at 1/400. I can't comment on the IS. I was recommended to go for that, but its £500 more. Depends on the quality of the floodlights - I recently shot some hockey under lights but they were much brighter than the footie lights.
 
I normally recommend the 70-300IS but in this case it won't help you much.

You need to freeze the action for football - its not like motorsport where panning can work and IS can help you with the stability.

Even with f2.8, your shutter speed is still going to be only 1/250th which I don't think even that is fast enough to freeze things.

The only answer to this mathematical problem is more light... or higher ISO.
 
This time of year you need either a really fast lens, a body which can handle high ISO (3200-6400) really well, or both.

The cheapest f/2.8 zoom option will be the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 for around £500 new. This will not be as sharp as the Canon f/2.8's wide open, but it will certainly get the shutter speed up and allow for shots an f/4 would not make.

If you do go for an IS lens, it can be very useful for sport when using mode 2. This enables you to pan without shake in the vertical direction and can add a "virtual stop" in performance.

The 70-300 IS will not work very well for you. The duller lens will counter any benifits IS may give.
 
Orville said:
If you do go for an IS lens, it can be very useful for sport when using mode 2. This enables you to pan without shake in the vertical direction and can add a "virtual stop" in performance.
Click to expand...

Arrrrgh!

Yes, it will reduce camera shake, but it can't freeze the action. Having a perfectly sharp area of the player and everything else blurred won't cut it will it?

Thats exactly what I meant when I said it won't help you.
 
Yep - for sports you need to freeze the action and the only thing that will do that for you is a high shutter speed. I generally dont go under 1/640th if I can help it.

Therefore, you need the widest aperture you can get.

IS wont help you at all whilst people are movign I'm afraid.
 
Interesting reading, i just bought me a d90 body and went out this morning to be met with a very dark cloudy day, it was rain/hail/sleet turn about. Ok not dark with floods but it was very grey, i used my 55-200 vr nikon lens and set the d90 to min shutter 1/500, shot using A mode as wide open as possible which varied between f4-f5.6 due to the lens and it averaged iso 1400. The results were impressive because my old d40 was so useless in such conditions it wasnt worth even trying but today with the 3d-tracking and high speed continous shooting i was happy with them. They are not razor sharp at 100% but at normal screen viewing size they are very sharp and look great.

Not posted any up cos not sure if the parents be happy about their 11 yr olds being plastered all over the web so cant add a link unfortunetely.

Anyway best ignore me, still learning and today was first shot at this kinda thing, previously i had tried to photo the whippet(not a slow dog by any means lol) but always ended up with very underexposed or blurred shots. I did attempt shooting my mates in the woods on their bikes with this lens and d40 once but failed miserably which resulted in the 50m f1.8 going on and pre focussing before the proper run with the sb-600 which worked very well.

Mike


This morning it was dark enough that the lights were on in the carpark behind and it gave you the impression it was dark
 
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