Lens for indoor sports

[hewhoknows]

Recently went to a sports event to try my hand at taking some photos and have fell in love with sports photography. The environment was excellent, and it was great seeing the reactions of people looking at the shots id captured of them.

I was lucky enough to be able to use a slight flash which enabled me to use the basic lenses i had to capture images. Used my 18-55 kit lens with a flash as the only other lens i had (sigma 70-300 f4) wouldnt take any decent picture under the darker light.

I do have a 50mm f1.8 prime lens for my D60 and it was working ok but found it hard to get sharp images due to the manual focus and my subject moving around alot. Wish i had bought the f1.4 auto focus now.

I have been searching around for a new lens to buy but as slightly confused tas to which one to go for. I proabab;y need a zoom lens as i can be both right on top of my subject or several meters away, depending on the event layout.

Wondered if anyone could offer their advice as to best lenses to opt for. I have a Nikon D60 which i know i will struggle with ISO too.

Thanks

 

[Bristolian]

Hi Matt,

I do quite a bit of judo photography where the light levels are poor to bad

The only effective solution is a fast lens, so something akin to f/2.8 or faster is needed. I wanted a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom but couldn't really afford it at the time so settled for a Sigma 28-70 f/2.8. This has turned out to be a very good lens and I'm more than happy with the results I get. Lately I've also invested in a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 for those ocassions where I have to shoot from further away.

As you've already found out, the 50mm f/1.8 is not the answer if you have to manually focus so you need to look for something that will af on the D60 or upgrade the body When I started out I was using a D40 which is not dissimilar to your D60. From there I went to the D80 - but its iso performance was worse than the D40 - before ending up with the D90.

Hope this helps

 

[hewhoknows]

Thanks Steve, appreciate your advice. I have been thinking of upgrading the body and have been looking at either a D90 or D300 depending on what i can afford. Been trying to work out if its best to splash on a decent lens or a new body, still undecided at the moment.

I think the Sigma 20-70 f2.8 sounds like a good option for what i want to shoot, which is not to dissimilar to you - kickboxing.

Time to spend some cash me thinks

 

[hewhoknows]

whats your thoughts on the Nikon 18-200mm F3.5 lens, how well would this cope with indoor shooting? Or do i really need to get an f2.8?

 

[pooley]

You really need to go as fast as you can afford!

I used to cover a lot of boxing and always found myself using my 50mm and 85mm f1.8's a lot. I always found the extra speed invaluable and having a prime just makes you concentrate all the more.