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Question for sports shutterbugs on lenses selection. (1 Viewer)

SwampDawg

SwampDawg

Footballguy
I've always been a bit of a shutterbug since I took a photography class back in high school. Over the past several years as my kids got more involved in sports I got into it more. I picked up a decent Nikon (D3400) and the standard 70 to 300mm lenses and it's worked really well for me. But as my youngest son who is now in 7th grade starts to play more night games for his school and travel soccer teams I've noticed that a different lenses combo is going to be needed to shoot in stadium lighting. I talked to a couple people I know and got some suggestions of a 70-200 f2.8. Anyone shoot with one of these? Are they worth the price? Will it work well in stadium lighting? What brand Nikon, Sigma, Tamron ? Any other suggestions ?

 
I use Canon and am not familiar with their specific lenses, but Nikon in general is good and 70 - 200 is a very good telephoto range for the distance you will likely be able to shoot. Plus, with the cropped sensor, you will effectively be shooting up to 300 mm. 

As for the aperture, a constant 2.8 (does not vary across zoom range) is going to be the biggest factor for catching good light in the condition you describe. 

And, for the typical price range, it is hard to beat - tho not cheap. 

A longer ranged fix aperture is a pretty pricey investment, and you really need that 2.8 - especially on a cropped sensor. 

I honestly cannot recommend a brand or specific lens for Nikon, but I think you got good advice & are on the right track. 

Good luck. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
SwampDawg said:
I've always been a bit of a shutterbug since I took a photography class back in high school. Over the past several years as my kids got more involved in sports I got into it more. I picked up a decent Nikon (D3400) and the standard 70 to 300mm lenses and it's worked really well for me. But as my youngest son who is now in 7th grade starts to play more night games for his school and travel soccer teams I've noticed that a different lenses combo is going to be needed to shoot in stadium lighting. I talked to a couple people I know and got some suggestions of a 70-200 f2.8. Anyone shoot with one of these? Are they worth the price? Will it work well in stadium lighting? What brand Nikon, Sigma, Tamron ? Any other suggestions ?
Click to expand...
Forgot to quote. 

 
I have a similar camera, and need a similar upgrade... I am considering the latest generation of the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 as a more budget-ish friendly option. 

 
Jaysus said:
I have a similar camera, and need a similar upgrade... I am considering the latest generation of the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 as a more budget-ish friendly option. 
Click to expand...
I actually just rented this exact lens for 10 days from lensrentals.com because my son had night games on the 11th and 19th and I wanted to try it out. Definitely a huge improvement when shooting low light and under lights. Unfortunately on the 11th it was a home middle school game and the lighting at our schools field is really second rate. They are way better then I would have gotten with my standard lens, no motion blur just a little more noise then I would like. This past Saturday I shot one of his travel games at a well lit field, those pictures came out really crisp. Only issue was the stadium was set up that you couldn't get close to the field so I only got decent shots when they were right in front of me.  I did use it on the weekend at a tournament during the day as well. Loved how I could use the lower f-stop to get a shallower depth of field on the daytime shots as well.

These are the tournament shots, both my sons team and a friends U10 team. I'll see if I can post some of the night time shots this evening.

https://waltersahaydak.zenfolio.com/p317048715   

https://waltersahaydak.zenfolio.com/p244515464

I'm going to start looking at what might be out there slightly used.

 
SwampDawg said:
I actually just rented this exact lens for 10 days from lensrentals.com because my son had night games on the 11th and 19th and I wanted to try it out. Definitely a huge improvement when shooting low light and under lights. Unfortunately on the 11th it was a home middle school game and the lighting at our schools field is really second rate. They are way better then I would have gotten with my standard lens, no motion blur just a little more noise then I would like. This past Saturday I shot one of his travel games at a well lit field, those pictures came out really crisp. Only issue was the stadium was set up that you couldn't get close to the field so I only got decent shots when they were right in front of me.  I did use it on the weekend at a tournament during the day as well. Loved how I could use the lower f-stop to get a shallower depth of field on the daytime shots as well.

These are the tournament shots, both my sons team and a friends U10 team. I'll see if I can post some of the night time shots this evening.

https://waltersahaydak.zenfolio.com/p317048715   

https://waltersahaydak.zenfolio.com/p244515464

I'm going to start looking at what might be out there slightly used.
Click to expand...
These are really nice shots SD.

As for the used market, I think that is a good way to go. I have not bought any lenses since '12 - so I am not sure of the current best methods, but I do know that there is plenty of good deals out there.

Also, regarding the "noise" - at one time, I was super anal about avoiding/getting rid of all noise. I am not quite as concerned these days. The modern digital camera has come a long way in recent years, and when looking at the "grain" of a lot of the all time great photos ... I just don't care as much as I used to. I've even cut back on my "noise reduction" slider when developing - a little noise helps with preventing "banding" and it keeps details better - imo, of course.

Anyways - keep shootin'.

 
Jaysus said:
I have a similar camera, and need a similar upgrade... I am considering the latest generation of the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 as a more budget-ish friendly option. 
Click to expand...
I actually just got this for Christmas. Used it Saturday at a girls HS basketball game getting some pictures for a friend of their daughter and loved it.  Now I'm going to work on upgrading my camera body, I have a D3400 which is ok. A couple weeks ago a friend who is a professional and shoots for a couple of the local schools sporting events asked me to cover our HS boys team as we had a kid going for his 1000th point and she had another event to cover. She loaned be her D750 with the 28-70 f2.8 and I fell in love. The camera is just so fast, when I used mine this past weekend I felt like the camera was too slow for the lens now.  Oh and I managed to get the perfect shot of the basket, he got a steal and a right handed lay up right in front of me. The 28-70 is perfect for basketball and will look to get one down the road but since my sons primary sport is soccer I wanted the 70-200 first, I can make due at his basketball games for now.

 
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