Express Action Sports

Im looking to buy a lens mainly for taking shots of waterskiing and wakeboarding and ill be taking the shots from the boat. the rope is about 50-60ft so I would like to know what telephoto lens would be good for under $600.

In situations like that I prefer to have a variable zoom lens. It takes a hit on the f stop but the advantage of not changing lenses while bouncing in a boat with spray coming over the bow, makes it worth it to me. Not knowing what camera you have makes it difficult to be too specific. Depending on your sensor chip size the effective lens size will vary. In the 35mm world a decent 75-300 should fall well within your budget. Now if you have 2 bodies I’d like to set up one with a fixed 75 and a fixed 300 on the other – Just my preference I’m sure others will chime in with theirs.

Attached is a link with photo tips for wakeboards

I mostly use my 70-300mm Lens to take youth sports action shots. Would I see much of a difference if I upgraded to the 70 – 300mm IS Lens? My Canon only has 8.00 mega pixels. I hear wonderful things about the Image Stabilizer.

That wouldn’t be much of an upgrade at all.

Your 8 megapixels are plenty enough, they are not the problem.

Your problem is a lens with the biggest possible aperture of f/4, which gets even worse as you use the zoom.
The IS isn’t going to improve that any at all.

You’d be better off with with an f2.8 lens, even if it was the shorter 70-200mm one. If you bought the L lens, you’d have the speed you need, plus the quality to allow you to zoom in.
Add a 1.4x converter, and you’d still have f4.0 all the way through the zoom, plus a 360mm equivalent lens.

I have a Canon 550D and have been asked to do some drag racing photos and pee-wee football photos. Both usually take place from dusk to night, so it’s low light, though stadium lights are present for both.

The ideal choice would of course be the 70-200mmL f/2.8 IS USM, but that is kinda out of my price range right now… and even the non-IS version is still pretty expensive for me. Does anyone know of any alternatives that would work?

I’ve looked at the EF 200mm f/2.8L-II USM, which is under $1,000, but I’m concerned about it not being a zoom lens…

I’ve also looked at the EF 70-200mm f/4L USM, also under $1,000, but will it be fast enough at f/4 rather than f/2.8?

I haven’t done too much action photography, so I’m not really informed on this… any help would be appreciated!

IS will be useless for low light and you will be able to use a tripod anyways.

Theres a pretty big difference in bokeh between F4 and F2.8.

All the lens you listed don’t lose value. So you can buy them new or used and still sell them for about the same price. Just look how much they sell on ebay.

People pay a small fortune to get the 200mm F2.0. Are they concerned that it’s not a zoom? Not at all. It’s a tool for a job and they can get an aperture that they would not have otherwise. It’s the same for you, you don’t have the money for the 70-200mm f/2.8 so you can get the 200mm.

I like the 200mm f/2.8 because it’s discreet and small. You could get a rebel xt or xti + a 85mm f/1.8 and have 2 bodies (if you don’t have them already) with each lens. Now you have 2 large aperture lens with a range covering almost 70-200mm. It’s lightweight, small, fast and efficient.

What I recommend:
t2i + 200mm f/2.8
xt + 85mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8

Or forget the two bodies and change lens when needed.

ok so im researching for a new camera for my schools yearbook class. the budget is 900 and lower. what is the best dslr mostly for action shots with a great zoom lens that i wouldn’t have to purchase separately? Looking for cameras with Canon or Nikon please and thank you.

you always have to purchase lenses separately with the exception of the kit lens, which for sub-$1000 cameras is usually an 18-55, not nearly the range you need for sports

you can look at the Nikon D3100 and Canon T3 or T1i and also look at getting the Nikon 55-200 or Canon 55-250mm lens, which will total to be right about $900 without tax for the T1i and D3100. It will be about $150 cheaper if you go with the T3

using the nikon D1H

First of all, crank up your ISO to 1600 or more.
Secondly, set your camera to "Aperture Priority" and choose the largest aperture opening of your lens (the smallest number). If you are using a normal zoom lens, note that as you zoom, the aperture shrinks (nomber becomes larger) which also reduces the shutter speed. This will cause blurring.

The ideal solution is to use a zoom lens that has a large aperture opening – f2.8 and where the aperture is constant throughout the zoom range. The ideal lens would be the Nikon 70-200 VR which costs an arm and a leg (easily U$D1500). A cheaper alternative is the 50mm f1.8 prime lens (non-zoom). You should be able to get a shutter speed close to 1/500 with this set-up.