Shooting Baseball (and other sports)

[jefg99]

OK, let's say I'm off to an Iron Pigs game tonight...what lens do I take with me? I have a Canon, but that's not critical is it? To complicate things, part of it will be in daylight, part under the lights. I know I'd be best off with an f2.8L, but this is a hobby for me, not a business. 250mm?  135mm with a 1.4x or 2.0x converter? How low of an f-stop can I get away with?

Here's an article I just read regarding a good sports lens...

"Recommended Canon lens for sports photography

EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM is currently one of the best sports photography lenses on the market for Canon users. It is a fast, ring USM lens, that results in sharp images. It's also fully compatible with Canon EF 1.4x and EF 2x extenders, in case you find later on you need extra distance coverage.

Recommended Nikon lens for sports photography

For Nikon SLR users, the AF-S VR NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens is currently one of the best for serious sports photographers. It is a high speed telephoto lens that has an inbuilt Silent Wave Motor for fast autofocusing. It is also compatible with Nikon TC-17EII (1.7x), TC-14EII (1.4x) and TC-20EII (2.0x) teleconverters.

The downside to both these recommendations, is that they are expensive professional models. The EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM, sells for around $3900 USD at time of writing, and the AF-S VR NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens is $6500 USD. However, if you intend on doing a lot of serious sports photography, then they are well worth the money.

Yikes!! Isn't there a cheaper sports photography lens? [note: this is still part of the article, not my words  ]

You could get away with a cheaper 200mm focal length telephoto lens. Especially if you also attach a teleconverter to your setup as well. A good lens for closer sports photography, is a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens, which currently sells for around $1500 USD. For Nikon camera owners, there is the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor Lens for aproximately $1700 USD. "

To me, the "funny" part is that he thinks $1,500-1,700 for a lens is something to spend to get away cheaper.

[jefg99]

Maybe it's not so funny. The more I read (and comprehend), the more I realize that shooting baseball at night is something I should just accept not doing, unless I want to invest some serious bucks. I suppose everything does have a price, and it's a "cost-benefit ratio" (Scott, are you impressed?  that seems to be far too high.

[Brian Keifer]

Where will you be sitting?  Unless you're going to be right on the edge of the field or aren't looking to take shots of individual players but instead the stadium as a whole, I say sit back and enjoy the game. =)

[Ric]

So what is wrong with your G11?  I went to a Phillie's game, sat in the Corporate Boxes near the top and I only had my G10 with me... I took some really great shots too with it. I got the outfielders and the Pitcher/Hitter with no problem with that camera. Which is just like yours with small differences. I say if you don't want to shoot pictures of ballgames for money then why spend all the money for that lens. Try your little guy and see what you think.

On the other hand... I bought my Sigma 28-300mm f3.5-6.3 just to shoot high school football games with and sold the pictures to the local paper. That lens cost me only about $500.00 and does a great job. No need to spend high amounts of money to get great results. It is not the lens that makes the picture, it is the Photographer. If you take the exact same lens and camera and give all to 10 people to take the exact same thing then you will see you will have 10 different images. No one shoots the same although I wish I could... lol

[jefg99]

Just got back from the game. My G11 does fine under the lights, as long as no one is moving on the field. The best shots I got were the parachutests (sp?) dropping from the sky. Brian, I tried sitting back and enjoying the game, but the Iron Pigs didn't coooperate.

[slr387]

A few lenses you might want to look at ar Sigma, Tamron, or Quantaray. All are inexpensive and work great. I have many Quantaray lenses and love them.