sports at night: i need a good lenz for shooting football, at night, under lights. i have a nikon d5000 and use a nikkor 55-300 f4.5-5.6 lenz. i know i need a faster lenz, especially...

mhannifin

i need a good lenz for shooting football, at night, under lights. i have a nikon d5000 and use a nikkor 55-300 f4.5-5.6 lenz. i know i need a faster lenz, especially at the varsity and college levels. i am so frustrated with the fuzzies! i am worried, however, that a 70-200, f2.8 won't be zoomy enough. any insight?

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

That would be a great start, unless you want to spend some money. A nice 400/2.8, which would be much better for your stated purpose, would set you back $ 10,000 or so. There's a lot of other, in between choices, but you have not given enough information as to your camera, brand, etc. Doing this right is going to be very expensive!

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

mhannifin wrote:

i need a good lenz for shooting football, at night, under lights. i have a nikon d5000 and use a nikkor 55-300 f4.5-5.6 lenz. i know i need a faster lenz, especially at the varsity and college levels. i am so frustrated with the fuzzies! i am worried, however, that a 70-200, f2.8 won't be zoomy enough. any insight?

My favorite outdoor/night football lens is the Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 EX HSM OS zoom, its the worlds ONLY zoom that goes to 300mm and maintains F2.8 throughout the focal length. On your body it would yield the equivalent field of view of a 180-450mm F2.8, and THAT is nothing to sneeze at from anyones point of view.
Yes its pricey at $3500 new, but good used copies are fairly easy to find for around $2000-$2250. Its also a wonderful indoor sports lens for basketball and volleyball games.

FM Racer Loc: Sacramento, CA

From my brief experience with shooting soccer and lacrosse at night for a sports website, here's my thoughts.

I found I could get down to a SS of 1/500 but started faster. I needed an f stop up above 8 to have a reasonable DOF for the relative fast movement. I used a Tamaron 70-300 f4-5.6 on a Nikon D5100.

I was advised to bump the ISO much higher than I would think would be acceptable. This was north of 2000 IIRC.

This is where I started but I didn't do it for long so JMHOWTFDIK? Maybe you do need a faster lens, but work with what you have for now before you spend money or guess what's fast enough.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

you are exceeding your camera/lens combination abilities. Yes you need a faster lens, but that alone probably won't do it for sports at night. You may also need a FF body that can go much higher on the ISO and still produce an acceptable shot.

I would rent a body lens combo, use just the body and see if cranking the ISO will do the trick for you. Then put on a FX lens and lower the ISO and open up. That will tell you everything you need to know.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

MT Shooter wrote:

My favorite outdoor/night football lens is the Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 EX HSM OS zoom, its the worlds ONLY zoom that goes to 300mm and maintains F2.8 throughout the focal length. On your body it would yield the equivalent field of view of a 180-450mm F2.8, and THAT is nothing to sneeze at from anyones point of view.
Yes its pricey at $3500 new, but good used copies are fairly easy to find for around $2000-$2250. Its also a wonderful indoor sports lens for basketball and volleyball games.

This would be my choice as well, but the only caution is that this lens produces its best images at 120mm. The quality at 300mm is soft in comparison.

A 300 F2.8 prime is a better choice, as is the $10k 400 F2.8.

Of course, a better camera body that will let you shoot at ISO 6400 or higher, like a Nikon D3S, D4 or D4S would be where I would start, Then I could use a slower lens and still get the results I am looking for.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

As others suggested a FX would help. The 70-200 2.8 should be fine. 80-400 is good as well. Throw on a teleconverter. Rent a camera and lense as others have suggested.

twowindsbear

Does the team EVER have a day game? Or play in a stadium with 'TV' lights?? Be sure to shoot that game.

Good luck.

mtbear

A lot depends on 2 things, where you shoot from and how the images will be used. Shooting FB on the sidelines near the line of scrimmage I always preferred my 28-70 2.8 Sigma Pro. With it wide you can see more of whats going on, then zoom into the action. For longer shots I used an 80-200 2.8 Nikon which worked well. There were times when I wanted something longer but not many. How your photos will be used will make a difference also. B&W newspaper prints are less demanding than color magazine prints. Here's a tip. Keep both eyes open, it takes practice. You can follow the overall action with one eye while you monitor the specific shot in the viewfinder.