Telephoto lens for photographing swimming: I am new to this site and I absolutely love it. I am an amateur photographer and shoot many different subjects but I have been wanting to...

jmillermom

I am new to this site and I absolutely love it. I am an amateur photographer and shoot many different subjects but I have been wanting to purchase a telephoto lens for shooting swim meets. Any suggestions on what kink of lense I should invest in? Thanks in advance, JoDee~

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

jmillermom wrote:

I am new to this site and I absolutely love it. I am an amateur photographer and shoot many different subjects but I have been wanting to purchase a telephoto lens for shooting swim meets. Any suggestions on what kink of lense I should invest in? Thanks in advance, JoDee~

You do not provide enough information. What type of camera? APSC? FX? Distance to swimmers? inside? outside? There are a myriad of lenses, but the wrong one will do you no good.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Welcome to the forums.
What will the lighting conditions be like (indoor at night or outdoor in daylight for example)?
What is your budget?
What acess to the venue will you have (up in the stands as a spectator or a lot closer)?

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

jmillermom wrote:

I am new to this site and I absolutely love it. I am an amateur photographer and shoot many different subjects but I have been wanting to purchase a telephoto lens for shooting swim meets. Any suggestions on what kink of lense I should invest in? Thanks in advance, JoDee~

Welcome to UHH. I would look at a Zoom that would go out to 300 or greater. Do not know your camera so I can't suggest a specific lens

pahtspix

If you have a crop sensor camera (APSC), I purchased a Tamron 70-300mm VC which has served me very well..It will give you an effective reach of 105mm to 450mm which should be great for your purposes. Works GREAT, and can be had for less than $350 at last check..Also comes with a 6 year warranty assuming you buy it from a USA authorized source.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

I shoot a lot of swim meets, been doing it for years. With my D5200 I use the 18-140DX lens indoors and the 18-300 DX lens outdoors. I get great pictures, including stop action water droplets on nice sunny days, but indoors, it's usually too dark to get such shutter speeds, so the pictures are more general.

Rhinophoto Loc: Davis, CA

When my son was playing water polo and swimming (mostly outdoors here in California), I purchased a Nikor 80-400 that served me well. Now that he's moved from the pool to the couch, it's my birding lens.

Mike

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

jmillermom wrote:

I am new to this site and I absolutely love it. I am an amateur photographer and shoot many different subjects but I have been wanting to purchase a telephoto lens for shooting swim meets. Any suggestions on what kink of lense I should invest in? Thanks in advance, JoDee~

You really need to tell people what camera you are using- if you are seriously seeking advice.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

jmillermom wrote:

I am new to this site and I absolutely love it. I am an amateur photographer and shoot many different subjects but I have been wanting to purchase a telephoto lens for shooting swim meets. Any suggestions on what kink of lense I should invest in? Thanks in advance, JoDee~

There are free apps that can calculate the field of view for any camer/lens focal length combination. You can approximate this at the pool by looking through your hand frames. That might give you an idea of where most of your subjects need to be for any given focal length. An aperture as low as 2.8 would be good but most zooms reduce the minimum aperture limit as the focal length increases and you need higher ISO's to keep the shutter speed up. You could also consider using a fast prime lens and then crop the image in PP to enlarge the subject. I have a 35mm F1.8 for my D7000 crop frame for this. You can easily shoot handheld at 1/60 sec and still have a decently low ISO, or up the shutter speed to control action and not have to go through the roof on ISO. There's always trade-offs.

67skylark27 Loc: Fort Atkinson, WI

Welcome to the forum!

Fill us in on the type of camera you have and whether you'll be shooting indoors or out.

Outdoors most zooms will do just fine but a 18-140 range will be good, then to get
really good shots the popular 70-200 f2.8.

Budget wise a prime 85mm f1.8 is a great budget sports lens, I use it for indoor volleyball
and it works very well. Then crop in Lightroom.

jmillermom

Nikon D5300. Indoor. I unfortunately cannot get very close to the action.

jmillermom

Nikon d5300

jmillermom

Nikon D5300. Indoor (Sometimes low light) I sit in the stands as a spectator. This is as good as I can get.

jmillermom

I'm shooting with a Nikon D5300. Lighting indoors is sometimes low. Budget is flexible. Spectator seating.

Gorzek

I have photographed swimming for over thirty years. I generally try to photograph the swimmers from deck level. My go to lens is the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, on a D-3 or D810. Most times I have a SB-800 flash on the cameras hot-shoe with power set to minus 2/3. The shutter priority at 1/250 and the ISO used at between 1,600 to 4,000. High ISO and grain is not an issue with the introduction of Nikonâs D-3 seven years ago.
~ Don, from Menomonee Falls, a Nikon user for fifty plus years (circa 1963 with the Nikon S-2 rangefinder camera).

SB-800 with Window back lighting