Lens

[james123]

I am looking for lens for may canon xsi 12 meg camera. I have tried the tamron 70-200 2.8 but it is to heavy, I have back problems so wight is a factor. I am looking for a lens that I can use for night high school sports can I use a 70-200 or 70-300 At 3.5 or 4 To shoot sports a night and get good results.

Thank you.

[mjs1973]

Welcome to the Forums. This post may be better suited to the Sports forum. With shooting anything in low light, the faster the lens the better off you will be. The 70-200mm f/2.8 is a pretty standard lens when it comes to low light sports. Of course that speed and performance comes at a price, both $ and weight. A consumer lens like the 70-300mm's are ok, but I really think you would miss the speed of the f/2.8 lens. That loss of light is going to make it harder to freeze the action. You will need to crank up the ISO to get a fast enough shutterspeed, and that will also increase the noise in the images. Have you thought about using a monopod to to support the weight of the 70-200mm f/2.8?

[EOSThree]

I second the idea of a monopod. You might be able to get away with an f/4 lens and crank up the ISO, I shot a poorly lit concert with an f/4 lens and ISO 1600, but I had to carefully choose my moments and shoot small bursts and pick the one with the least motion blur.

[SmartWombat]

Night sports is where every f/stop counts.
You can push up the ISO get a picture, but it depends whether you'd be happy with the result.
I agree on trying a support, provided you can actually carry the lens and monopod to the event.

[brmill26]

High school sports would be impossible to shoot without F/2.8. An F/4 will not get it done; your shutter speed will be too slow. Get yourself a monopod and let it take the weight.