Lens reccomendations for low-light indoor action

Hi-- I'm a super-newbie to photography. Just picked up a Canon 30D for school a week ago, and now have the opportunity to shoot an indoor rodeo for a small-town newspaper. I only have the kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5), which I quickly finding to be useless for less-than-optimal shooting conditions.

I'm not sure what lens I should get for indoor, low-light action shooting. How would this lens work? Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 MK II EOS

Any other suggestions?? I'm not even sure where to start....:blush2:

Thanks!

Diane

I think if your a good distance from the action you would need something in the line of a 80-200mm. but check in the sports threads.......

Yeah, I would love a lens like that, but I'm not sure I can afford it right now. If I'm taking crowd shots where I could be reasonably close to the action, would that other lens work well?

Hmmmm... maybe the 200mm isn't out of my price range? Would one like this work?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

The 50mm/f1.8 is a very nice lens. It's reasonably fast, sharp and if you're close enough you should be able to work with it. I think you probably need to use the flash indoors though unless the lighting is very good. You should practice first in a similar lighting indoor situation. You also have to be careful because of the DOF which can be narrow with the 1.8 aperture.

It's still a great lens to have - I have a 50mm/f1.4 - I upgraded a couple of years ago from the 1.8. They're both great lenses. I love mine.

The zooms that you mentioned aren't fast enough IMO. I have only used Canon, so am not sure about Sigma. I hope others will help you out here.

Liz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by asdf.0

Yeah, I would love a lens like that, but I'm not sure I can afford it right now. If I'm taking crowd shots where I could be reasonably close to the action, would that other lens work well?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by asdf.0

Hmmmm... maybe the 200mm isn't out of my price range? Would one like this work?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

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The lens in your link has a good range, but at f/4 - 5.6 is a bit slow for indoor shooting. The 50 mm f/1.8 will be great for indoor shooting, but because it is not a zoom you may spend a lot of time moving closer to or away from your subject to get the shot. That will help to make you a better photographer, but you may miss a few shots in the process.

My suggestion in the short term would be to go with the 50mm f/1.8 and save for something like the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 (with or without IS depending on how long you want to save). If you are looking for something with about the same range as the kit lens I would HIGHLY recommend the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 XR Di. I have this lens and love it. Photo John recommended it to me in a post a while back and remains my hero to this day for doing so!

**edit** P.S. The Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 is also a good lens and has almost exactly the same range as your kit, but is still faster and so better in the low light situations.

I'm guessing that you'll need to be at ISO800 or 1600 to get a decent shutter speed. Low light and action is very tricky and you will need a fast lens to do it - by fast I mean large maximum aperture.

The 50 f1.8 is a good choice but a 50 f1.4 is 2/3 stop faster and that can be a big difference; the difference between a little motion blur and too much for example. A 50mm lens isn't very long but you've got a lot of resolution with that camera. I'm not saying this is the best approach but you could use a fast 50mm lens, crop to a good composition and still have enough resolution for your needs.

The Tamron 28-75 is a very good lens, a friend has it. I bought his old Tokina 28-80 f2.8 ATX-PRO (there are several versions but this is their best) and it's a very good lens too which usually sells very reasonably used. The only thing is that f2.8 is two stops slower than f1.4 and that's a night and day difference in some situations.