Lens reccomendations for low-light indoor action

[asdf.0]

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

[Greg McCary]

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.......

[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?

[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

[Liz]

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

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?

[dmm96452]

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

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

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.

[another view]

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.