Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM

[lcp]

I just recently purchased this lens for my E500 (hoping to upgrade to the E3 by Feb). I mainly wanted it for indoor sports. There were many user reviews that specifically said it worked well for indoor sports. However, when I tested it out on my daughter's basketball game yesterday, any shot that involved movement was blurry. Do I need to update my firmware? Does this lens not work on the 500? Am I doing something wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Jaedon]

It's all about the exposure. F2.8 is a wide open but very shallow depth of field. Also shooting at slower shutter speeds to compensate for the lower lighting is going to give you blur with any kid of motion.

I would find the fastest shutter speed you can shoot at at F4 and then adjust exposure by the ISO. Just keep adjusting until you find what works for you.

[Greg McCary]

I just recently purchased this lens for my E500 (hoping to upgrade to the E3 by Feb). I mainly wanted it for indoor sports. There were many user reviews that specifically said it worked well for indoor sports. However, when I tested it out on my daughter's basketball game yesterday, any shot that involved movement was blurry. Do I need to update my firmware? Does this lens not work on the 500? Am I doing something wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

What was the settings on the camera? In low light with fast movement you should be shooting at a high ISO, like 1600 and your shutter speeds should be as fast as you can get them. Yes the lens should do fine for this type work. The E3 is a much better camera than the 500 and will do a better job at working in low lighting. As far as I know there is no firmware upgrade that will help here. You will see a big difference in performance with the E3. But shooting sports is tough on a HS level and even with the E3 you won't keep every shot. But it will solve a lot and your keeper ratio will be much more.

[Greg McCary]

It's all about the exposure. F2.8 is a wide open but very shallow depth of field. Also shooting at slower shutter speeds to compensate for the lower lighting is going to give you blur with any kid of motion.

I would find the fastest shutter speed you can shoot at at F4 and then adjust exposure by the ISO. Just keep adjusting until you find what works for you.

I know you shoot a lot of sports. What shutter speeds should work best?

[lcp]

Won't the higher ISO make more noise in my picture?

I went back and looked at the settings on the pics I took and remember another issue I was having. I have noticed before on my E500 that when set on the sports mode (for continuous shooting), the menu sometimes will not show a fast shutter speed until it detects movement. At the basketball game, it never got above 1/60. If I went back to manual and adjust speed there, it was too dark. If I adjusted my ISO on the sports setting, the pics looked grainy.

Do you guys shoot any indoor sports?

Edit: Some help on this before 5pmish central time would be great. It is our middle schools last home basketball game and I would love to tryout any tips.

[Jaedon]

What ISO were you shooting at?

With the E500 I would not go above ISO 400 and use the fastest shutter I could to get the correct exposure here. Most likely I would shoot at F4 - F8 and adjust accordingly. Too much wider than F4 and you are losing depth of field and beyond F8 you are not going to be able to shoot fast enough to freeze the action. Probably around 1/160 at the most. 1/60 is way too slow for action shots. Consider that you are only 1/3 stop above the lowest recommended hand held shutter speed. If I shoot slower than 1/30th I need stabilization.

Higher ISO will make the picture more grainy but for indoor sports without a flash you have to find a compromise somewhere. It's either grain or underexposed shots making for more work in post.

I haven't shot much indoor sports, so if you need further advise in general about it I would drop into the sorts forum and ask there... but I have shot a lot of fast action motor sports on extremely cloudy days or in near dusk conditions which is similar to what you are facing. Unfortunately I can't see how my skills at panning would help much in your situation.

[Sushigaijin]

If I was trying to get sharp pictures of fast things in low light, I'd set the ISO to 400, the aperture to F/2.8, and shoot in A mode. I would just use the center AF point, and I'd use matrix metering. that should give pretty good results in all situations.

Your depth of field won't be huge, your shots will have some noise, and occasionally you'll be under or overexposed, but you'll probably get a high rate of keepers assuming you can hold the camera still enough.

Has anyone compared the focus speed of this lens with the 50-200 SWD on an E3? I'll buy one or the other in the next month, but it will likely be the zuiko just because my other zuikos have me spoiled...

[Jaedon]

Now to show off the Macro end of the spectrum.... this is what this lens is capable of using window light only.

[Atomic2]

Hey, owners of this lens... is it sharp? hows the focus... quick?

its now down to 700 dollars on Amazon... so its just barely more expensive then a 50-200 first generation. im very tempted, though I wont be buying it until at least summer.

[Jaedon]

Well look at the image above your last post for how sharp it can be at f2.8. The focus is faster than the kit lenses by far, about 20% faster than my other Sigma lens (50 - 500 F6.3) and sharper as well. I am very impressed with the quality... The sales clerk tried to tell me that the new versions of the Sigma lenses (the DG lenses) compare directly with the Canon L glass series... I cannot make a direct comparison but I definitely must say that it is the sharpest lens I have in my arsenal ATM.

[Atomic2]

and you have a 14-54 yes? there seems to be a typo in your signature.

Its as sharp as the 14-54?

[Jaedon]

and you have a 14-54 yes? there seems to be a typo in your signature.

Its as sharp as the 14-54?

yes I do and yes I typoed that line lol.

I would say it is as sharp if not sharper. I have not done a direct comparison on them but the 70 - 200 is definitely my sharpest lens in the box IMHO.