Picking the right lens for action shots

[lindsabby]

I am new to the world of photoghraphy as a SLR owner. I purchased a D80 in January and am still tring to play with all that it has to offer. I was nominated the team photoghrapher for my daughters competitive U11 girls soccer team. (No pressure there!) I would like to purchase a new lens and I am little confused as to what would suit my needs the best. I have a 55-200mm f4.5-6 and I don't feel I am getting the best shots. I am considering renting a lens for our next tournament and I am looking at the 75-300mm f4-5.6. Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.
Andrea

[BLS439]

What part about your shots don't you like? Are you too far from the subject or are the shots not crisp?

A very popular lens for sports is the 70-200 range. In Nikon-land it translates to a 70-200 f2.8 with or without VR (I think that's what it's called - I'm from Canon-land). Canon also offers less costly 70-200 f4 - I'm not sure that Nikon does.

Something you also may want to do is look for good shape used lenses on photography forums. Good deals can often be had and nice glass can go for as much as 50% off.

[JSPhoto]

In Nikon land it's VR and in Canon Land it's IS (Image Stabilization). For Nikon it's an 80-200 and Canon 70-200.
If you are shooting in daylight a 28-300 or similar is a great lens to cover action close or far off. The f3.5 lens is very sharp too, but pricy at around $2800 new and around $1700 used. It's not light and will take some practice to get used to. If shooting at night or low light use a 70-200 f2.8 the best sports lens made.

JS

[lindsabby]

Thanks for your comments. I have a couple more questions. If I cant' break the bank with the 70/80-200 mm f3.5 could I still get decent shots with a 70-300 mm f4.5 lens. And does the speed of the lens make a difference in the quality of your pictures. (You asked why I did not like my pics: some were a little blurry and I had to do alot of manipulation on my computer because the subjects were to far away) I see Nikon makes an array of different lenses with differing qualities AF/ED/VR and the more they have the more expensive they get. For a well lit day what is really necessary.
Thanks again for all of your commments and I am looking forward to hear more.
Andrea

[BLS439]

JS, thanks! I thought I was close. ;)

Yes, the speed of the lens can affect the quality of the pictures. Slower lenses require slower shutter speeds to let in light. But there are many factors, ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture, and lens speed.

Ex., one shooting ISO 200, 1/500, @f2.8 would have to adjust their settings to get the same exposure with a lens' minimum 4.5 (let's call it 4) aperture. So from part of teh above equation, your known factors are ISO?, 1/?, @f4. So now you need to make the decision, do you increase ISO possibly causing more noise in the shot, do you slow the shutter speed risking motion blur in shots or do you do both and possible have to increase your aperture/depth of field.

Hope that makes sense.
Dave

[JSPhoto]

I don't know much about the Nikon bodies or how each one is AF speed wise, OT could help here, but the body and lens combo have to be fairly fast to focus a moving object or person, slow AF could be the reason your photos are blurred. One thing you can do is pre focus but that not as easy with soccer where the play can end up anywhere.
Nikon makes some longer range lenses similar to the 28-300 but much less expensive. and anything that gives you a wide zoom similar to that should work fine just prefocus and you should get sharper images.
Daytime is easier to shoot and most of the time you should be OK with 4.5 of more.

Not sure about Nikon but most Canon lenses are sharpest at specific f stops, with f9 being Canons norm. The way to tell is doing test shots of the same object at different f stops to see whereyour lens and body are the sharpest. Not difficult, just time consuming. Most of the time you can shoot daytime action at the fstop thats best for your combo.

JS

[lindsabby]

Dave thanks for breaking that down for me. So much to learn in the world of photography. I still have an issue of getting closer to my subjects. Would the 300mm lens help in that respect?
Andrea