Action Photography Lens

[crayfish13]

I shoot a lot of skateboarding, other sports and I need one or two good lens. I am getting canon 30d body only and I want a fisheye and a another lens maybe something like 50mm and I was wondering what you guys would recommend. I wanna get good lenses that will last, because everyones been telling me to buy good lenses and keep them. So how much do you think i should spend for good lenses. Or maybe buy the 20d and better lenses. What do you think.

 

[Don Simon]

I wanna get good lenses that will last, because everyones been telling me to buy good lenses and keep them.

I think pretty much any lens will last if looked after properly. You don't necessarily need to keep good lenses, one thing about lenses is they don't devalue anything like most camera bodies do. I think the point is more that if you buy a really good lens you will want to keep it.

So how much do you think i should spend for good lenses.

Well, how much can you afford to spend?


With action photography you want to be able to freeze the action. That means a fast lens, and to keep costs down that may mean a prime lens. Yet depending on the sport in question a zoom lens may be preferable. A fast zoom lens does not generally come cheap. But first there's the question of how close you will be to the action, that will surely determine what kind of focal length you need. It's best to narrow down your requirements a bit first before looking for specific lenses.

 

[crayfish13]

I will be shooting mostly skateboarding. So really I can get as close as I want or a far as I want. I was thinking a 50mm would be about right. But I also want a fisheye or wide angle. I dont want to spend more than $500 or $600. I will probably get a 50mm prime first then expand from there. What lenses would you recommend.

 

[JIP]

You can easily fit the 50 into your budget but a fast fisheye will be a bit of a strech if you look for a 2.8 you are talking above a grand.

 

[crayfish13]

The fisheye can wait. What 50mm would you recommend for shooting sports.

 

[crayfish13]

Ok i found a canon 50mm prime f1.8 II EF Lens for $114 canadian do you think this would get the job done. I was also looking for a zoom lens and I found this 70-300mm f4-5.6Di LD Macro for $256.80 and was wondering if the macro was any good and if this was a very good lens at all.

 

[Don Simon]

The f/1.8 would certainly be fast enough, and that is a good price.

That Tamron 70-300mm is not a very good lens, but it is an average lens that is entirely capable of producing good images if you work within its limitations. For me that means stopping down at least a couple of f/stops, and not going all the way to 300mm. I would not pay $250 CAD for it; $200 might be ok. I got the same lens without the digital-specific coating (which I doubt makes a great difference) for about £50 ($115 CAD). As such it was fairly good value for the money, but I don't consider it suitable for fast sports at all - not with a maximum aperture of f/5.6 at the long end and not much good before f/8.

 

[250Gimp]

I have the 50mm 1.8 II that you are looking at and it is a great lense!! A bit on the plastic side, but I got it used for $100 canadian with four filters. I really enjoy using it and it takes nice sharp pics.