Best Lens to Use

Chook · Feb 15, 2013

What would be the best lens for fast action low light? I am wanting to buy my husband a new lens as a surprise. He has been doing outdoor horse event and rodeo photography for quite some time however is limited to daylight shots only as we haven't had the money to get the lens he needs for night events. Any help would be greatly appreciated as photography is purely his thing. He has a Canon 50D.
Thanks

o hey tyler · Feb 15, 2013

Well, it depends entirely how close he is to the action. A 70-200mm f/2.8 would be nice, as it's a zoom lens, but then again an 85/1.8 would also be good too. What's your budget?

texkam · Feb 15, 2013

70-200, f2.8L IS would make a nice gift.

Chook · Feb 15, 2013

He is generally no more the say 20m away from the competitor. A friend had recommended a EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM, means nothing to me! LOL would the F/2.8 be better for him. Theres no real budget I just want to get him what he needs if it takes me longer to save then so be it.

Chook · Feb 16, 2013

hmm looks like I have posted this in the wrong section, SORRY brand new to this forum and clueless when it comes to photography just don't want to waste money buying my husband the wrong thing

Chook · Feb 16, 2013

What would be the best lens for fast action low light? I am wanting to buy my husband a new lens as a surprise. He has been doing outdoor horse event and rodeo photography for quite some time, he is generally no more then 20-30m away from the competitor. However at the moment he is limited to daylight shots only as we haven't had the money to get the lens he needs for night events and won't tell me what he needs cause he won't spend the money on himself. Any help would be greatly appreciated as photography is purely his thing. He has a Canon 50D.
Thanks

texkam · Feb 16, 2013

would the F/2.8 be better for him

Yes. The aperture of the lens will open to a maximum of f2.8 vs f4.0 thus allowing more light to the sensor. You'll pay significantly more for a "faster" lens.

Justman1020 · Feb 16, 2013

Does he have an external flash?

If not maybe look into that instead.

As far as "faster" Lens's for low light, that's hard because there isn't much info on what he is shooting, exc. look for a lens with a low f/stop. (2 or lower)

cgipson1 · Feb 16, 2013

I would say either a 24-70 2.8, if he needs the zoom range... or something like a 50mm 1.4 (I would suggest the 50 1.8 but have heard too many horror stories about it breaking in half).

We could be more helpful if we knew what lenses he has already. Also a budget would be good... as good lenses get expensive!

KmH · Feb 16, 2013

Sticky: DIGITAL DISCUSSION - PLEASE READ THIS! Lenses are not Digital!

The duplicate cross-posted threads have been merged.

TCampbell · Feb 16, 2013

Chook said:
He has been doing outdoor horse event and rodeo photography for quite some time however is limited to daylight shots only as we haven't had the money to get the lens he needs for night events. ... He has a Canon 50D.

The amount of light that a lens collects is based on it's focal ratio. Lower values are better.

A typical consumer zoom lens will have a focal ratio which varies from f/3.5 to f/5.6 or sometimes f/4 to f/5.6. When you see two values (e.g. f/3.5-5.6) it means the focal ratio is f/3.5 when at it's "widest" point (not zoomed in) and f/5.6 when at it's "narrowest" point (completely zoomed in.) The number is based on dividing the diameter of "clear" aperture by the focal length of the lens. E.g. if you had a lens which had a 25mm clear aperture and a 200mm focal length then that lens would be f/4 because 200 ÷ 25 = 4.

The larger that clear aperture, the more light it collects (makes sense when you think about it.)

An f/2.8 lens collects DOUBLE the amount of light as compared to an f/4 lens. That's quite a difference and means that, if you had both an f/4 and f/2.8 lens to compare in the same amount of light, the f/2.8 lens can allow the camera to shoot with a shutter speed twice as fast (the shutter only needs to be open half as long since it collects twice as much light when the shutter is open.)

An f/2 lens would collect DOUBLE the light as compared to an f/2.8 lens... but there is no such thing as a zoom lens with a focal ratio lower than f/2.8... not in a "zoom" lens. You can get lenses that do not zoom which have much lower focal ratios.

Canon makes, for example, a 135mm f/2.0 lens, an 85mm f/1.8 lens, and a 50mm f/1.4 lens (do NOT buy the 50mm f/1.8 lens for action photography... if you're shooting any type of "action" photography then you probably want to stick to lenses that have the "USM" (UltraSonic Motor) focusing motors which are quick to focus. The 50mm f/1.8 lens has a very slow focus motor... by the time it "locks" focus, the subject will have moved to a new distance and the lens will frequently not be able to keep up.)

The EF 200mm f/2.8L IS USM II is probably THE ideal lens... but it's over $2000 for that lens. The original generation I of that lens (the EF 200mm f/2.8L IS USM without the "II" suffix) can be still sometimes be found for possibly around $1300 (still fairly expensive, but an absolute bargain price compared to the current "II" version of the same lens.)

The EF 200mm f/4L IS USM (btw, the "L" suffix is Canon's "Luxury" line... these are the best lenses they make in terms of build quality and performance. But there are some less expensive lenses which compare in optical quality) will be less expensive, but it only collects half the light (an f/4 lens collects twice as much light as an f/5.6 lens... but that may not be enough.) They also make a non-IS version of these lenses. The "IS" is Canon's designation for "image stabilization". A non-IS lens needs a faster minimum shutter speed to avoid hand-held motion blur UNLESS it's being used on a tripod.

You can see that the answer depends on your budget.

Overread · Feb 16, 2013

My advice - don't get him anything.

When it comes to equipment a lot of the choice factor is personal and the right options will vary depending upon an individuals situation, shooting style, requirements, budget, etc... Because you are not your husband you can't make the choice for him, even if you research the right option you could still make the wrong choice for him (and an expensive lens that doesn't fit your shooting style can quickly end up an expensive paperweight).

If you want to treat him the best thing is to:

1) Do some research and get an idea of the market - use this to give yourself a rough budget limit - a cap at least that you can work with financially (it also means you won't get shocked when you see the prices in the shops

).

2) Take him out and surprise him with a trip to the local photography shop to choose what he wants.

You can also consider gift cards or simply opening up the topic to discuss with him. Granted I know that this saps some of the surprise element, but unless he is leaving you very clear and very specific hints as to what he wants its the only way to ensure that you don't spend a lot of money buying something that he will feel guilty about not using because it just doesn't suit his style of shooting.