Should I upgrade to OS or keep the lens I have?

[Rob4bama]

I'm a beginning photographer. It's just a hobby. I've been taking high school sports photos because I'm a teacher at the school and photoshopping sports posters for parents to upgrade my equipment. I bought a non-os sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens on eBay before I knew a lot about what I was buying. To my untrained eye and the parents eyes, I think my pictures look pretty good. I'm wondering if I should sell this lens though and upgrade to the OS version? Is it better? I shoot at a fast shutter speed to stop the action so I'm not sure if the OS would even be beneficial. Just wondering what others thought.

 

[Markw]

You should upgrade. If I remember from my research correctly, it's a new optical design, and is better optically. Simply because of that point, and the fact that OS is almost never a hinderance (if you know how to use it properly), my advice would be to upgrade.

Some will say for you not to because it won't help with moving subjects (sports), but it will help on almost all other occasions. So, I say it's worth it. But, before you do that, if you're shooting DX, I would say to try to find a used 70-200/2.8 VRI Nikon. It's around the same price I believe, and is better still. You just won't get 4 stops of OS, you'll get 2.

Mark

 

[KmH]

With good camera handleing technique, at 200 mm and shorter focal lengths OS may be helpful, but it's not needed, particularly if you are able to keep the shutter speed up.

 

[Solarflare]

You dont need VR for sports for a simple reason: you need very fast shutter speeds to capture action without blurr. At shutter speeds above 1/500s, VR wont have any beneficial effect anymore.

 

[HughTFall]

@Rob4bama, I suggest you to upgrade on the OS version. It is the latest version, so I'm pretty sure you'll get better results.:thumbup:

 

[Dao]

From what I read, the newer version is optically better. Can you see the different? Not sure. Is it worth to upgrade? It's up to you since different person has different priorities.

From what I noticed, those sports shooter carry a monopod (especially for a heavy lens) and I am sure they may have the OS/IS/VR/VC turn off when using the monopod.

 

[Solarflare]

The main reason why I would use a monopod as such a sports shooter would be the weight of theses lenses, not because of any considerations about vibrations.