Sport indoor shooting on a budget

[manuel87roma]

I just bought a 85mm F1.8 una lens for my canon EOS T1i which is great for portrait.. i also tried to shoot at dancers in a theatre which didn’t come out too bad.. but I just wanted to ask you some advise for an indoor sport shooting lens on a budget of around max 700$.

Which one would you recommend?

Do you think I should just use my 85mm F1.8 lens?

The thing with this lens is that is a prime lens and I have to be quite far in order to get the whole body in frame.. but anyway other than that I just would like to catch a good moments when fast dancers are moving. In focus.

Let me know your thoughts

Thank you in advance

 

[Derrel]

An 85mm f/1.8 lens is a fine choice in poor light and at some distance...it's a good,crisp,sharp,high-perfromance telephoto lens. You are correct: to get a roughly 8.5 foot tall picture area on a 1.6x APS-C Canon body, you MUST be approximately 35 feet distant from the subject. One big issue with the traditional prime lenses (like 35,50,85,100mm) when they are used on a crop-sensor body: the crop-sensor forces the photographer to "stand way back" with lenses whose focal lengths were originally developed for 35mm film use. Still--the 85mm f/1.8 from Canon is a fine lens, and is priced fairly. I owned one for years, and it's a nice lens!

THE "new" 50mm lens from Canon...how about that? You will not need to stand so far away!

Still, for shots from 15,20,30 meters, the 85mm lens is a fine choice!

 

[ac12]

I just bought a 85mm F1.8 una lens for my canon EOS T1i which is great for portrait.. i also tried to shoot at dancers in a theatre which didn’t come out too bad.. but I just wanted to ask you some advise for an indoor sport shooting lens on a budget of around max 700$.
. . .
The thing with this lens is that is a prime lens and I have to be quite far in order to get the whole body in frame..

For me, the issue with indoor sports is lighting, or specifically, the lack of enough lighting.

In your case, a starting problem is your camera. The max ISO of the T1i is 6400. This is limiting in a dim gym, where I've shot up at 12800 and 25600 with my f/3.5-5.6 zoom.

Short of upgrading to something like the T7i, your only option is FAST glass, like f/1.4 to f/2.
In my gym, if I use my 35mm f/1.8 lens, I can shoot at a decent ISO of 3200 (which your T1i can do), instead of up at 12800 or 25600 (which is beyond what you T1i can do).

As for specific lens. It depends specifically on WHAT sport and WHERE you are vs. the players.

• Example1. I shoot basketball and volleyball on the court floor at my local high school. A 35mm on a DX/crop body is sometimes too long, when the action is in close to me, and too short to reach across to the basket on the other side of the court. But that is the trade-off with a prime, the Goldilock's effect.
  
• Example2. There is a parent that shot his daughters volleyball with a 50mm on a DX/crop body, also on the court floor. The 50 allows him to reach further than my 35. But is too long when the action is close to him.
  
• Example3. I have seen people carrying 70-200 f/2.8 lenses, to shoot from the bleachers.

• Issue1. In basketball and volleyball, they switch sides, so you have to position yourself to deal with that. If you are on one side of the bleachers, you are close when they are on your side of the gym, but then when they switch sides, they will be relatively far from you. Then you will need a longer lens to reach to the other side.
  
• Issue2. You do NOT want to shoot through a volleyball net, as the autofocus will likely focus on the net rather than the players on the other side.
• Issue3. Your ability to freely move around the court depends on the level of play. It is probably easy at high school level, difficult as you go up to college, and probably not possible at the pro level.

Here are Canon's fast prime, by focal length, below $700

• 22mm f/2, $250
• 28mm f/1.8, $500
• 35mm f/2, $550 (Youngnuo makes a 35mm f/2 for about $100)
  
• 50mm f/1.4, $330
• 100mm f/2, $500

The 17-55 f/2.8 at $800 is the fastest zoom near your price point. But f/2.8 means it is at the borderline of your system (f/2.8 @ ISO 6400, at my gym), and may not work well in a dimmer gym. Though you could always drop the shutter speed and accept some motion blur.

Depending on WHERE you are in the bleachers vs. the players, your 85mm f/1.8 could be OK.