I am wondering what kind of lens, standard, wide angle, zoom, ect., I would need for action sport photography: snowboarding, skateboarding, bmx. And what are some specs that are good for that. Thanks.
You will need medium telephoto zoom 70-200mm or something like that Best lens for canon is the 70-200L IS USM II which is a constant f/2.8 and costs over 2 grand. I am sure nikon has something very similar. Basically if you look at lens, the biggest difference is the f stops. f/2.8 means you can shoot with less light than f/4 or f/5.6 55-250 EF-S from canon is one of the cheapest ones. It will do the job but don't expect much from the visual quality. For canon anything L will be expensive because that's their "pro" series of lens. But, any zoom 70-200ish with f/2.8 will cost a lot because it's the latest thing.
It would depend how close you are to the action. What camera do you use? The further away you are, the more reach (longer focal length) you need. You will need 2 or 3 lenses, not just 1, and having multiple camera bodies so you don't need to change lenses is very handy. Sports photography requires some of the more expensive photography gear. You can always save a bit, by buying used gear. As an example, to shoot soccer, I use 3 cameras and 3 lenses. All 3 cameras are the same model, the Nikon D300 with the MB-D10 vertical grip, and all 3 are setup exactly the same. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/800716625-USE/Nikon_25432_D300_SLR_Digital_Camera.html On camera #1 - I have a Nikon AF 24-85 mm f/2.8-4D zoom lens mounted. Thats for the close in action. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/207358-USA/Nikon_1929_Zoom_W_A_Telephoto_AF_Zoom.html On camera #2 - I have a AF Nikon 80-200 mm f/2.8D zoom lens. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/124669-USA/Nikon_1986_AF_Zoom_Nikkor_80_200mm_f_2_8D.html Camera #3 and it's lens are mounted on a monopod (lens and camera weight 8 lbs). The lens is a Sigma APO 150-500 mm f/5-6.3 DG HSM OS zoom. Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO Autofocus Lens 737306 - Here is the Sigma, zoomed out to 500 mm while mounted on a Nikon D90, w/MB-D80 vertical grip.
That depends on how far away you are from the object. When shooting a school football game 70-200 will be enough on a small stadium, but if you're gonna shoot at large stadiums from far away, you might actually need 500mm like the previous poster showed he had. Another thing is the camera itself. If you have 12megapixels, you can only crop so much to make a full photo. If you have 21 megapixels, you will be able to crop a lot more. I am not a big sports photography fan so I may not understand why you'd need 24mm wide angle for sports, maybe only if you're trying to take a shot of the entire stadium or something? But for general sports and close-ups, I think something like 70-200 is pretty good as far as the focal range is concerned.
Well I'm not gonna be that far away. By close up shots I mean I'll be like 5 feet away from the snowboarder/skater.
For 5 feet away, I'd probably be looking at 50mm, or wider. (Probably wider...) What do you shoot? Canon, Nikon, something else...? If you're going to be that close, you may need something like a 24mm...
We can't give you specific lens specs if we don't know what camera body you will be using, since the focus and ISO capabilities of the camera are critcal to lens choice. Your budget is also a major consideration. From 5 feet away you will need a wide angle zoom lens. In the Nikon line, something the AF-S 12-24 mm f/4G though better still is the AF-S 14-24 mm f/2.8G.
