Which Lens would be best

[Bella99]

Hello, I take action shots of sport dogs at my club and would like to upgrade my camera lens. currently I am using the canon zoom lens EF 75-300mm with the canon EOS Rebel T7. I would appreciate some recommendations on a new lens as we have a trial coming up soon.

e a trial coming up soon and the participants will most likely be expecting photos of their dogs. Here are some examples of my photos.

 

[jcdeboever]

Why are you looking to upgrade? Your next step up would be L series glass but there are a few or more options.

 

[Space Face]

Personally I'd go for one of the 70-200mm f/2.8L lenses (MKii is what I have) or if you can't stretch to that the f/4.

 

[Bella99]

Why are you looking to upgrade? Your next step up would be L series glass but there are a few or more options.

During trials my lens would have to be able to zoom in quite far as I cant be walking all over the field. We trial on soccer field to high school football sized fields. With my current lens when I zoom in all the way the quality gets lower it seems. Sorry, I am just a beginner so I hope this makes sense.

 

[Space Face]

OK, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM MK 1 might suit as well.

 

[RVT1K]

Your budget will probably be the limiting factor. How much are you looking to spend?

 

[Bella99]

Your budget will probably be the limiting factor. How much are you looking to spend?

Thousand and under? Is that good enough? I don't mind if it is used

 

[ac12]

A soccer field is rather big. Where are you in relation to the dogs?
- The pics make me think you are on the field, not up in the bleachers.
Upload a few uncropped images. This will let us see how much "space" there is around the dogs and handlers.
- The more space you have, the longer the lens you may want.
- BUT, a long lens can be harder to track a fast moving subject. Everything comes with a compromise.

If you are on the field a GOOD 70-300 may work fine.
A 100-400 will give you more reach, at the cost of not being wide enough if they get closer to you.

If you are up in the bleachers a 150-600 will work better.
- Warning, with something like the 150-600, you are going to need to use a monopod or tripod. It is bulky and heavy.


There is also the issue of technique.
A 300mm lens on a T7i is a 13.7x magnification lens.
That requires proper technique to use well.

For a moving subject, if the shutter speed is not quite fast enough, you will get subject blur.
I would be up at 1/1000 sec.

On the T7i, if you are using "sports scene" mode, the autofocus is in zone mode.
In zone mode the T7i uses "closest subject" logic. So if the handler is closer to you than the dog, the camera will focus on the handler, not the dog. It could also focus on the grass between you and the dog (I've seen that happen once in a while).

 

[ac12]

On shot #4, the depth of field (DoF) appears to be shallow. Only the head is in focus.
If you want the entire dog in focus, you need to reduce your aperture to give you more DoF.

At a specific aperture, DoF is shallower the closer you are to the subject.

 

[Bella99]

A soccer field is rather big. Where are you in relation to the dogs?
- The pics make me think you are on the field, not up in the bleachers.
Upload a few uncropped images. This will let us see how much "space" there is around the dogs and handlers.
- The more space you have, the longer the lens you may want.
- BUT, a long lens can be harder to track a fast moving subject. Everything comes with a compromise.

If you are on the field a GOOD 70-300 may work fine.
A 100-400 will give you more reach, at the cost of not being wide enough if they get closer to you.

If you are up in the bleachers a 150-600 will work better.
- Warning, with something like the 150-600, you are going to need to use a monopod or tripod. It is bulky and heavy.


There is also the issue of technique.
A 300mm lens on a T7i is a 13.7x magnification lens.
That requires proper technique to use well.

For a moving subject, if the shutter speed is not quite fast enough, you will get subject blur.
I would be up at 1/1000 sec.

On the T7i, if you are using "sports scene" mode, the autofocus is in zone mode.
In zone mode the T7i uses "closest subject" logic. So if the handler is closer to you than the dog, the camera will focus on the handler, not the dog. It could also focus on the grass between you and the dog (I've seen that happen once in a while).

They're not cropped photos. Believe I uploaded the full sized photo. This is just training so I am rather close to the dog and handler. During trial I can be on the field and around the edges of it moving around. What I meant was that I cant be right in the middle where the judge will be. Also, on my camera the mode being used is TV mode (again I am learning) There will be times where I will need to focus on both dog and handler, for example during the heeling phase, and times where I will need to focus on the dog and the helper (the guy the dog bites) during the protection phase. This is a fast paced sport.

 

[Braineack]

On shot #4, the depth of field (DoF) appears to be shallow. Only the head is in focus.
If you want the entire dog in focus, you need to reduce your aperture to give you more DoF.

At a specific aperture, DoF is shallower the closer you are to the subject.

I'm looking at the pics, and would suggest faster glass... like the 400 5.6, or 100-400 4.5-5.6, or 300 2.8.


im curious of the camera settings of the above set, looks like very high ISO on a bright day too...

 

[jcdeboever]

My suggestion based on what you are telling me is that you have not figured out your current lens. Now, I'm simply saying this because an upgrade in a lens is not necessarily going to improve your photography. Understanding your camera settings and what's required to get it to perform is a much better way in determining the upgrade. Sure, you could spend a grand on a 300mm prime f2.8 lens but that is not going to benefit you if you don't have an understanding on how to set your camera up to shoot the event. I would suggest based on the images you posted, the lens is more than capable but may require you to gain a better understanding of the camera and then practice with it. Then you would have a thorough understanding of what you need. I wish I could just tell you to buy that 300mm prime but I would be misleading you. So many amateurs/enthusiast chase the gear instead of chasing the skill and I am just as guilty. Better gear does not replace better skill, better skill makes better use of the gear.

 

[Bella99]

My suggestion based on what you are telling me is that you have not figured out your current lens. Now, I'm simply saying this because an upgrade in a lens is not necessarily going to improve your photography. Understanding your camera settings and what's required to get it to perform is a much better way in determining the upgrade. Sure, you could spend a grand on a 300mm prime f2.8 lens but that is not going to benefit you if you don't have an understanding on how to set your camera up to shoot the event. I would suggest based on the images you posted, the lens is more than capable but may require you to gain a better understanding of the camera and then practice with it. Then you would have a thorough understanding of what you need. I wish I could just tell you to buy that 300mm prime but I would be misleading you. So many amateurs/enthusiast chase the gear instead of chasing the skill and I am just as guilty. Better gear does not replace better skill, better skill makes better use of the gear.

ok

 

[ac12]

They're not cropped photos. Believe I uploaded the full sized photo. This is just training so I am rather close to the dog and handler. During trial I can be on the field and around the edges of it moving around. What I meant was that I cant be right in the middle where the judge will be. Also, on my camera the mode being used is TV mode (again I am learning) There will be times where I will need to focus on both dog and handler, for example during the heeling phase, and times where I will need to focus on the dog and the helper (the guy the dog bites) during the protection phase. This is a fast paced sport.

TV mode ???
Never heard of that. I will have to look at the T7 manual.
Do you have the T7 or the T7i?

You NEED do another shoot, but shoot from about the same distance that you will be at when shooting during judging events. Otherwise you cannot determine if your 70-300 is long enough, or NOT long enough. And your practice shooting will not duplicate what you will run into at a judging event.
Practice conditions (including distance to the subject) should be as close to the actual conditions as possible.

You being close, for these pics, explains the shallowish DoF.

 

[weepete]

@ac12 Tv is canon speak for shutter priority (stands for time value)

To the OP, it's a difficult question becuse it sounds like you'll be in the same category as sports photographers and that kinda puts you in the big white category.

Will the events take place during the day or would you be looking to shoot indoors or night?

Settings wise you might find that you'll need to look at shooting in manual mode, setting the aperture and shutter speed yourself, but using auto ISO. This way you can control the depth of field and the shutter speed.

Focal length wise it's pretty tough to say, I'd imagine that 400mm-600mm is where you'd want to be at, but fast glass at those lengths costs a lot of money. A 150-600mm may be an option, but only if you have good light. A lot of sports photographers go for two camera bodies, with a big lens on a monopod and a wider lens for when the action gets close. It may be worth renting a few lenses, that way you could try them out and find something that works.