I'm about to buy my first telephoto lense...

[jwsm]

Hello Good People,

I've just bought a Canon 20D with a EF-S 17-85mm lense. I would like to buy a telephoto lense, but not brake the bank as I pretty much still don't know what the hell I am doing. The telephoto lense will be used to shoot various sporting activities, but mostly soccer games. There would be some night games involved, but I suppose I should learn to walk first, so let's just say where I live it, they play soccer!

Obviously I will be buying better lenses in the future, but I would like to get out there now and start shooting and learn from experience (books included) and from all the crap photo's that I will be taking.

After doing a little research on different photographic forums, I am tossing up between the following two lenses;

Sigma 100-300mm
Sigma 50-500mm

Which one should I get ?(btw i have a monopod)
I will be shooting from both the sideline and goal line?
I would like at least 1 great shot for every 200 I take!
Are there other alternatives in this price range?
What about "extenders", ......or should I leave that fancy word until later?

Basically, Im looking for the lense that will produce good results as my experience grows and a lense that will get me right in amongst the action.

Thank you ever so much for you time!!!

[cdifoto]

Hello Good People,

I've just bought a Canon 20D with a EF-S 17-85mm lense. I would like to buy a telephoto lense, but not brake the bank as I pretty much still don't know what the hell I am doing. The telephoto lense will be used to shoot various sporting activities, but mostly soccer games. There would be some night games involved, but I suppose I should learn to walk first, so let's just say where I live it, they play soccer!

Obviously I will be buying better lenses in the future, but I would like to get out there now and start shooting and learn from experience (books included) and from all the crap photo's that I will be taking.

After doing a little research on different photographic forums, I am tossing up between the following two lenses;

Sigma 100-300mm
Sigma 50-500mm

Which one should I get ?(btw i have a monopod)
I will be shooting from both the sideline and goal line?
I would like at least 1 great shot for every 200 I take!
Are there other alternatives in this price range?
What about "extenders", ......or should I leave that fancy word until later?

Basically, Im looking for the lense that will produce good results as my experience grows and a lense that will get me right in amongst the action.

Thank you ever so much for you time!!!

I have the Sigma 50-500mm and I don't recommend it for night games...it simply does not have a wide enough aperture to expose properly and get proper shutter speeds without a good, high power external flash.

That said, I'd probably go for the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L or the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX. You'll need the 2.8 for shutter speeds and 100mm of reach would help but not a WHOLE lot. The Canon is super sharp and has beautful contrast/color (typical of an L) and is easy to handhold. I have it too. Supposedly the Sigma compares in quality @ about $850 but I went with the L @ about $1150 instead.

[TheObiJuan]

If you can get away with 300mm then get that one. The constant f/4 is great and you can always use an extender to get your to 420mm.

The bigma is nice, but slow to focus and optically slow.
500mm is very nice though.

[cdifoto]

If you can get away with 300mm then get that one. The constant f/4 is great and you can always use an extender to get your to 420mm.

The bigma is nice, but slow to focus and optically slow.
500mm is very nice though.

I have to disagree. Bigma isn't slow to focus. HSM makes it rather quick...it's just not as quick as Canon's USM. Close though. It's still slow optically in that it's only a 6.3 on the long end, making it impossible to get shutter speeds. I have used it at football games with flash though, and I've used it at indoor volleyball games without flash by using negative exposure compensation then adjusting in Photoshop. The results were less than optimal for a color print but plenty for the newspaper.

Also keep in mind that depending on the extender that you use, you'll lose either a stop or 2 of light. Meaning your shutter speeds will be cut in half with a 1.4 or cut into 1/4th with a 2x, bringing you right around the f/6.3 or so of Bigma.

You can either live with the f/4 of the 100-300 which is still slow for night games, get Bigma to get right there in the action if a large enough majority of your games are daylight, and not enough are at night to justify a faster lens, or get a faster lens and wait for the action to come to you since you're limited t 200mm of reach. You can also get an extender for a 2.8 lens to get to 320mm or 400mm but you still lose the same stops...but starting at 2.8 only takes you to 4.0 or 5.6 (I believe those are the stops...I don't have them memorized).

[Rex914]

Hello Good People,

I've just bought a Canon 20D with a EF-S 17-85mm lense. I would like to buy a telephoto lense, but not brake the bank as I pretty much still don't know what the hell I am doing. The telephoto lense will be used to shoot various sporting activities, but mostly soccer games. There would be some night games involved, but I suppose I should learn to walk first, so let's just say where I live it, they play soccer!

Obviously I will be buying better lenses in the future, but I would like to get out there now and start shooting and learn from experience (books included) and from all the crap photo's that I will be taking.

After doing a little research on different photographic forums, I am tossing up between the following two lenses;

Sigma 100-300mm
Sigma 50-500mm

Which one should I get ?(btw i have a monopod)
I will be shooting from both the sideline and goal line?
I would like at least 1 great shot for every 200 I take!
Are there other alternatives in this price range?
What about "extenders", ......or should I leave that fancy word until later?

Basically, Im looking for the lense that will produce good results as my experience grows and a lense that will get me right in amongst the action.

Thank you ever so much for you time!!!

The Sigma 100-300 is a very good choice, but you'll probably need a XXXpod if you try shooting at 300mm hand-held unless you're in broad daylight. A more expensive but more versatile (in a way) option is getting a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 or Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and using a 1.4x extender on that. In effect, you get 70-200 @ f/2.8 and 98-280 @ f/4, basically two lenses for a little more than the price of one!