The dedicated sports photographers should consider choosing their lens first before making any major decisions on purchasing a new camera. The scouting shots for this article revealed critical performance areas of a sports lens for shooting basketball. Lens choice is important in dimly lit venues with wide maximum apertures and image stabilization as key factors.
Maximum Aperture
The poor lighting in the minor league gym exposed the shortcomings of a favorite outdoors motorsports lens. The maximum aperture of the Sigma 70-300mm zoom varies from f4 to f5.6 depending on the focal length chosen. Even using an high ISO setting, and suffering the inevitable noise penalty, the shutter speed ended up usually about 1/80s, really too slow and resulted in severe motion blurring of fast moving limbs.
Fast Autofocus
The test lens lacked the inbuilt piezo electric autofocus motor and relied on the motor in the camera body. For fast sports action the in lens motors are faster and more accurate. A wide maximum aperture provides lots of light, enhancing autofocus performance.
Angle of View
The test camera uses an APS-C sized sensor so due to the crop factor the Sigma’s effective angle of view became the same as a 105 – 450mm zoom. From the digital EXIF data from the test shoot found this focal length range did not allow a complete view of the half court set up and the key. The longest focal length gave too narrow a view for good close-ups of individual players, unless the aim is to fill the frame only with head and shoulders of a player. Looking at common lenses not surprisingly, a 70-210mm zoom on full frame camera will cover most of the shots and this confirms the popularity of this focal length combination ever since zoom telephotos became popular.
Image Stabilization
The image stabilization system proved effective in reducing camera shake with slower than ideal shutters, and the camera was handheld due to the crowded environment.
Ideal Lens
Looking at currently available lenses the desirable specification suggest a 70-200mm (full frame) zoom with f2.8 maximum aperture over the whole zoom range with shake reduction and a high speed autofocus motor.
Top Pro Package
Not surprisingly, the Nikon name came up when looking for a suitable lens in the form of their Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8D G-AFS ED-IF Autofocus Lens (Vibration Reduction) zoom. This lens is designed for full frame use and of course Nikon make a full frame sports camera the D3 to go with it. The D3 has impressive low-noise performance up to 6400 ISO and can shoot at up to 9 frames per second helping to capture any developing action on the court. This camera is the current favourite of sports photographers worldwide. Canon do offer a comparable lens but without a full frame sports camera to go with it.
Best Value For Money Package
This is looking for pro performance without the high price tag. The clear winner is the Pentax SMCP-DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 ED (IF) SDM Autofocus Lens for Digital SLR. Designed for the smaller APS-C sized sensor the lens offers the full frame equivalent focal length range of 75-202.5 mm, right in the preferred range. The star in the name is Pentax’s indication this lens is one of their premium lenses. It has the same wide maximum aperture of f2.8nover over the whole zoom range and SDM is the Pentax name for the inbuilt high-speed autofocus motor. To go with the lens is the new K20D also offering low noise performance up to ISO 6400 and with a sensor shift shake reduction system built into the camera every lens can use it, another value for money plus. Both the camera and the lens are weather and dust sealed making them useful as an outdoor sports package as well.
The Pentax combination is considerably cheaper than the Nikon option so it is a matter of photographers matching needs and budgets.
Alternatives
Sigma offers the 50-150mm F2.8 EX DC HSM for Nikon, Canon, Sony and Pentax APS sensor size digital cameras and the EX signifies it is one of Sigma’s premium lenses. It does miss out on shake reduction on Nikon and Canons, while Petax and Sony offer shake reduction in the camera body. HSM is the Sigma term for the high speed autofocus motor in the lens.
For Olympus owners the 35-100mm f/2.0 ED Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens offers the preferred angle of view due to different crop factor of their four-thirds sensor. The extra stop in the maximum aperture makes this a very good low light sports lens.
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