Best f2.8 lens for equine photography

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smiff3100

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As some of you may know i am very keen on equine photography,mainly show jumping and cross country,i have been reading and the info i am getting is that i will need an f2.8 lens,i will mainly be shooting outdoors in the better light,will an f2.8 lens benefit me more even if the light is very good,will the pictures be of a better quality,i am guessing with the f2.8 i will get very fast shutter speeds,i do occasionally do some indoor photography.My question is what sort of focal length am i looking for??i can get quite close to the jumps outdoor,and also the arena i got to that is indoor i can get quite close to.I know that the prices of the higher end lenses are expensive but i have seen a few with a focal length of 105mm that i think might be of use to me,and are of a reasonable price.

What do we think??

Thanks
 
Get a 24-70 and a 70-200 and a 300. That should cover it :p
 
Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 would be my choice. I know several people who do equine with it. You can get a used HSM macro version 1 for around £350-400.
 
Thanks for the replies

arty although that is a good lens its way out of my wallet range for a while,lol

andrewc i have a 55-200 vr which is f/4

dejongj i think that should cover alot lol
 
smiff3100 said:
Thanks for the replies

arty although that is a good lens its way out of my wallet range for a while,lol

andrewc i have a 55-200 vr which is f/4

dejongj i think that should cover alot lol
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55-200VR is not f4 at all the range...It is f5.6 at the long end, but depending on which camera you have, you can just bump the iso up if you aren't too worried about subject separation (fuzzy background)

I'd probably compliment it, with a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 which is a great lens to have regardless. Or a second hand Tamron 28-75 f.28 if you have an inbuilt motor in your camera..
 
i believe i have the inbuilt motor for auto focus,i do only have the D3100 which i know is the entry level Dslr,i am looking at the D3200 as i have seen them for a good price.
 
In that case you don't have the motor...Just stick with a nice Tamrom 17-50 f2.8 it will be fantastic on your camera, and compliments the range of the 55-200 nicely :)
 
Indeed, your camera will auto focus only with AF-S lenses, or as Sigma calls it the HSM. I can't recall what Tamron calls it.

So the 70-200HSM Macro that TCR suggested will autofocus, well it could. I've had one that refused on the D7000, as basically the software in the lens was too old to understand newer cameras. And then Sigma didn't have the chips/know-how to make it work...So I'm staying clear...
 
F2.8 is a benefit in good light, because it allows more light to get to the autofocus sensors which in turn result in better autofocus accuracy.

I don't know how the Nikon range pans out, but many Canon cameras have autofocus points with better sensitivity when used with F2.8 or faster lenses. For equine I expect this will be very useful.

Plus, in the darker months, it's nice to be able to keep the shutter speed up without going too high on the ISO :)
 
RichardtheSane said:
F2.8 is a benefit in good light, because it allows more light to get to the autofocus sensors which in turn result in better autofocus accuracy.

I don't know how the Nikon range pans out, but many Canon cameras have autofocus points with better sensitivity when used with F2.8 or faster lenses. For equine I expect this will be very useful.

Plus, in the darker months, it's nice to be able to keep the shutter speed up without going too high on the ISO :)
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:thinking: Really?
 
I do sometimes wonder if i should have bought a cannon,but i am kinda liking the Nikon,maybe a better spec camera might not be a bad idea.
 
smiff3100 said:
I do sometimes wonder if i should have bought a cannon,but i am kinda liking the Nikon,maybe a better spec camera might not be a bad idea.
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Based on the above, be glad you didn't ;)
 
Fast lenses are not the complete solution to everything, you need to remember the D of F will be reduced.

Let's presume you are 30ft away and you are using a 70-200.

At 200mm the D of F is about 9 inches and so you'll need to be pretty accurate to get a big thing like a horse & rider in focus. You might have a chance if they are side on to you.

At 135mm the D of F is about 20 inches so you should be ok for most shots but a head on shot with the horse jumping towards you runs the risk of the horses head being in focus and the riders face out of focus.

At 70mm the D of F is over six feet so you should be ok.

These figures obviously reduce if you get closer to the jumps.
 
dejongj said:
Wow, that is amazing...Never knew that. Good thing the OP doesn't have a Canon as they all work as long as a lens has a maximum aperture of at least f5.6...That seems on paper a serious drawback for Canon...
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What are you slavering on about? I don't think Canon make any lenses with a maximum aperture less than f/5.6?
 
I use my Nikon 70-200 f2.8 lens on a FF camera for all my equine photography.
 
smiff3100 said:
so would i be better off with a 70mm lens??
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It all depends, do you understand Depth of Field? If not have a search on here or type it into Google
 
admirable said:
What are you slavering on about? I don't think Canon make any lenses with a maximum aperture less than f/5.6?
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Hold on a minute, you were the one saying that Canon only has one focus point it can use at apertures smaller than f2.8...I was merely commenting that his camera doesn't have such limitations...Before you brought that into the conversation I wasn't even aware of such limitations...

smiff3100 said:
so would i be better off with a 70mm lens??
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Doesn't your 55-200 already cover 70mm?
 
if it goes from 55-200mm then iwould guess it covers 700mm but it is only a max f/4 i believe
 
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smiff3100 said:
i know a little about dof
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Before buying any more lenses or anything of the likes, I would recommend buying 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. It would really help, you'll understand the effect of the questions, and will be able to relate them to what it is that you want to achieve...
 
looking for it now,just found some videos of his on youtube to
 
dejongj said:
Hold on a minute, you were the one saying that Canon only has one focus point it can use at apertures smaller than f2.8
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You've lost me now, where did I say this or where did you read this?
 
admirable said:
You've lost me now, where did I say this or where did you read this?
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:cuckoo: Read back in the thread you said that the cross hair focus points don't work unless using f2.8 lenses, I questioned it, then you provided a link to it from Canon which clearly states that only one cross haired point works. I reiterated that it doesn't matter as with Nikon they all work at f5.6 and faster, no limitations of requiring f2.8 or faster and the the OP has a Nikon, let's not spoil it further for the OP with unnecessary chatter :thumbs:
 
smiff3100 said:
if it goes from 55-200mm then iwould guess it covers 700mm but it is only a max f/4 i believe
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Your lens is max f5.6, it could very well be that at 70mm it maxes out already at f4...

To give you an idea, here I was at one of the long sides of the school. The photo is captured using 155mm f4.0


Isabella on Ripple by JP de Jong, on Flickr
 
dejongj said:
:cuckoo: Read back in the thread you said that the cross hair focus points don't work unless using f2.8 lenses, I questioned it, then you provided a link to it from Canon which clearly states that only one cross haired point works. I reiterated that it doesn't matter as with Nikon they all work at f5.6 and faster, no limitations of requiring f2.8 or faster and the the OP has a Nikon, let's not spoil it further for the OP with unnecessary chatter :thumbs:
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I think you're misunderstanding what those focus points do, they'll focus with any lens - but they focus 'better' with faster lenses. Just to clear it up in case an inexperienced user finds this thread and thinks Canon cameras focus points don't work:thumbs:

Back to the OP - best bang for buck sports lens is the Sigma 70-200 2.8.
 
Phil V said:
I think you're misunderstanding what those focus points do, they'll focus with any lens - but they focus 'better' with faster lenses. Just to clear it up in case an inexperienced user finds this thread and thinks Canon cameras focus points don't work:thumbs:

Back to the OP - best bang for buck sports lens is the Sigma 70-200 2.8.
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Actually, according to Canon they don't ;) It is not a case of better, it is a case of they do not operate...Unless the link provided earlier is wrong? I don't care, I didn't bring it up, I found it interesting and actually read the article. Are you saying the article from Canon which Admirable linked to is wrong?

Canon said:
Black: Vertical line sensors operational with lenses having an f5.6 or greater aperture.
Blue: Cross-type sensors operational with lenses having an f2.8 or greater aperture
Vertical line sensors operational with lenses having an f5.6 or greater aperture.
Red: Cross-type sensor operational with lenses having an f4 of greater aperture
Vertical line sensor operational with lenses having an effective aperture of f8 or greater.
What you may notice looking at this is that of the seven cross type sensors, six of them (the blue ones) are only functional with a small number of lenses, mainly the fast prime lenses and the f2.8 zoom lenses. If you are not using one of those lenses, then those cross-type sensors perform no function in autofocusing your lens.
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To me 'are only functional' means exactly that...Are you saying it doesn't mean that, but it means they function better? English is not my native language but it seems to be a daft way of putting it...
 
another vote for the sigma 70-200 f2.8. we've been using 2 of the first gen macro version for equestrian for years.

you may find 200 too short for large arenas however.
 
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oh and what you were asking about the "macro" bit.. i wouldnt worry about it, sigma have a habbit of using the macro term to mean the lens has a closer min focus distance, nothing more.
 
neil_g said:
oh and what you were asking about the "macro" bit.. i wouldnt worry about it, sigma have a habbit of using the macro term to mean the lens has a closer min focus distance, nothing more.
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Was just about to tyope the exact same. Its not a macro lens as such, just focuses closer than others in the same range.
 
dejongj said:
Actually, according to Canon they don't ;) It is not a case of better, it is a case of they do not operate...Unless the link provided earlier is wrong? I don't care, I didn't bring it up, I found it interesting and actually read the article. Are you saying the article from Canon which Admirable linked to is wrong?


To me 'are only functional' means exactly that...Are you saying it doesn't mean that, but it means they function better? English is not my native language but it seems to be a daft way of putting it...
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I can see how that's misleading, but if you read the whole article what it's saying is that all the sites have the vertical sensor, then others have increased sensitivity etc...

Surely you weren't daft enough to assume that the centre focus point on a Canon camera was inoperable to most lenses:cuckoo:

I appreciate you aren't a Canon shooter - but as a photographer didn't that strike you as odd? It does appear that from questioning something you were completely ignorant of, you just want to create an argument so you no longer appear daft:suspect:
 
Phil V said:
I can see how that's misleading, but if you read the whole article what it's saying is that all the sites have the vertical sensor, then others have increased sensitivity etc...

Surely you weren't daft enough to assume that the centre focus point on a Canon camera was inoperable to most lenses:cuckoo:

I appreciate you aren't a Canon shooter - but as a photographer didn't that strike you as odd? It does appear that from questioning something you were completely ignorant of, you just want to create an argument so you no longer appear daft:suspect:
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Oh nice, so now I am the one wanting an argument? Jeez, this site is getting worse and worse. I was genuinly surprised and learned and read more about it and became even more surprised.

No I didn't take it as inoperable on most lenses. Just that as a crosshair it was. But then again it is still rather surprising that even on the single crosshair focal point you need to have f4 or more...In practise many lenses do of course so it shouldn't be much of an issue, but just one crosshair autofocus point:thinking:
 
neil i would love the sigma lens but its just a bit to much for me at the moment,i might try and rent one for a week early next year

dejongj thats a nice pic,nice and clear,and i read my post again it should have said 70mm not 700mm but i guess u figured that out

i have the 55-200mm and i do like it,but it doesn't seem to zoom that close from a distance,i was hoping it would zoom much closer
 
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