I've been asked to cover a show.

equinephoto's

equinephoto's

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Francesca Morrison
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My friends show at the end next month. I have a kit of a eos 400d with a 55-200 mm 4.5 lens so not good enough for indoor light and my iso only goes up to 1600 so i stuggle abit.

My plan was to hire a lens. I shall be in the arena. But i was wondering will it make a huge difference or will i still need to hire a camera.?

What lens would be good enough for sports ( showjumping ) I was looking at the sigma lens but need an aperture of 2.8 at least.

Please help.

Thanks
 
Is the 200mm long enough? If yes Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS L
Is you need more then there is the 300mm f2.8 and 400mm primes or if you need zoom Sigma 120-300 f2.8.

Unless you are used to dealing with a substantially heavier lens then you'll need a monopod and some practise time.
 
Hiya,
Blimey, that looks dark! Best advice I can offer is to first of all check it out properly - do you know where the jumps are likely to be? Can you influence where they are at all? Is there going to be a place or two where you can get a good shot that is under a light or skylight if it's daytime?
I would say monopod/tripod will be a help possibly with a cable release to eliminate camera shake. And ig hiring something I've seen amazing shots with 50mm f1.2 but probably wrong length for this, work out what length you need and hire the quickest one out there. (You don't need an IS one if on a tripod by the way, at least I don't think so).
And maybe most importantly try and get a practice first so you don't waste any time.
HTH, and good luck,
Pip
 
I'm inside the arena so i wasnt thinking about a 200 mm? I cant check it out as i'm in Scotland and the showground is in Preston. Friends mum is running the show. It's just i was wondering i get a lens on hire from stewart's company.
 
You'll probably need a 70-200 F2.8 at worst. An 85mm F1.8 is good but a bit inflexible.

I was doing something similar today and ended up at ISO 3200, F3.2 and 1/60th at times.
 
Its going to depend on the course builder as to which fences you can get, as Dod said a 70-200 should be ok but something shorter may be handy for indoor work. At a training session using a full course (outdoors) last week I was using a 24-70 which was plenty long enough as I was in the arena so fairly close to the fences.
Looks lovely and dark in there, I bet they don't use the lights until later in the day as well :(
 
equinephoto's said:
I'm inside the arena so i wasnt thinking about a 200 mm? I cant check it out as i'm in Scotland and the showground is in Preston. Friends mum is running the show. It's just i was wondering i get a lens on hire from stewart's company.
Click to expand...

Last show I did (outdoors) I hired a 70-200 f.28 from Stewart, it all went smoothly and I'd be happy to recommend him. I have to say I found the 70 end a bit long at times and didn't really need the 200, but it was the best compromise as my 55-250 wasn't fast enough. I guess the upside is you're gonna stay dry, I got rained on at both shows I've covered!

Forgot to ask - are you covering the show in a 'I'll take photos and sell them to the contestants' type way, or are you just taking pics for your mate?
 
Anything fast (i.e. f/2.8) is a must as long as you can crank up the ISO, like dod I have been doing a few recently at indoor arenas and the jumping shots have all been at ISO6400 and even then I have really struggled and had to bin a lot of shots. I use the 70-200mm almost exlusively at equine events both indoors and outdoors.

Although the arena looks dark it looks like it has got reasonably good skylights so pray for a sunny day as it will make a big difference, otherwise get them to turn the lights on.
 
Can only echo what other people, particularly hacker have said above.

I had to do a shoot at an indoor arena that looked that dark. Even with the ISO at 3200 and an f/2.8 lens it was a struggle. It might be even harder with a lens you're not familiar with.

Pray for a sunny day and make sure they switch all the lights on.
 
Is there anyone on here close to you that could help out? Maybe come along and do a kit-swap?
...maybe?
 
Another thing to remember is that noise isn't the problem we tend to think it is. Even at ISO 3200 you'll hardly see any noise in a 5X7 or 6X8 print, certainly not enough for it to be any major issue.
 
That looks fun! Best bet if you can is either to borrow a 1d or D3 and take it up to iso6400+ (I've had the same problem on a few shoots and got round it by underexposing by a stop and pulling it back in Capture One, not great but better than nothing.).
Looking at the lighting those look like sodium discharge lamps which may be orange (or you may be lucky and they give out a more natural coloured light) just in case shoot RAW as I'm guessing the AWB won't be able to cope with the colour temperature.
 
Pippy_Neville said:
Last show I did (outdoors) I hired a 70-200 f.28 from Stewart, it all went smoothly and I'd be happy to recommend him. I have to say I found the 70 end a bit long at times and didn't really need the 200, but it was the best compromise as my 55-250 wasn't fast enough. I guess the upside is you're gonna stay dry, I got rained on at both shows I've covered!

Forgot to ask - are you covering the show in a 'I'll take photos and sell them to the contestants' type way, or are you just taking pics for your mate?
Click to expand...

covering as in selling them.
 
Can you hire out cameras as i know nobody who has any of those cameras. I am a canon user.
 
dod said:
Another thing to remember is that noise isn't the problem we tend to think it is. Even at ISO 3200 you'll hardly see any noise in a 5X7 or 6X8 print, certainly not enough for it to be any major issue.
Click to expand...

The reason i actually made this topic was because i saw your iso like 3200? maybe i'm wrong on a topic. And i know you'll have a good lens :)
 
I'd of thought you would be better hiring a 24-70 f2.8, probably still be on a high iso and the building does look like it will be a challange!

If you're not selling onsite and doing web sales and got time to post process, then I'd suggest raw instead of JPG so you have more PP options.

Carl.
 
Having seen my colleagues work on the UK supercross series last year (SX is motorcross indoors in arenas such as the O2 Arena) I think even with a 2.8 lens you will struggle... the only piece of kit to yield substantialy consistent results (which is what you will need to be selling contestants photos) is a D3 or D700 which have exceptional AF systems (when coupled with quality wide aperture glass) and extremely good high ISO performance.

I really, really suggest that if you can you go take a look at the arena beforehand to verify the light levels and also to bear in mind that if you crank your camera up to ISO1600 (assuming thats even enough to get a resultant shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action) and use f2.8 you DOF is going to be very, very narrow which will require high AF accuracy and speed - probably a bit too much to ask of your 400D to be frank. Not to mention that your pictures might not be quite what you want with such a narrow DOF.
 
Not sure if this helps, but a few years ago I went to the Barton indoor arena. It's very dark in there, even with all the lights on. I wasn't shooting that day, but remember thinking it's pretty dark in here.

As desantnik mentioned, I think you may struggle to get the shots you want.
 
Thanks for your advice, is there any camera shops or anywhere i can hire a camera?
 
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