Lens Help

Manc Man

Manc Man

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Darren
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Evening guys and girls

I am in the middle of upgrading to the 7d, I am starting to get in to equine / event photography for pleasure.
But I have been accepted as a tog for Northern Horse Magazine, attending event and if all goes well getting my prints published.
My dilemma is what lens should I be looking at. People keep telling me to go for a 70-200 f2.8, but when I look back at my exif info on my recent photos 90% are ISP 100 and around F5 and that using my canon 55-250 thinks its f4/f5.6


Any advice would be greatly appreciated
 
Manc Man said:
My dilemma is what lens should I be looking at. People keep telling me to go for a 70-200 f2.8,
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good advice is good advice.. i can only add to the good advice.. its the only lens I owuld have for equestrian..

well done getting a job wiht a magazine though..
 
You no the way they say a lens isn't its sharpest ats it max and min aperture
So if you stop down it will get sharpe

So say if you have a 4.0 lens you may need to stop it down to 8.0 to make it sharper
If you get the 2.8, you would only need to go to 5.6, thats twice as much light as before, so higher shutter speeds and lower iso

Only if you have your camera on full stops
 
KIPAX said:
good advice is good advice.. i can only add to the good advice.. its the only lens I owuld have for equestrian..

well done getting a job wiht a magazine though..
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Cheers Tony, mag not all its cracked up to be, If I an attending an event I contact them and they arrange for me to be the official photographer for the magazine. I give them the photos and they publish them, if people want to purchase a photo they are directed back to me.
Best thing is they contacted me after seeing one of my photos, I was running around on cloud 9.
 
will all equestrian be outdoors? i would deffo get 70-200 and you should get sharp pics at f2.8 as well.. although outdoors you prob wouldnt want that shallow..

get recognised.. get in print... your on the first step :)
 
KIPAX said:
will all equestrian be outdoors? i would deffo get 70-200 and you should get sharp pics at f2.8 as well.. although outdoors you prob wouldnt want that shallow..

get recognised.. get in print... your on the first step :)
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90% will be outdoors....... just looking at the Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM

Mike.P said:
If you think the 70-200mm f2.8 will be wasted why not get the f4.

Sharp as anything I have seen wide open and quite a bit lighter/smaller than the 2.8.
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part of me say it would be wasted, i have been looking at the F4 is, most of my equine shots have been taken with the Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS and people have been over the moon with them.
 
Maybe the canon is to standout for you with the grey as the sigma is black
 
Manc Man said:
90% will be outdoors....... just looking at the Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM

part of me say it would be wasted, i have been looking at the F4 is, most of my equine shots have been taken with the Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS and people have been over the moon with them.
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So if you're getting good results with what you have why buy something else?

Forget GAS.
 
Manc Man said:
To try and improve. I thought some better glass would get me some sharper shots.
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I'm sure it will. Your lens is OK "for the money" but it's quite soft wide open and only OK by f8.

Adding better glass will most likely yeild OK wide open and excellent stopped down.

Do you NEED that focal length?
 
Tony (Kipax) knows what he is talking about when it comes to shooting sport and I would follow his advice over anybody else's.
 
Phil Young said:
I'm sure it will. Your lens is OK "for the money" but it's quite soft wide open and only OK by f8.

Adding better glass will most likely yeild OK wide open and excellent stopped down.

Do you NEED that focal length?
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yes i would need that focal length... some of the rings/areans are quite big.

Ploddles said:
Tony (Kipax) knows what he is talking about when it comes to shooting sport and I would follow his advice over anybody else's.
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i know, he knows what hes talking about as its his job.......

Phil Young said:
.........is the OP shooting sports? ... :thinking:
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yes i am, equestrian is a sport.

rjbell said:
Oh no, we are not going to start 'is equestrian a sport' debate are we!?;)
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i hope not

Phil Young said:
I never even heard of it before...I just knew it as horse riding but looked it up.
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It was in the olympics, so it must be a sport, a fancy sport... :thumbs:

cheers for the advise guys.
 
Manc Man said:
i have a chance on getting the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG II HSM any views on this lens
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I tested one and it was very disappointing, others use them. An clove tem so I guess there is some sample variation. Best bet is to try before you buy, if you are happy with the results then go for it, if not then keep looking.
 
The best Canon lens for equestrian is probably the 70-200mm F2.8L IS MkII

The other versions of the F2.8L are good too.

If your budget does not stretch that far, I would go for the F4.0 version of the Canon 70-200mm

Most of the professional equestrian togs I know use Canon 70-200mm "L" lenses. Those who don't have Nikon Cameras!

At some stage you will need those large apertures for when the light goes bad and you have to maintain a reasonable shutter speed to stop blurring (even outdoors)
 
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Soda Farl said:
Skip it get the O.S version.
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i thought as much

postcardcv said:
I tested one and it was very disappointing, others use them. An clove tem so I guess there is some sample variation. Best bet is to try before you buy, if you are happy with the results then go for it, if not then keep looking.
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that answers my question.......

niv2 said:
The best Canon lens for equestrian is probably the 70-200mm F2.8L IS MkII

The other versions of the F2.8L are good too.

If your budget does not stretch that far, I would go for the F4.0 version of the Canon 70-200mm

Most of the professional equestrian togs I know use Canon 70-200mm "L" lenses. Those who don't have Nikon Cameras!

At some stage you will need those large apertures for when the light goes bad and you have to maintain a reasonable shutter speed to stop blurring (even outdoors)
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Cheers for that guy, going to hold on for the canon F2.8 with is
 
Manc Man said:
Cheers for that guy, going to hold on for the canon F2.8 with is
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Wise man, you will not be disappointed. The IS MkI is good but the IS MKII is outstanding. The non IS should not be discounted and is probably as good as the IS MK1 and you don't really need IS for equestrian. However, both IS lenses are weatherproofed whereas the non IS is not and that can be an advantage.
 
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