Sports Lens

Papasken

Papasken

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Stephen
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Can anyone recommend a lens for shooting football matches compatible with the Nikon D7000?

I may be in the market for a quality lens soon but seeing as the price is astronomical, I thought best to check with Nikon users who may have experience of sports with Nikon D90 or D7000.

TIA
 
sigma 120-300 f2.8

mind you that said I've taken loads of football (and cricket and rugby) shots with my 170-500 f5.6 coffee grinder - its a fallacy that you need a fast lens , the real key to decent shots is knowing enough about the sport to follow and predict the play - and also cultivating contacts with your local teams so you can get on the front row , or better still on the touchline positions (obviously this works better if your team is in diadora league 2 or whatever - I somehow doubt an amateur is going to get that kind of treatment from premier league sides in exchange for a few CDs of shots :lol: )

I also find that the local press are quite happy to pay for decent shots so long as you get them in quickly - it won't make you rich but it helps justify paying for the next shiny toy.
 
Papasken said:
Where is best place to purchase second hand kit?
Click to expand...

oop north I'd say probably ffordes of Beauly invernesshire - other likely suspects like T4, mifsuds, camtech, etc are all based down south

of course theres also ebay and the sales forum here too
 
big soft moose said:
sigma 120-300 f2.8

mind you that said I've taken loads of football (and cricket and rugby) shots with my 170-500 f5.6 coffee grinder - its a fallacy that you need a fast lens , the real key to decent shots is knowing enough about the sport to follow and predict the play - and also cultivating contacts with your local teams so you can get on the front row , or better still on the touchline positions (obviously this works better if your team is in diadora league 2 or whatever - I somehow doubt an amateur is going to get that kind of treatment from premier league sides in exchange for a few CDs of shots :lol: )

I also find that the local press are quite happy to pay for decent shots so long as you get them in quickly - it won't make you rich but it helps justify paying for the next shiny toy.
Click to expand...

I run a website www.thejuniors.info which covers Scottish Junior Football, similar to Non-League in England. Getting on touch line is no problem.

How much does a decent football image sell for to the press?
Local papers?
 
big soft moose said:
oop north I'd say probably ffordes of Beauly invernesshire - other likely suspects like T4, mifsuds, camtech, etc are all based down south

of course theres also ebay and the sales forum here too
Click to expand...

I think if I was spending £1500 I would want a guarantee of some description. I will check out your recommendations though. Thanks
 
in the classifieds here try, or ebay, as siad the 70-200mm nikon is great mark1 will cost you about £900 ish(on here) more on ebay and then the new 2x tc from nikon maybe, or ou could try the sigy 120-300mm f2.8 which is a quality lens 2,
heres a nikon 70-200mm f2.8 from a shop with 6 months warrenty.
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/5750/Used-Nikon-70-200mm-F2-8-VR-AF-S-Nikkor-Lens.html

heres a siy 120-300mm f2.8 with 6 months warrenty.
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/3111/Used-Sigma-120-300mm-F2-8-APO-DG-HSM-Nikon-Fit-AF-Lens.html
 
scottthehat said:
in the classifieds here try, or ebay, as siad the 70-200mm nikon is great mark1 will cost you about £900 ish(on here) more on ebay and then the new 2x tc from nikon maybe, or ou could try the sigy 120-300mm f2.8 which is a quality lens 2,
heres a nikon 70-200mm f2.8 from a shop with 6 months warrenty.
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/5750/Used-Nikon-70-200mm-F2-8-VR-AF-S-Nikkor-Lens.html

heres a siy 120-300mm f2.8 with 6 months warrenty.
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/3111/Used-Sigma-120-300mm-F2-8-APO-DG-HSM-Nikon-Fit-AF-Lens.html
Click to expand...

cheers - will have a look
 
Papasken said:
I run a website www.thejuniors.info which covers Scottish Junior Football, similar to Non-League in England. Getting on touch line is no problem.

How much does a decent football image sell for to the press?
Local papers?
Click to expand...

last time i sold to the local press - which was a few seasons ago, (ive moved and now need to start from scratch on building up contacts) I got £20 per shot for a 5 shot series (non exclusive use - and one shot used large on the back cover, the other four small inside), Ive no idea if thats good, typical, or bad.
 
big soft moose said:
last time i sold to the local press - which was a few seasons ago, (ive moved and now need to start from scratch on building up contacts) I got £20 per shot for a 5 shot series (non exclusive use - and one shot used large on the back cover, the other four small inside), Ive no idea if thats good, typical, or bad.
Click to expand...

Hey it would do me that is for sure. I do at least one game a week and two in the lighter nights
 
Papasken said:
I think if I was spending £1500 I would want a guarantee of some description. I will check out your recommendations though. Thanks
Click to expand...

yes i agree re warranty

Of the recomdations I usually use Mifsuds who are very good - but they are based in Devon (brixham - about a 30 minuite drive for me - rather further for you) - they will ship nationally so it depends on whether you want to see the actual goods before you buy.
 
Gary Coyle said:
No need to spend the extra cash for OS, VR, IS or whatever
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for sports i agree - IS is great in lots of situations but if you are going to have a high shutter speed to freeze the action anyway you are fine without.
 
big soft moose said:
sigma 120-300 f2.8
Click to expand...

agreed. i use mine for indoor and outdoor equestrian and i rate it highly.

mind you that said I've taken loads of football (and cricket and rugby) shots with my 170-500 f5.6 coffee grinder - its a fallacy that you need a fast lens
Click to expand...

maybe not if you have enough light, i certainly wouldnt like to shoot at 5.6 on a gloomy day and/or indoors though ;)
 
neil_g said:
agreed. i use mine for indoor and outdoor equestrian and i rate it highly.



maybe not if you have enough light, i certainly wouldnt like to shoot at 5.6 on a gloomy day and/or indoors though ;)
Click to expand...

If the light's crap i just turn the iso up - i find noise doesnt really matter for pics that are going in the papers as the print quality is quite poor anyway.

That said i'm not saying dont buy a fast lens - fast is definitely better, all i was saying is that you dont have to have one - one of the best shot i ever got at a cricket match (which wound up in the regional press and a sports mag) was Shane Warne getting bowled out for a duck in a 20/20 and that was with a fixed apperture f8 500mm mirror lens and a canon eos 30E with provia 400F pushed to 800

Now I wouldnt advise anyone to buy a 500mm mirror lens for sports photography (or anything else for that matter) but at the time it was all i could afford - and that day I got better shots than pros who were there with huge lenses and pro spec gear , basically because I was working for the organisation hosting the game so I had onto pitch access rather than having to work from a set location.

IIRC the wonga from that shot were what allowed me to bin the mirror and buy the 170-500.
 
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