action shots of the bikings and horse jumpings of my niece?
PS I’m restricted to point and shoot from lack of skills.

Do you have a budget in mind? The Canon 70-200 f4 L is probably the best one you can get without spending silly money. Can be had second hand for under £400.

You want something with a reasonably wide aperture to give fast focussing (and nice background blur is a bonus too).

Or you could get a nice fast prime like the Canon 85mm 1.8.

Hard to say without knowing budget though.

Thanks grum,budget (excellent point 😳 ) up to £500?

how ‘zoomed in’ does the object need to be? A zoom lens can cover the same range as your existing kit lens (which is a zoom lens afterall) or have a range that starts at 10x the focal length

for sports shots, a wide lens is good (one with a low ‘f stop’ throughout its length). I believe there are some 70-200 f2.8 lenses (sigma do one) that should fit the bill nicely

right this is where i look like a twit,i would like a lens that is like taking a pic as if i’m about 2-6 feet away from the biker/horsier?

Er it depends on how far away you actually are, doesn’t it?

If you are 2-6 feet away, no problems.

If you are on the other side of the valley – harder 🙂

right this is where i look like a twit,i would like a lens that is like taking a pic as if i’m about 2-6 feet away from the biker/horsier?

Move so that you are 2-6 ft away from the rider? Without wishing to sound patronising, I’ve been through the “buy a new lens to get better pictures” and it doesn’t necessarily work. If you’re happy with your pictures and just feel that the subject is too small, then yes, a longer zoom will help (assuming you can’t just get closer yourself). You’ll need to practice with it as the technique is slightly different. If the pictures themselves are not great, then a longer lens will if anything only exacerbate the problem, so you should maybe consider a skills course. I did one with Seb Rogers that really helped, and I know that Benji Haworth is running a course, he does take nice photos – http://www.great-rock.co.uk/blog/?page_id=1454

As for specific lenses, then as mentioned above the 70-200f4L is a great lens (I have one myself), widely considered to be the best value for money lens on the market – great quality without a four figure price tag (and reasonable weight too). Alternatively, buy a cheap telephoto for now and see if that help you. Where are you based? I’ve a sigma 70-300 that you could purchase for a very small price to see if it helps – if you like the zoom you can buy a better one later

god i do sound just like a twit.My pics are pretty good (so i’m told),i’m usaully between 30-50 feat away from the horse juming niece?

Hmm, if that’s the case then by my ill informed calculations the 300mm should sort you out… I think…

if you’re shooting at 300mm you going to have to be shooting at 1/400sec (assuming you are handholding the lens and that its not got image stabilization) as a result, a fast lens is probably a good idea

personally, I don’t notice a lot of the differnce with canon L series (and their peers) lenses vs the cheaper ranges. Sure they make a difference if you’re a pro, and they’re better built, but imo, saving 50% of the cost is more worthwhile

thanks all,pushed the button on a 70-200f4L.

I’d be shopping for a 80-200f2.8 (used).

EDIT: Doh! I’m late.

Yeah, that’d do. 😉

So now wouldn’t be a good time to say that I mostly use a 17-40L f4 (EOS20d)for my biking shots….

if you’re shooting at 300mm you going to have to be shooting at 1/400sec (assuming you are handholding the lens and that its not got image stabilization) as a result, a fast lens is probably a good idea

Unless it’s sunny enough.

Unless it’s sunny enough.

A fast lens is still a good idea if it’s sunny. Lets you either

a) stop down the lens to get into the high quality area of the lens (normally the extremes of a lens aren’t as good as a couple of stops in)
b) use a lower iso

I ran a f5.6 200-400mm lens in kenya, and even under the sun there, I was only able to use iso 400 or so. way brighter than the UK ever gets.

Fast lenses also auto-focus better even when stopped down, as they let more light in, and don’t actually stop down until you fully press the shutter.

Congrats on the new lens jonny – I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Yes, fast is better.

Also much more expensive.

So it’s a trade-off between more zoom or less zoom and more light, for a given amount of cash. Although more light is WAY more expensive than more zoom.

f4-5.6 is definitely the best I can afford in a zoom 🙂 the IS seems to take care of camera shake even in overcast light but there are other issues like high ISO. I am not spending any more than 350 on my lenses tho and preferably less than that.

thanks all,pushed the button on a 70-200f4L

a great choice (says a Nikon user…!)

i’m usaully between 30-50 feat away from the horse juming niece?

nice distance to be – should give you a nice, steady, panning action.

Oh, one more tip – follow the subject (panning), click the shutter, keep the panning movement going a little as you press the shutter – don’t press and stop – unless you’re aiming for artistic blur 😉
Some may say that’s bo*****s, you should be working a a good high shutter speed to catch the action and ‘compensate’ for the length of the lens (it’s an old rule of thumb that shutter speed ‘match’ the focal length of the lens – i.e. – 200mm lens = not less that 1/200th of a second exposure). Thing is, a fast moving subject will still show some movement, which you may not want) and, one day you’ll be in a position where you’re working with a slower shutter speed than you would like and you’ll have forgotten to keep panning = blurred shots for sure…

Sometimes the panning blur is good, sometimes all sharp is good.. don’t get tied down 🙂

You will need a fast shutter speed to avoid shake with the 70-200 f/4, not really heavy like the f/2.8, but still needs to be kept steady to avoid blurring. Think something along the lines of at least equal to the focal length used and then include the crop factor of 1.6

Would suggest you take it off auto iso (unless you can set a maximum, know the 550D can) as well otherwise the camera will bump that right up to get the desired speed which will introduce noise
If you are pointing and shooting which I assume to mean you use the camera on auto rather than one of the other settings the ability to cancel auto iso is probably removed along with some other functions

My daughter has a Canon 50-250mm IS which produces great results at a bargain price,the new Tamron 70-300 VC gets good reviews too.

The 70-200 f/4 IS has two stage stabilisation, one setting for normal and the other for panning, makes a difference and although costlier can mean many more keepers

Suppose all this is rather academic now though if you have made your mind up and bought it

Would suggest you take it off auto iso (unless you can set a maximum, know the 550D can) as well otherwise the camera will bump that right up to get the desired speed which will introduce noise

You prefer blur to noise? 😯

Don’t like either thanks, but what im suggesting at least you get to choose a setting and compensate accordingly rather than think its all hunky dory especially when reviewing the shot on a tiny lcd

Probably the reason I have the IS version of this lens and quite often use the manual setting plus if conditions allow a tripod or beanbag

All about compromise and think its very important to understand reciprocity with regard to aperture, shutter speed and iso

to be honest, the easiest way to solve this problem is to use a monopod\tripod, if you’re taking shots of your daughter riding, I’d guess it’d be pretty easy to get one onto site (more tricky when biking obviously).

Also, always shoot with the sun behind you, or slighly to the side, even if its cloudy it’ll make a world of difference to your shots

If you do want to use a tripod or monopod you should consider buying a suitable tripod ring for the lens. Pretty sure they don’t come as standard because I use one from another lens which luckily happens to be the correct size (pricy little devils they are too)

Not a great idea to use the camera tripod mount otherwise it will be very unbalanced and put undue strain on the mount especially with a small camera like the 500D. Also I find a tripod ring is a useful aid when hand holding a larger lens and for picking it up with when mounted to the body

Can anyone recommend anywhere for second hand lenses (apart from eBay of course). Would be interested in 70-200L if they can be picked up for under £400…

Not going to do all the links thing, but try those below for a start

MPB Photographic
Ffordes
Mifsuds
London Camera Exchange

Talkphotography website has a 100 post/30 day qualification before you can see the classifieds, but is a good resource anyway so worth a look

Thanks

http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/Used/Canon-EF-70-200MM-F4-L-USM+HOOD_33828.html

£394, six month warranty

Also check out new prices from Kerso

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/FLASH-CAMERA?_rdc=1

He deals on the websites mentioned above and is cheaper away fro Ebay

Also check out new prices from Kerso

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/FLASH-CAMERA?_rdc=1

He deals on the websites mentioned above and is cheaper away fro Ebay

Bought from him (a Canon 50mm) away from Ebay and it all went smoothly.