topic Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8 in EF & RF Lenses

Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

Evansts — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 17:36:28 GMT

I bought EOS R8 camera in hopes of capturing good action photos of my soccer athletes.

was looking at Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS for lens, however, i am at learning stage 1 for photography!

looking for recommendations for the best lens to purchase.

any input would be fabulous!

Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

deebatman316 — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 17:58:26 GMT

Do you have a budget in mind for a lens also will low light be a concern for you.

Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

Evansts — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 18:04:07 GMT

Im unsure on the light question..: soccer field during say or soccer field under lights at night…

will that be enough light?

TBH the lesser the amount the better but was prepared to spend (less 1500 would be nice )

Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

deebatman316 — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 18:14:03 GMT

Is this indoor or outdoor. Where I'm at the soccer team plays inside and not on a field outdoors. What looks bright to you is actually dim to the camera. I'll ping my colleague Rodger to better assist with you with sports photography.

Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

Tronhard — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 18:14:47 GMT

Hi and welcome to the forum:
Given that you might be shooting under (relatively low) lights, and for the budget you have, I would concur with you that your likely best bet is, at $1,439 a Shop Canon Refurbished RF70-200mm F4 L IS USM | Canon U.S.A., Inc. These units may be new overstock, open box but unused, show or demo units - but 'good as new' and with a Canon warranty.

The f/2.8 version is outside your budget, but the f/4 will also be lighter and so you can hand-hold it for longer with the lighter R8 body. You have two advantage with the R8, it's a FF sensor, so should be better at low light, or conversely be able to handle higher ISO levels than an APS-C body, and being FF you can crop a bit as long as you are producing for social media, digital display or magazine-size prints.

Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

deebatman316 — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 18:21:05 GMT

I was just about to PM you. My PM's don't appear to be working correctly right now I have notified Chris (@ccanada) about this.

Re: Sports lens recommendations for EOS R8

wq9nsc — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 20:26:25 GMT

I am assuming you have field access so you will be close to the action and can move around to follow it, if so then the 70-200 f4 is workable at night with GOOD field lighting but if you can figure out how to stretch your budget then the 70-200 f2.8 is something you will not regret as a long term purchase and is far better for night games.

If you are further away from the field, then a 200mm max telephoto is going to be somewhat limiting. I don't believe Canon's 1.4X converter is compatible with the RF version of the 70-200 lens so that takes away a fairly easy method to extend the lens.

So if you don't have close access, let us know because the lens answer is going to be different!

I use two full frame bodies (1DX III) with a 70-200 f2.8 on one and a 400 f2.8 on the other for soccer. The only exception is for day games I will sometimes use a 200-400 f4 with integrated extender instead of the 400 fast prime which allows me to capture offensive action moving towards one goal by being near that goal while still capturing saves at the far goal. During night games, I shoot with the 2.8 glass wide open, in the day I will generally step it down to f3.5 to f4 for a little more depth of field unless it is a field where I definitely want the shallowest DoF possible.

On Edit! The forum software reordered the images after I posted so go by the captions on the photos for the lenses involved. Two are with a 70-200 f2.8 lens, another two with a 400 f2.8, and six are with the 200-400 f4 extender, and three of those with the extender engaged making it a 280-560 f5.6 lens. I have never had the forum software put photos differently than the order of entry so lesson learned!

You will be moving around a lot to do good coverage with a 70-200 lens, especially at night where ISO is pushed higher and extreme cropping is going to be less desirable and that is exacerbated if using the f4 version which will double the required ISO for a standard exposure unless you drop shutter speed which isn't desirable.

Rodger

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