Sports photographer needs help deciding on a lens for EOS R

[Lkcphotos31]

I am a sports photographer who currently shoots on a Eos R and an ef to rf adapter that connects to my ef 70-200 f/ 2.8 L IS USM, the first generation of 70-200. My current lens has a foggy not sharp look to it during low light so I am looking for a different lens, I cannot send it in for repair because it is too old and they don't service them anymore. I cannot decide between the rf 70-200 and the ef 70-200. If anyone has any advice let me know! I am also looking at a 24-105 f/4 for the upcoming basketball season so if anyone has strong feelings about this lens please share. 

[wq9nsc]

If your images are sharp during better lighting, the lens isn't the issue.  The "foggy" look in low light is probably a result of a higher ISO and the noise reduction needed to mask the noise artifacts.

I use an EF 70-200 f2.8 IS III now but I still have the 70-200 f2.8 non-IS I bought with my 1D Mark II back in 2005.  I expect I would have to do some serious pixel peeping to see a sharpness difference and I shot plenty of low light sports with the older EF 70-200 before buying my new version.

What are your exposure settings when you get the loss of sharpness?

Rodger

[deebatman316]

@wq9nsc  I do agree with you on this. The EOS R was released in 2018 the image sensor technology has greatly improved in 6 years. The high ISO is likely causing the "foggy" looking images not the lens unless its full of fungus or has optical issues. I could see a very old film era telephoto lens having issues on a new camera. Like my old EF 70-210mm F/4 AFD lens from the beginning of the EOS line. 

[Lkcphotos31]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wKQPyuH9LMwhURnL7

Same settings same angle. First photo is with my lens second is with the rf lens I rented. Clearly an issue with my lens 

[Lkcphotos31]

This photo was taken with my 70-200 f 2.8 at 10000 iso 2.8 aperature and 1/1000 shutter speed. 

this photo was taken on a 100-400 mm f 4.5-5.6 12800 f 5.0 and 1/1000 shutter speed. I see a visible difference in quality and sharpness tell me what I am doing wrong. 

[justadude]

If you have the EF 70-200mm F/2.8 L that is the first generation, it would not be with IS.  I have the first generation - no IS.  You might have the second generation, which is when they added IS.  

What ISO are you shooting at?  I use the old EF lens I just mentioned for hired sports photography on my R6 Mk ll.  Low light for what I shoot is normally not lower than 3200, and I've never seen the foggy issue you are describing.  Is your ISO much higher than that?

[deebatman316]

The first EF 70-200mm F/2.8 lens was the EF 70-200mm F/2.8L USM which was released in 1995 and had NO IS. The 1st gen IS model was the EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS USM lens which was released in 2001. Canon only released 1 non-IS model of the EF 70-200mm F/2.8 lens. All subsequent models would feature IS. The same goes for the F/4 variants too. Canon released 1 non-IS F/4 model and 2 IS models with the constant F/4 aperture.

[Lkcphotos31]

 This photo was taken with my 70-200 f 2.8 at 10000 iso 2.8 aperature and 1/1000 shutter speed. 

this photo was taken on a 100-400 mm f 4.5-5.6 12800 f 5.0 and 1/1000 shutter speed. I see a visible difference in quality and sharpness tell me what I am doing wrong. 

[deebatman316]

@Lkcphotos31 Are there any filters attached to the 70-200mm if so remove the filters. Also these pictures have no EXIF (metadata) attached to them. If you have Google Drive or any other file sharing service you can put the pictures there and we can review them in Canon DPP. Make sure to allow access so forum members can view the pictures. To closely review the picture. Also were these taken in JPEG or the RAW format.

[Lkcphotos31]

Raw format, no filtes attached, I can attach the full raw photo in an album but it wont allow me to do it directly on the forum