Camera body upgrade? - Upgrade advice from EOS Rebel T3i

[Vannoyes182]

I have been trying to get good photos of my sons wrestling matches. I have a Canon Rebel t3i and recently purchased a used Tamron SP 70-200mm f2.8mm Di VC USD lens which can know is a dinosaur but it has the f2.8 and my budget was under $500 so this fit the bill. My photos are better but still not as sharp as I’d like. I shoot in manual at f2.8 ISO1600 1/500 shutter speed in Al Servo. The photos are quite grainy but I fix this as much as I can while editing. Do I need to upgrade my camera body? If so, what would you recommend? I’d like to stay around $400 and used or refurbished is fine. Another parent shoots with a Nikon 70-300mm f4.5 and gets as good if not better results. Her camera body is newer so I’m wondering if that’s my problem. Any advice? Thanks!

[ebiggs1]

This is your other shot after camera raw filter in PS.

There is quite a lot of grain which can only be reduced a certain amount especially when editing a reduced resolution jpg. But the shot is not that bad is it?

When dealing with humans really high SS is usually not needed. I would try 1/250, you used 1/500, which would give you a one stop advantage and let you lower the ISO to 800. Moot points if you use Auto ISO however. What would be a really great thing to do is get to the match way early and have a willing volunteer subject as a stand in and try several different settings. Your main goal is the get the aperture as high as possible and the ISO as low as possible.