EOS Rebel XS lens recommendations for sports photography

[Tiffanieelliott]

HI! I purchased a EOS Rebel XS years ago for my wedding business to take photos of decor but was never able to get good images and it just stayed in my closet. My kids have been asking me to take sports pictures of them so I got it out and want to buy a good lens. I have a daughter who plays softball ( pitcher) and volleyball and a son that plays football and wrestles. I need something that can capture indoors and outdoors. I am wanting something with great shutter speed for quick moving and clear images. Chat GPT told me the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L is the best option but I spoke to a lens company and they said its a big much for this camera and what I want to do. The recommended a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L or a Canon 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD MACRO Lens for Canon.    I don't want to spend over a $1,000 an hoping to get a used. I did see I can get a 70-200 for right under 1,000 but it might be to powerful. I really just need something that can clearly take photos from a max of 50-70  feet or so. I don't anticipate using this for long distance images. I appreciate all the feedback. Thank you! 

[Tiffanieelliott]

I appreciate you!

[ebiggs1]

Tiffanieelliott,

You are going to be seriously disappointed if you buy one lens. Any lens. What you want to do is not possible with a single lens. You can sit back and admire the photos that Rodger takes and displays as I do but he has top notch gear. It has top notch prices, too. Not to mention he is super talented and knows photography and the sport.

Buying used is a good thing especially since you have a old camera anyway. Before we get to the lens however there are a few things yo ucan do that don't cost anything. Learn the sport. Majorly important if you don't know what is going on you will never get good shots unless you are extremely lucky. Always set the camera to record raw and never, I mean never, jpg. Lastly get DPP4 form Canon also free to d/l. Learn it and use it to do all your photos importing and saving and printing or social media work. With DPP4 you can do some amazing editing and cropping. Things like exposure, color balance, sharpening and way much more as much as you want or as little as you want but it's free so no reason to not use it.

For your XS there is only one lens that really makes sense with a consideration about cost. Actually a family of super zooms, they are the 150-600mm super zooms from either Sigma or Tamron. Good lenses to buy used since there area lot of people out there in the same place as you but after HS they don't have much use for the big lens and sell them on. Will this lens get every shot at the outdoor sports games, no, probably not but it will get most of them. And considering it doesn't cost many thousands of dollars it is a reasonable tradeoff.

The big lens will not work indoors and that is why a single lens purchase isn't going to do it. For wrestling and volleyball one of the 24-105mm zoom lenses is my choice. The big 150-600mm for the outdoor stuff and the 24-105mm for the indoor. But this does bring up any point, where you shot from. That may just be the top most important thing. Bleachers is not good and you will struggle to get great shots from them. Courtside or sidelines is always best.

One exception might be softball depending on the field. I've done well shooting baseball or softball from the stands especially if they are not very far from the field.