Lenses for 7D

[lakej25]

Can a God Fearing Man get some help on lenses for a canon7D for basketball ( High School / Middle School )? Then I will go to baseball / soccer and then back to football. I've used a 75-300 canon lens that I used with a Canon Rebel EOS XSi for yrs. I sure could use some great help. My pictures come out fine but when I go to edit and crop pics they are so grainy.

[ebiggs1]

Ok, right off let's start by saying you got a fine camera, the 7D, but you have a sorry lens.  "Sorry", but that is a fact.

You need one of the current f2.8 zooms in the 70-200mm category.  Preferably the EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS II.  However I do understand that is a very expensive lens.  It is the best lens on the planet with a lofty price tag.

Sigma also makes one and is my second choice.  Next would be the Tamron offering and either of these is about half the cost of the Canon EF.  But they are very good in their own right.

Each of these choices has a 24-70mm f2.8 companion.  This combo the 24-70mm f2.8 and a 70-200mm f2.8 makes a "heavenly" combo fit for any "God fearing man"!

[JonKline]

You'll be glad to have any Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens. If you use it handheld, get the IS version. If you are usually on a tripod, you can skip the IS and save a bunch of money.

The Canon lenses will all accept the 1.4x telephoto adapter, which can be a big help when you're stuck in the back row, or the action is otherwise far away.

[ebiggs1]

"... Canon lenses will all accept the 1.4x telephoto adapter, ..."

They may "accept" the adapter but will it work or be satisfactory?  The answer is , no.  Once you put even the 1.4x on a f5.6 lens good results will probably suffer.  Now if you try to use the 2x, things go south quickly.

[TCampbell]

Scott Kelby recorded this lecture (I think he's speaking at B&H Photo) on sport phtography back when he used to shoot with Nikon gear.  Today he's switched over and now shoots with Canon gear.  But the video has lots of valid information.

He talks about the equipment quite a bit through the video (it's nearly an hour to watch it all.. but it does have a lot of great information).  

At the 6 minute mark he talks quite a bit about the specific lenses that are popular for the various sports.  Mostly these will be 70-200mm f/2.8 for indoor basketball and optionally a 300mm prime.  

Outdoor sports with large fields (which is mostly every outdoor sport) a 400mm prime is the favorite but he explains you can use 300mm or even a 70-200... but you'll have to move around a lot with those shorter lenses to capture the on-field action.

Here's the video: