Nikon SLR Cameras

Which one of these lenses would be best for sport shots?

Guest
Guest

Mainly football and outdoor track, also which would be the best for group shots? Nikon 105 mm f 2.5, Nikon 200 mm f 4, Nikon 135mm f 2.8, Nikon 28 mm f 3.5, pre-AI lenses, and Nikon 28 mm f 2.8 E lens, Nikon 100 mm f 2.8 E lens.

fhotoace
fhotoace

Have you ever been on the sidelines of a football game?

If you had you would know that you would need at least a 200 mm lens, better a 300 mm lens.

Shooting most sports require you to shoot at night or indoors, so a fast lens is very important. Why? Because you need to shoot at shutter speeds of 1/500th second or faster.

I typically shoot sports in manual once I get a good reading of the field or court.

This usually translates to f/2.8 at 1/500th second with the ISO set to 3200.

The question is does your camera shoot well at high ISO settings with little or no noise?

There's one time when a shorter lens is usable. When you are shooting from the baseline at a basketball game when a 24-70 mm f/2.8 can produce good shots.

When shooting group shots, I use the 24-70 mm f/2.8 set at about 35 mm

retiredPhil
retiredPhil

So for sports, the longest lens, 200mm f/4. For group shots, the widest lens, 28mm f/2.8.

If the football is indoors or at night, you will want a faster lens. And if you can get a 300mm lens, it would be good.

John P
John P

On what camera? Full-frame, or crop-frame ("DX")?

And which sports? Some need shorter lenses, thus around 100mm to 200mm, some need longer, e.g. Football, even on crop-frame.

28mm is good for groups on crop-frame, too wide on full-frame unless space is very tight.

Just go malong with what you have got to a sports meet and see how you get along. Think about any times when action was too close or too distant. For track I have used 28mm on full-frame, running alongside the track very close to the runners, but mostly track events need longish lenses.

Andrew
Andrew

The 28mm f2.8 E will allow you to get Really close to the action. It might upset the referee, though.

Of course, it depends on your camera too - all of the lenses you listed are for MF film cameras. They'll be of limited use on an AF body, and won't allow metering on the D3xxx/D5xxx series DSLRs.