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