Which Lens For Sports?

[Guest Michelle Davies]

I recently purchased Digital Rebel XT and am looking for a zoom lens to take pics of the kids doing sports. I am obviously very new to the SLRs so I want something not too difficult...prefer no tripod. Any suggestions? The pics will be mainly of football, cross country, ie, far away!

[dinny]

it's ALL a matter of how much $$ you have.

The Canon lenses are all nice. The lenses w/ IS (image stabilization) will help you to shoot better without a tripod.

This is a really nice lens:
[url="http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=150&modelid=9996"]EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM[/url]

The "L" series lens are the professional level lenses and will cost significantly more.

[Guest sfcgijill]

You may want to start with a mid-range zoom, image stabilization is nice but expensive. Start off taking pics at a good range then work your way into zooming in on the action - lots of folks get frustrated because they miss the shot by zooming in too close and everything moves out of frame too quickly. Another way to help ensure you get the shot is using "burst mode"- essentially, it takes several pics at one press of the shutter, so you are more likely to get the shot you were aiming for. Just press the shutter button a little earlier than you normally might and hold it a second or two.

Oh, and check the ISO setting - a higher setting means you can shoot a bit faster than a lower setting given the same lighting conditions, which means less blur (due to either fast action or camera shake).

One of the greatest things about digital photography is you can shoot as much as you want, and you don't have to pay to develop pics you hate!