Need Help with Canon 75-300mm Lens - Please!

[cajuncandb]

I know a lot of professionals don't like this lens - but as a newbie to the DSLR, I received this telephoto in the kit I ordered. I want to really understand before I go spending 700 - 2000 on these lower aperture lenses because I know it is not only the lens that makes the photo. But anyways I really want to maximize the telephoto lens for some sports shots - namely softball and gymnastics and possibly swimming as well. I know indoors in a gym the f4 is not really decent but any help to try and get the lens to work inside with decent lighting would be appreciated - please tell me if you were shooting sports shots indoors with the 75-300mm what settings you would use and what you would let be manual versus automatic (SS/ ISO/ F-stop/ Av vs. Tv, etc.)

On the outside shooting it will mostly be softball (girls) - so with the same 75-300mm what are your recommendations there?

More so than the indoor - if you could tell me technically the best ways to utilize this lens outdoors for Softball that would be great - so if i am up against the fence trying to catch action at first base to freeze the action and get the clearest picture - so maybe answer the following:

* manual or auto focus
* best way to zoom the lens
* best settings for ISO on good day/cloudy day
* best shutter speed
* preferred mode (Av / Tv / Manual)
* Best aperture setting or auto

If there is a video or good website somewhere for learning these techniques it would be much aprpeciated. Thanks again for the response and hope to hear back soon!


In all scenarios I would like to focus on the subject and wash the rest out - occasionally it might be nice to capture the entire scene in full focus but for the most part I will just be taking photos of my two girls.


Thanks in advance!

[Tzetsin]

Strobist
Software training online-tutorials for Adobe, Microsoft, Apple & more

Lynda.com costs 20 bones per month. best 20 bucks you'll spend on your photography too. check it out an look at what they have available. They have a wicked good course on exposer, lenses and software.

[inkista]

First misunderstanding we need to clear up. The 75-300 III is not an f/4 lens. It's an f/4.5-5.6 lens. And that is NOT the aperture range of the lens. It's the maximum apertures at both ends of the zoom range. If you are at 70mm (zoomed all the way out), the widest you can open the lens if f/4.5. And if you're zoomed all the way in at 300mm, the widest you can open the lens is f/5.6.

In addition, if you're handholding and using the camera/lens combination without support (tripod, monopod, etc.), then you also want to use the 1/focal_length rule to mitigate blur from camera shake. That is, you want your shutter speed to be at least 1/focal_length or faster. In this case, if you're zoomed all the way in, to shoot at 1/300s or faster. If you're at f/5.6 and you have to get to 1/300s indoors, then you're likely to be cranking your iso up into the range where you're going to have noise. IS can lower the shutter speed requirement, which is why more expensive lenses [read: 70-300 IS USM], even if they're just as slow may be worth it). But with sports, you're then likely to get subject motion blur.

This is why the big expensive f/2.8 lenses are worth it for indoor sports shooters.

Also add into all of this the fact that the 75-300 @300mm and f/5.6 is soft, and that you'll get some more sharpness out of it by stopping down to f/8, and you're really up against it light wise.

That's why a lot of folks would not recommend this lens for indoor sports.

It's also not a USM lens, so autofocus is going to be a little slow (again, another reason why the more expensive lenses are worth it, even if they're still slow lenses). Whether you want to autofocus or manual focus is up to you, but unless you're prefocusing on a given spot and you know your subject is going to be there, I'd go with autofocus. And I'd also try and pay attention to whether or not your camera actually has acquired the appropriate focus before mashing the shutter button. Your camera is going to stop tracking when you take a shot. So, it's not likely to keep up between shots if you burst shoot in continuous mode.

What iso and aperture and shutter speed settings you want to use are mostly going to be determined by your lighting situation, the metering, and how much you want to freeze or blur the action in the shot. This is an "it depends" situation. People can give you typical starting-point numbers to work with, but imo, it's better to just rely on the metering to help you figure out your settings, and then chimp and adjust to taste.

I'm not sure there's a best way to zoom, but I would recommend learning to hold your camera/lens properly. The left hand, cupped underneath can be used in that position to adjust either the focus or zoom rings, and it makes for a more stable platform and less fatigue in the right hand, if you're supporting most of the weight on your left palm.

I would also recommend (if you're not already on information overflow), taking a look at back-button autofocus.

[dlambert]

There's some great material here on why big-buck lenses fetch those big bucks. Fact is, you can't fully replicate the results of a really top-notch lens with this glass, but you can learn to make the most of the glass you've got, and along the way, I'll bet you'll learn a few things about exposure and post-processing.

Inkista covered stabilizing your lens and shutter speed, and if you're shooting indoor sports at any distance, you're very likely to be shooting at or near 300mm with an aperture near 5.6. Given that, the first thing you'll want to do is pay attention to your aperture setting. If you're shooting outdoors (softball), you may be able to stop down a bit from 5.6, but if you're indoors (gymnastics or swimming), you're probably going to want to stay pretty close to wide open, even though it's soft, because you're going to have to keep your shutter speed up to have any hope of stopping action.

You're also going to want to learn about ISO and explore what sort of noise levels your camera produces at various ISO settings. A higher ISO setting will let you shoot a faster shutter speed for a given aperture, but it'll produce more noise. This is where post-processing comes in, because you can improve the noise levels of your photos, to some extent, in post-processing. You'll lose a bit of detail in the process, so again, a bit of practice will help you out here. Take some test shots at ISO 100, 400, 800 and 1600 (for example) and look at the difference -- then work with a post-processing program to see how well you can reduce the noise in those photos. Shooting RAW helps with this, too, by the way.

The whole process here is about playing with all the variables at your disposal to try to get the best results you can. You're going to have to work at it to produce good results, but you should be able to come away with something decent. By the time you've shot a few hundred shots, though, you'll know why people pay a couple grand for those "L" lenses!

[cajuncandb]

Than you all so much for the replies - and thanks in advance to any other advice offered - With this being my first DSLR, I greatly appreciate it. I wanted to make sure I learned key techniques like how to correctly assign shutter, ISO, and aperture before I went spending money on the big lenses. I am not planning initially on going pro or anything with photography, but I do want to keep from having to pay professionals to photograph my family in the future (I don't think you will mad at that statement). So I will take things slow and learn properly and exercise the benefits of lens rentals for a while. I am sure I will be back here quite often to seek out more advice in addition to pursuing some of the training materials you have mentioned. So again thank you very much and keep the advice coming!

[dlambert]

Originally Posted by cajuncandb

but I do want to keep from having to pay professionals to photograph my family in the future

If you're looking to do portraits (as opposed to sports action shots), you may want to look at Canon's 50mm f/1.8 lens. It's a relative bargain at around $100, and it'll produce really nice results.

Originally Posted by cajuncandb

exercise the benefits of lens rentals for a while.

Good move, there.

Good luck, and have fun!