Which Lens for Motion/Sports?

[5H4K]

Nikon D80; for motorsport and what with Fontwell and Goodwood racecourses next door, I'm going to try out horseracing.

So far the best bet seems to be the Nikkor 80-200mm non-VR.

Others have mentioned the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 HSM. But I cannot find that anywhere other than eBay, located in Hong Kong.

No particular budget but I've found the Nikkor for only £500, new and in the UK.

Your thoughts, please.

[jagdpanther]

Not sure for the Nikon, but at the moment I use a Sigma 70-300mm APO F4-5.6 for motorsport which is great, but look forward to getting my hands on a Canon 100-400mm F4 L

[5H4K]

jagdpanther said:

Not sure for the Nikon, but at the moment I use a Sigma 70-300mm APO F4-5.6 for motorsport which is great, but look forward to getting my hands on a Canon 100-400mm F4 L

I want the high aperture. My Nikkor 18-200mm does f/5.6 at 200mm! I was thinking about the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 but then saw the RRP of £1,849!!

Edited by 5H4K on Wednesday 24th October 22:27

[jagdpanther]

5H4K said:

jagdpanther said:

Not sure for the Nikon, but at the moment I use a Sigma 70-300mm APO F4-5.6 for motorsport which is great, but look forward to getting my hands on a Canon 100-400mm F4 L

I want the high aperture. My Nikkor 18-200mm does f/5.6 at 200mm! I was thinking about the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 but then saw the RRP of £1,849!!

Edited by 5H4K on Wednesday 24th October 22:27

Not cheap

Try this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sigma-APO-70-200mm-F2-8-EX-D...

or

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sigma-EX-70-200mm-F2-8D-APO-...

[5H4K]

My budget is the £500 mark and for that I'd rather get the Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8. The other choice is the Sigma 120-300mm f/4. Higher f or higher zoom...?

Edited by 5H4K on Wednesday 24th October 22:42

[Ordinary Bloke]

I use Sigma 70-200 f2.8 EX on my Canon and it's a fantastic lens, not true of all Sigma's but this one consistently wins in magazine reviews and I love it. I also have a Sigma EX 1.4x converter, so on a digital EOS I have 480mm f4.

Personally, from what I've seen, read and tried, there's no shortcuts. Look at what the pro photographers are using, and get the most expensive one of them you can afford. And think about the weight.

But anything less than f4 aperture is not going to do a good job, even with VR or other electronic tricks.

www.photo.net seems to have good info, check the forums.

[jagdpanther]

5H4K said:

My budget is the £500 mark and for that I'd rather get the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8. The other choice is the Sigma 120-300mm f/4. Higher f or higher zoom...?

you could always go for the lesser zoom and compensate with a TC if needs be...a faster, sharper lens is always good!

Check Fred Miranda's website for information and reviews on all lenses

[fergusd]

I have an 80-200/2.8 nikkor, the AFS ED one, two touch zoom, it's a brilliant, sharp, contrasty lens, nice fast focus, well made, certainly couldn't fault it and I expect you should get one for your budget . . . gets a lot of good reviews too . . .

I'd buy the nikkor and if you then need it a TC rather than the longer slower lens . . .

Fd

Edited by fergusd on Wednesday 24th October 23:34

[rhubarb]

Like Ordinary Bloke I've a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 and it is fantastic. I use with a 1.4TC I've also got a 2* TC but that makes things a little soft. But would definately recommend this Sigma lens and you should be able to get one for somewhere near £500 I would have thought

Edited by rhubarb on Thursday 25th October 12:48

[jason-l]

fergusd said:

I have an 80-200/2.8 nikkor, the AFS ED one, two touch zoom, it's a brilliant, sharp, contrasty lens, nice fast focus, well made, certainly couldn't fault it and I expect you should get one for your budget . . . gets a lot of good reviews too . . .

I'd buy the nikkor and if you then need it a TC rather than the longer slower lens . . .

Fd

Edited by fergusd on Wednesday 24th October 23:34

Thay have a couple Nikon 80-200 AF-S secondhand near your budget at Grays of Westminster at the moment.

[5H4K]

I've read elsewhere that the Nikkor may not be as fast focusing as the Sigma HSM on my D80. Can anyone here shed anymore light on this?

[Felters]

I bought a s/h Nikkor 300mm F4 AF lens on Ebay for a shade under £400 recently. Great images and assuming it's focussing is somewhere near the mark it does the last bit just fine. It isn't as quick out of the bag as the current lens but assuming you are standing in one place and taking a series of shots then it's great. And the build quality is really old school - there's a solid click when you put it on the body and it feels a LOT more solid than the current plastic jobs.

By the way there's a VSCC sprint at Goodwood on Saturday - assuming the weather is ok it'll be a good day out if you like that pre-war thing

[5H4K]

Felters said:

By the way there's a VSCC sprint at Goodwood on Saturday - assuming the weather is ok it'll be a good day out if you like that pre-war thing

I'll pop in for a few minutes after my 8am gym session. 'Old' cars don't interest me but I like to get some practice in.

[biker.ie]

The sigma 100-300 f/4 fits the bill if you need a little more range, reasonably sharp wide open also.