Quick question, curious...K-3 and only one lens for indoor HS Volleyball?

Thanks John,

It really looks like the Tamron 70-200 is the way to go and I'll just have to get used to the size and attention I'll get.

The 50-135 2.8 seems more my style but heard the focus was slow. If the 70-200 will focus quicker then I may just do that.

Thanks all for your input.Today I brought the camera bag to work so I can shoot my daughter's volleyball game tonight. No lens purchase yet but I'll be playing around mainly with focal lengths using the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8, and 55-300mm kit lens.


Drew

I had a good look at the Tamron and Sigma 70 - 200's. The Sigma came up "better" in the areas that I needed like fast focus. It's been purchased and I am very happy with it. Size wise I use the 50-500 for most of my shooting so it's not that big....

You should still be able to get the Sigma even though it's discontinued. I was able to. The Pentax is likely to be a fair while away and cost a lot more. I'm sure to buy one at some stage...

AndrewJ said:

Thanks John,

It really looks like the Tamron 70-200 is the way to go and I'll just have to get used to the size and attention I'll get.

Click to expand...

Hi Andrew,

AndrewJ said:

The 50-135 2.8 seems more my style but heard the focus was slow. If the 70-200 will focus quicker then I may just do that.

Click to expand...

I have the 50-135/2.8 and have played with the (Tamron) 7-200/2.8 and whilst I like the Tamron focal length better, I really do believe that the 50-135 (w/ the SDM motor) will be faster I was shooting with, either a K200D and, then, the K-r which improved the AF vastly, as well as, the frame rate so I don't think there should be any issues when using the K-3 and it's AF system and number of focus points, of the crossed variety

I would advise, if possible, to try both lenses on your K-3

Cheers,

Jack

Thank you,

So it's really looking like the smartest thing to do is to rent one at a time. I can do that.

AndrewJ said:

Thank you,

So it's really looking like the smartest thing to do is to rent one at a time.

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or that, Andrew

AndrewJ said:

I can do that.

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Cheers and look forward to some pics

Jack

As far as choices for the gymnasium. I would suggest you consider the DA* 35-105. It gets consistently great reviews. Also, at f 2.8, it is quite versatile. I would also suggest you get the BFG-5 grip. It balances the camera and lens exceptionally well. I believe that the new DA 18-135 is getting good reviews also and it is quite a bit less expensive.

AndrewJ said:

Which do you take? This is only to take pics of my daughter when she is on the court. She has just started playing her freshman year and I'm hoping I can get away with one lens but suppose I can bring the bag if I must.

Currently I have the Tamron 28-75 on the camera and have enough to pick up one additional lens. I almost pulled the trigger on the Tamron 70-200 but after ton's of reading I'm almost back where I started.

Keep practicing with the 28-75 2.8, pick up the 70-200 2.8, or maybe the Sigma 85mm 1.4? The 75mm I have found too short at times then again even at 2.8 I struggle with fast action in low light (notice I said I struggle as I'm aware it's all me and not the camera).

If you had to travel light for whatever reason, could you pull off covering a volleyball game with one lens?

Many thanks,

Drew

Click to expand...

I might be a bit too late for your decision...

I would refrain from the 85/1.4, a prime lens for sport sounds great when shooting indoors with only little available light, but you are not flexible enough with just this lens. If you can use two cameras, you can get away with this 85/1.4 on one camera and the DA*200/2.8 on the other, but with just a single lens, I would refrain from primes.

The DA*50-135 is a superb lens, great image quality, however, if you have to take the photos from within the public, you will be too far away with this lens. Apart from that, the AF is not fast enough to keep the pace of volleyball.

My recommendation would be to go with the Sigma 70-200/2.8. It offers great image quality, faster AF than the 50-135 and a bit more reach.

Then, I would recommend switching to manual exposure (given the light is more or less even on the whole court), select an aperture for what you intend to shoot, typically f/3.2-3.5 (to gain some sharpness compared to full open aperture), shutter speed of 1/1000s to freeze the action and set the ISO to have the photo correctly exposed.

Yoda boy said:

As far as choices for the gymnasium. I would suggest you consider the DA* 35-105. It gets consistently great reviews. Also, at f 2.8, it is quite versatile. I would also suggest you get the BFG-5 grip. It balances the camera and lens exceptionally well. I believe that the new DA 18-135 is getting good reviews also and it is quite a bit less expensive.

Click to expand...

I think you might mean DA* 50-135 f/2.8. And the 18-135 is f/5.6 at 135mm.

tcom said:

AndrewJ said:

Which do you take? This is only to take pics of my daughter when she is on the court. She has just started playing her freshman year and I'm hoping I can get away with one lens but suppose I can bring the bag if I must.

Currently I have the Tamron 28-75 on the camera and have enough to pick up one additional lens. I almost pulled the trigger on the Tamron 70-200 but after ton's of reading I'm almost back where I started.

Keep practicing with the 28-75 2.8, pick up the 70-200 2.8, or maybe the Sigma 85mm 1.4? The 75mm I have found too short at times then again even at 2.8 I struggle with fast action in low light (notice I said I struggle as I'm aware it's all me and not the camera).

If you had to travel light for whatever reason, could you pull off covering a volleyball game with one lens?

Many thanks,

Drew

Click to expand...

I might be a bit too late for your decision...

Click to expand...

Not too late and thanks for chiming in. I have been struggling a little with the idea of the fact that I can only buy one lens at the moment. I think I always wanted to round out my kit with the new Sigma 18-35 and 'a' 70-200. The Sigma would get a lot more use but it's not my immediate need.

Volleyball is the immediate need so I was leaning 70-200 and at this point cannot find a Sigma for sale. Then I heard of a couple shooting with the 85mm and preferring it as they could get close (so can I) and the 1.8 really helps. I then read more online accounts of folks shooting volleyball and all were using FF cameras and saying you needed a 2.8 or better lens. Since this translates to an f4+ in APS-C I was now looking more into the 85mm as a possibility. I realize that most of these reviews were a little old and the K3 has better ISO capability but reading all of this just lead me to believe I had more reading to do.

Obviously a novice with a nice camera

tcom said:

I would refrain from the 85/1.4, a prime lens for sport sounds great when shooting indoors with only little available light, but you are not flexible enough with just this lens. If you can use two cameras, you can get away with this 85/1.4 on one camera and the DA*200/2.8 on the other, but with just a single lens, I would refrain from primes.

The DA*50-135 is a superb lens, great image quality, however, if you have to take the photos from within the public, you will be too far away with this lens. Apart from that, the AF is not fast enough to keep the pace of volleyball.

My recommendation would be to go with the Sigma 70-200/2.8. It offers great image quality, faster AF than the 50-135 and a bit more reach.

Click to expand...

I have come full circle and think the 70-200 is the way to go. I was hoping the 50-135 would be as handling the smaller lens would be nicer. At the moment i have the Tamron 70-200 and the D-BG5 in my shopping cart but taking a moment to look around for the Sigma.

tcom said:

Then, I would recommend switching to manual exposure (given the light is more or less even on the whole court), select an aperture for what you intend to shoot, typically f/3.2-3.5 (to gain some sharpness compared to full open aperture), shutter speed of 1/1000s to freeze the action and set the ISO to have the photo correctly exposed.

--
Dominique
International Press Association
http://ipaimpress.com/author/dominique/
http://www.bydoms.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dschreckling/

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AndrewJ said:

If you had to travel light for whatever reason, could you pull off covering a volleyball game with one lens?

Many thanks,

Drew

Click to expand...

Drew,

Most definitely you can pull it off with a single prime lens.

I mostly use the Pentax 77mm f/1.8 for my indoor sports. The 77mm limited is small and light. I have the K-5IIs and shoot with ISO 3200, Aperture Priority f/2.2. That usually keeps the shutter speed above 1/500s. I do have the Tamron 70-200, but find that f/2.8 is too slow for some of the high school gyms. It's also harder to hold steady without a monopod.

Does your daughter have a preferred position? You'll want to place yourself where you can see her face while also capturing the peak action. Here are some recent shots taken from the area behind the team bench. None of my local gyms have a cat-walk (see John_A_G's samples), so all my shots are from ground level.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/altadena_eric/sets/72157648800821246/


Setting


Bumping/Digging


Serving


Net battle: Tipping/Blocking


Outside Hitter/Spike/Kill (through the net)

Eric

--

I've shot many a hockey game with my K-5 and trusty old DA*50-135 and last spring had the opportunity to try the same kit out for ladies high school basketball. It did pretty well. Great to have f2.8 and a decently sharp lens. For hockey, I'd typically be right up against the glass. For the basketball game, I was well up into the stands, so you can get a feel of the reach limitations of 135mm.

Hockey: http://darylkottwitzphoto.smugmug.com/Sports/Prep-vs-Westside-12512/ and http://darylkottwitzphoto.smugmug.com/Sports/2013-Prep-Championship-Games/i-RtSZtFm

Basketball: http://darylkottwitzphoto.smugmug.com/Sports/Duchesne-Basketball-State-Tour/

Regarding focusing speed, I never had too much trouble, even with hockey skaters coming at me full speed as long as I kept the center focus point trained on them and regularly refocused (Rightly or wrongly, I didn't trust continuous focusing on the K-5, so tended to just keep rapidly hitting the half press focus and following through for a shot(s) when wanted). With the new K-3 in my bag, I'm thinking my success rate would be even greater and my technique would likely be different. The 50-135 seems more responsive on my K-3 - perhaps because the K-3 is much more decisive and quicker to process focus data prior to telling the lens what to do.

Back to the topic at hand, I think the DA*50-135 would do well for you. I cannot comment on other suggestions previously provided which may work just as well.

Regards,

Daryl

AndrewJ said:

Volleyball is the immediate need so I was leaning 70-200 and at this point cannot find a Sigma for sale. Then I heard of a couple shooting with the 85mm and preferring it as they could get close (so can I) and the 1.8 really helps. I then read more online accounts of folks shooting volleyball and all were using FF cameras and saying you needed a 2.8 or better lens. Since this translates to an f4+ in APS-C I was now looking more into the 85mm as a possibility. I realize that most of these reviews were a little old and the K3 has better ISO capability but reading all of this just lead me to believe I had more reading to do.

Click to expand...

You need at least an f/2.8 lens on FF because of the usually rather dim conditions, APS-C or FF does not change a lot here, light is lacking and if you want to give a chance to the AF to do the job, f/2.8 or better is definitely required.

I am shooting quite a lot of volleyball events for the press. I use FF with in general the Sigma 120-300/2.8 or even Nikon 200/2 when not enough light.





















--
Dominique
International Press Association

Your last shot is really cool! Certainly helps to have a press pass to get up close!

Daryl

tcom said:

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WOW, great shot Dominique But, I'm guessing, not done with one of the tele's mentioned …. Cracking shot

cheers,

Jack

tcom said:

--
Dominique
International Press Association
http://ipaimpress.com/author/dominique/
http://www.bydoms.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dschreckling/

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--
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOCUMENTARY: (*UPDATED NOV 16th*)MY BLOG.... www.nakedmanonawire.blogspot.com
****MY EMAIL ADDRESS IN IS MY 'VIEW PLAN'****
It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one is doing

Thank you for all the great advice everyone but I decided to go in a completely different direction.



Being that the school volley ball season ended and the holidays were approaching I needed a low light wide angle to capture indoor family shots so... I purchased the Sigma 18-35mm and completely thrilled with it.

The Tamron 70-200 is still on my list and club VBall is soon to start up so that purchase is next.

Here are a few samples, all with no flash (please excuse the lousy composition as I'm terrible at it but welcome any advice).

Happy New Years, Andrews and all the best for 2015

As for composition, welcome to the club and, IMHO, why cropping was invented

Cheers and good shooting

Jack Simpson