Recommended lens purchase for Canon R10

Tleray wrote:

I bought a canon R10 with RF-S18-150m lens kit moving to mirrorless technology. My main use for camera is football games, peprallys in gym and cheer competitions indoor arenas.

i currently have the EF 18-55mm & EF-S 55-250mm (lens kit that came w t3i) and EF 50mm F/1.8 & EF 85mm F/1.8. I bought the adapter to use these lenses w the R10.

My question is....do i buy the RF 24–240mm or the RF100-400mm? I can not afford an L lens. Just not sure which lens would take better pictures in low lighting from far away field shots and then poor lighting in arenas for cheer, both with lots of movement. I have read so many reviews i just don't know which lens would fit the bill.

Lastly i'm an amateur just barely know manual functions enough to capture decent photos:)

In your price range, there are tons of Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L lenses on the used market (they're going for about $700 "buy now" on FleaBay). There are also many Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS Mark I lenses for under $900, and even some Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS Mark II for under $1000.

You'll have to check around regarding compatibility with the R10 (re burst rates and focusing area, etc). Maybe someone on the Forum can chime in.

With sports, shutter speed is King. The big f/2.8 aperture will give you at least an additional 2 stops over any of the other telephoto options you have, or are interested in. That means 4x the shutter speed (or 1/4 the ISO)! This lens is fairly heavy, but it is excellent at dedicated sports shooting. It's very sharp, and very fast focusing (on DSLRs at least).

The focal length is indeed short for field sports, and folks I know use a 1.4x TC to help extend that (gets you out to 450mm equiv). Don't forget that you can crop more with 24 MP too, and the higher ISOs vs the T3i are much better also. A good noise reduction program will help you out tons too, no matter what lens you're shooting with. I personally really like DxO's Photolab for this (need to shoot in RAW).

See if your 85/1.8 will suffice for inside, or if you need the flexibility of a fast zoom (70-200/2.8) at the expense of a stop. Most of the time I'll opt for a prime indoors (for the larger aperture), but you might need a zoom for what you're shooting.

I hope this helps, and maybe someone else can chime in about these older (but time tested) options, and how they'd work on an R Series body.

Best of luck!

R2