I currently shoot my kids U9s rugby with a Nikon Z6 and 70-200 2.8 with an FTZ adapter. But as the pitches are bigger now than when they played tag only I’m finding the 200mm reach limiting and I end up doing a lot of cropping. I’m not printing these or publishing them anywhere, but it does consume a lot of time in post processing.
So I’m considering some long lenses, almost certainly second hand.
I obviously rely on decent autofocus speed as the kids are pretty quick. I’m less worried about edge sharpness as it’s centre sharpness that matters most and vignetting I consider a solved problem using PhotoLab.
I’ve had my eye on either:
- Sigma 150-600 DG OS HSM SPORT
- Nikon 200-500
The Sigma is more expensive, but i don’t mind if its woth the extra. I don’t know much about Tamron or others.
What would you recommend or have experience with shooting outdoor field sports?
Just in case it helps with further online research - according to Wikipedia, a super telephoto lens is one with a (maximum) focal length of over 300mm, a superzoom lens is one with well over x3 difference between shortest and longest focal lengths.
So, those lenses discussed so far are definitely super telephoto, but are mostly, or all, not super zoom.
Alas, I can’t help on actual subject of your interest: mine is bird photography and so rarely want to be at anything other than maximum focal length (and I even found a 600mm Prime lens pleasing and effective to use). For sports, I can well imagine a good zoom (if not super zoom :) ) is very useful, to swap quickly from overall pitch to individual player.