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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

What telephoto lenses for sports/ nature shoots are people using most successfully?

Nathan Apffel

Nathan Apffel

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I recently purchased a Scarlet and am crossing over from Sony EX3 w/ nikon adapter with a 70-300 for nature and sports. The Sony was an amazing setup because that lens with the sensor crop factor gave me an incredible telephoto distance.

What Long lens telephoto zooms do you find the best in regards to image quality? Does anyone have much luck with a 70-200 with a doubler?

I need to be shooting between 300-600mm (and a bit longer) much of the time.

Budget is a semi issue. I would love to keep this lens under $1,700USD.

Thanks for any notes or thoughts!
 
I have a Canon 150-600 T5.6 PL converted zoom that I really like for wildlife, surfing, some car/product stuff. Even with the conversion housing its under 10 lbs. They usually sell for $7K or more so its more than your target, but perhaps you could find a regular Canon mount version for less. I am in San Diego if you care to test it - I'll give you a reduced "demo"rate if there's no paying client.

I love the Canon 70-200 2.8L zoom but have not been impressed with IQ once a doubler is added (contrast went on holiday), YMMV.

Cheers - #19
 
Nathan,

Mobile sports and nature production have been two of my core production genres throughout my career, with Red cameras and others when needed. I've been using a stock Canon 150-600 (PL mount only conversion) with great results - but then I sold mine to my good friend Blair. The lens I sold him was maintained by Duclos for me and is in excellent condition. If you rent it from him, I'm sure you'll be way happy with it. Many times I've wished I wouldn't have sold that lens, but I was rounding up funds for something else...hind sight is 20/20.

There is another Canon 150-600 thread on this same forum. I posted on that thread some extensive lens usage info and footage link examples. Here's a link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...s-with-RED-7-quot-Touchscreen-vs-RED-Oled-EVF

You're asking what lenses sports and nature shooters use with Epic and Red One. Unlike stills work, for motion work zooms are used extensively. In sports and nature shooting there's no way you can be real effective using long prime lenses. Its impossible in sports and nature cinematography to get up and walk to each framing of the subject - to do so will cause you to lose tons of critical shots, or in the case of nature it will scare off the subject or could even get you eaten! With long primes finding the framing is a nightmare, whereas with long zooms the technique is to simply zoom back, find the subject you're after, zoom up to the framing you want, then hit record. If you need to loosen up the framing while tracking action you slightly zoom out the framing. But mostly zooms in sports and nature cinematography are used as variable primes. The 150-600 does hold focus throughput a zoom if you need that while recording.

Here's a partial list of the most commonly used zoom lenses on Red One and Epic for shooting sports and nature:

Canon FD 150-600 f5.5L
Nikon 200-400 f4
Nikon 50-300 f4.5 AIS
Canon 70-200 f2.8 (with 1.4x as needed)
Canon 28-300 f3.5-6.3
Nikon 70-200 f2.8 (with 1.4x as needed)
Sigma 120-300 f2.8 (Canon or Nikon mount, with 1.4x as needed)
Sigma 300-800 f5.6 (the "Bigma")

Note 1: Canon announced some time ago a new 200-400 L series zoom, which has an internal 1.4x extender, operated by a simple lever on the lens by the mount - exactly how EFP/ENG zooms with 2x extenders work. To my knowledge that lens hasn't started shipping, but when it does it will be in huge demand by sports and nature shooters. It won't be cheap though - probably at least $8,500 or more.

Note 2: If someone has a large budget and shoots a lot of sports and nature (and documentaries of various kinds), the Fujinon Cabrio lenses are excellent - both the 19-90 and 85-300. Both lenses are PL mount, cover 5k on down, and have something both me and Blair have lobbied for over a span of many years on Red User - a servo zoom handgrip unit. With a wired remote unit on your tripod handle connected to the servo zoom unit on the 85-300 lens you'd have a killer setup for sports and nature shooting with Epic. I haven't tried either of those Fujinon Cabrio zooms on Epic yet but I've read lots of good things about the lenses. I'll look forward to trying them out...

Hope the above info helps you somewhat. Have a great shooting trip to Hawaii! I've shot sports there extensively over the past decades - including with Red cameras many times since 2007.
 
I would add...

I would add...

these two to Steve's list :

- sigma 50-500 (bigma,... 300-800 being commonly known as sigmonster). Not a night owl, but a very nice lens. (as far as my sample is concerned).

- Think of nikon 80-400, over priced, but very lightweight. You might consider used copies of the bigma, given your budget, and because you won't need stabilization. And you won't resent the nikon 80-400 terrible autofocus, because I hope you won't use autofocus.

Sigma 120-300 and 300-800 are great lenses, but they don't fit your budget at all. Besides, they are very heavy lenses.
 
Good points Denis...

I knew what his budget was, but while I was at it I thought I'd give him a basic summary of what zoom lenses are used overall for sports and nature shooting with Epic and Red One.

Somehow I left both the Sigma 50-500 and Nikon 80-400 off the list. I own a Sigma 150-500 which I've used on my 5D MKII and briefly on Epic. Its pretty good out to around 425mm then just so-so from there out to 500mm. Most reviewers rate the Sigma 150-500 as a better overall lens than the Sigma 50-500. I also left the Canon 100-400 f4.5 - 5.6 off my list. Its a pretty good lens, although like the Sigmas a bit slow.

I haven't used the Nikon 80-400, but I know others who have - with mixed results. Its a decent lens, like you say overpriced, and AF isn't the best on it.

Good point on AF. When using 35mm still lenses on Epic for fast action sports and nature shooting, manual focus is the way. That said, advances in AF are progressing, and IMO it won't be too long when sports and nature shooters using 35mm still lenses with DC cameras can reliably use AF for certain shot sequences, just as we routinely do in shooting sports stills with DSLR cameras and lenses.

My hope is that the long awaited Red Electronic Lenses will be able to do incredibly fast and accurate AF with moving subjects ;)
 
Dane,

Definitely...the Nikon 400 f3.5 AIS is a great lens, probably my favorite Nikon long prime of all time! I owned a pristine condition one of those from 2007 through 2011 and used it extensively with Red One to shoot 4k footage of wildlife and some sports. The results were stellar. In February 2010 I shot 4k with that lens on Red One of the Mavericks big wave contest at Half Moon Bay - guys dropping into 55' face waves. Incredible action! I could get away with using a long prime because my shooting location was up on a high bluff looking straight out and down onto the break, where I was simply tracking the surfers right to left across the distant waves (full frame top to bottom on the waves). I knew where I'd be setup before I went to the event, and that a zoom wouldn't be necessary, thus I used my Nikon 400 tele rather than my Canon 150-600 zoom.

The above said, I recommended zooms over long primes to Nathan because of the reasons I previously listed.
 
Thanks so much for all this info! This forum is gold.

I tested a few of the Nikon zooms yesterday, the 80-300 did come with mixed results. Steve, I've shot surfing for the last 7 years all over the world, and I agree zooms are a necessity due to my subject matter always moving around in the lineup. I am excited to try the Sigma 150-500, I love to get those last moments of golden hour, so this lens might be a bit slow for when I want those.

Again, thanks gentlemen for the advice!
 
Happy to help Nathan...

We both have surf shooting in our pedigree - I've shot stills of surfing all over the world since 1969, and cinematography and videography of surfing all over the world since the late '70's. I was a director and cameraman for the ESPN, Fox Sports Net, and NBC coverage of the ASP WCT and WQS, all stops worldwide for two decades. I also shot basically just about every other pro surfing event in the world from 1981 to 2002. But my favorite surfing to shoot has always non-contest, down home, soulful, grassroots stuff. I've surfed since 1959 - and still do when the waves are good ;)

There are a few low resolution samples of my Red camera surfing shots and empty wave shots, which I shot with my Canon 150-600, on the other thread I put the link up for in my post #4 of this thread. Here's the link: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...s-with-RED-7-quot-Touchscreen-vs-RED-Oled-EVF

I work heavily in lots of other genres - music, adventure travel, other action sports, wildlife, cultures, tourism, nature, lifestyles, etc. - but when I get the chance and the waves are good I'm always stoked to be shooting than surfing and big, empty, slow motion sequences of waves ;)

In December 2007 I was the field producer, director, a cinematographer for the world's first multiple Red camera coverage of a surfing event (or any sports event for that matter) - the 2007 ASP WCT Pipeline Masters on the North Shore. I had Mike Prickett shooting with my Red One SN 0008 in a custom PVC water housing made for us by Mike Hastings, Ken Corben shooting Red One "Hollywood" pre-production camera on a Tyler mount in a helicopter, and I shot the long lens from-beach footage using my Red One "London" pre-production camera with a Angenieux 24-290 zoom. Some of the footage we shot ended up in the Fuel TV special on the Pipe Masters , and the rest was used by Apple for multiple years for their traveling seminars and expos. Fun times...and we made some Red camera history in the process ;)

Have fun in Hawaii!
 
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