What lens should I buy?

[joeinmiami]

I have the need for a medium telephoto lens to take High School soccer and Base Ball games during the day. I have been looking at the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens and the Sigma 50-500mm. I know they are not very fast, but since I take most of my pictures during the day, they should be ok.

Can any one give me advise as to which lens to get? Can another lens do the job? My wife won't let me morgage the house to buy the Nikon 200-400mm but may let me buy, after some convincing, a lens between $1000 to $1500

My camera is a Nikon d80

Thanks

Joe:rolleyes

[Harryb]

I have the need for a medium telephoto lens to take High School soccer and Base Ball games during the day. I have been looking at the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens and the Sigma 50-500mm. I know they are not very fast, but since I take most of my pictures during the day, they should be ok.

Can any one give me advise as to which lens to get? Can another lens do the job? My wife won't let me morgage the house to buy the Nikon 200-400mm but may let me buy, after some convincing, a lens between $1000 to $1500

My camera is a Nikon d80

Thanks

Joe:rolleyes

I would go with the 80-400 as it can be shot handheld giving you more flexibility at a sporting event. The VR won't hurt either.

If you can give up the range the 70-300 will give you better AF speed than the 80-400.

If you can live w/o the zoom the Nikon 300mm f/4 will give you better IQ and good AF performance. It will also work well with the 1.4 TC on your D80.

[dadwtwins]

I would go with the 80-400 as it can be shot handheld giving you more flexibility at a sporting event. The VR won't hurt either.

If you can give up the range the 70-300 will give you better AF speed than the 80-400.

If you can live w/o the zoom the Nikon 300mm f/4 will give you better IQ and good AF performance. It will also work well with the 1.4 TC on your D80.

I have shot with the 80-400VR at a soccer game a couple of months ago. The autofocus was very slow and hunted during critical shots. If you are going to use the 80-400, try the manual focus or keep a large enough angle between you and the subject to limit your horizontal motion.

Since you must keep the cost down like most of us, this is still a good choice ;-)

[Telecorder]

Joe--
You might want to wait a month or so to see what the new OS Sigmas have to offer..
Sigma 150-500 HSM/OS
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08...igma150500.asp (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08013102sigma150500.asp)

or the Sigma 120-400 HSM/OS
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08013103sigma120400.asp

If their IQ is any where near the Bigma's, they should be really sweet...with OS & HSM AF...!