 Ralph L. Nuerenberg |
Indoor Arena Photography I take equestrian photos in indoor arenas where natural lighting is not good; but flash units are not practical for non-pro use. Currently, I am shooting with a Canon 5D with 135mm f2.0 fixed lens with ISO ramped to max. While my photos are OK to good, I generally have to use digital darkroom techniques to optimize. I am currently looking to improve with a Canon 85mm f1.2 lens, but am cautious about the small depth of field (and reportedly slow autofocus). Any words of advice on this for a non-pro photographer?
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Michael H. Cothran |
Ralph, The most important factor in considering the 85/1.2 lens is if the focal length is long enough for your needs. If you're comfortable viewing the arena with a 135mm lens, it may be that 85mm will be too short, requiring you to crop deeper into your image. Shooting at f1.2 would be about 1.5 stops faster than your f2 lens, which is significant in my book. And considering the distance, assuming you are in the stands shooting into an arena, I don't think DOF will be too much of a problem at all. I'd check further into the focusing speed issue, and especially into the focal length difference. Unfortunately, there are no other alternatives as far as speed goes.
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Jen Hernandez |
Also to consider, when buying a f/1.2, the focus is pretty soft because your DOF is extremely small. I bought the Canon 50/1.4 and found out later that it looks really soft until you get to about f2.
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David S. Nadal |
Canon has recently redesigned the 85/1.2 and--supposedly--addressed the AF speed. I've rented the older model and used it in similar circumstances...the thing weighs a lot for a short lens (use a monopod), and my results were questionable (soft), but I think that was more me than the lens. A lot of money: try renting first.
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John D. Gretzinger |
I primarily shoot with a Canon 20D using the 75-300 IS lens. It's not nearly as fast as what you are using, but I find that when I am shooting robotics competitions (similar lighting in an arena) I get very sharp photos in full manual, ISO of 800. If I push to ISO 1600 I start getting too much noise for my tastes. I can hand hold at shutter speeds that give me subject motion, or I can get good stop action on the robots. If you can get within 20 feet of the horses, grab a Canon 580 flash and a Stroboframe Pro-T bracket. A monopod will help as well.
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Bruce |
The alternative lens will be introduced this month, the EOS 85 1.2L II with focusing reported to be 1.8X faster and some digital-ready coating improvements (not weatherproofing unfortunately for mold-in-the-glass growers like me on the Texas Gulf Coast). The price will also be 40% more for those slight improvements. The older 1.2 lens is reportedly sharp wide-open compared to the cheaper 50mm 1.4 mentioned above which most say you need to stop-down to f/2 to get it sharp. I'd rent or borrow an 85 f/1.8 first to check the usefulness of the length for what you need. Another method would be using strobes. This may be of interest: http://www.arenastrobes.com/
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