As a passionate photographer, I have a bag upon bag of photography equipment that I need when placed in a whole variety of situations. Photography is a slippery slope and once people take the photography plunge it becomes a lot more than a hobby. We now live in a tricky and uncertain financial world and the days of going out and just buying anything and everything in my opinion are long gone. For many we have to play the waiting game. Buy what I need when its possible and until then make the best of what equipment we’ve got. This can be seen as a hindrance but then again the pictures I can produce make me work harder at achieving a better quality of picture as I’m spending more time picking my shot as I understand the limitations of my equipment and how to best use them. There is just no point trying to take a picture that my equipment is not capable of making as the end results will often disappoint. Not a good feeling!
For most of this calendar footballing year I’ve used a Tamron 70-200 F2.8. A lens I cannot complain about one bit! Built to last, not too heavy and image quality really is very good. A lens I would highly recommend to other photographers. Of course there are those that would say the Canon 70-200 F2.8 is the holy grail and the lens everyone should aspire to get. I cannot dispute this and if you have this pairing with a Canon camera that’s half the battle won and will make life a whole lot easier. If you listen to photographers with years of experience they will always advise to spend money on a good quality lenses rather than a camera body! A looked after Lens will always last longer than the body so this is why money is best spent here? If you haven’t noticed this yet ? of course lenses are pretty expensive too and why you see so many being sold on Gumtree and eBay to bridge the gap needed to purchase new equipment buying someone else’s hand me downs. The prices sold here are always a bargain but in my opinion this comes with a concern which you have to step back and think of the consequences(My sensible head speaking). I’m sure everyone does there best to look after their own equipment but this like everything will always be subject to abuse? The weather elements, accidental or deliberate damage, natural wear and tear and just the age of the devices etc. Once purchased privately how much life is actually left within the camera or lens?
For my sports photography and the times sitting behind the goal line the 70-200 is great when the action comes to you…. This being football I’m sure you can realise each half you hope the action is at your end of the goal. I hope the team attacking this goal are the better or stronger team which results in a lot of action being right in front of me. When its not…. The 70-200 is just not much fun. A little short in focal length to be honest. Of course I can get lots of pictures of the attackers and attacking midfielders, but the midfielders and defenders are just out of reach and look quite pathetically small in pictures. As for taking pictures of the goalkeeper at the far end…. A complete waste of time even pressing the shutter.
This weekend I’m making the most of a great opportunity and using a Sigma 120-300 lens with a x1.4 Teleconverter. Next month the clocks go forward for the start of British Summer Time (My favourite time of the year) and already days with daylight are getting longer. Which means for a 15:00 kick off on a Saturday afternoon there should be enough light to use the teleconverter for the first half of the match. As the game continues through the second half and darkness falls, the extra 100mm I have at my disposal is going to be a huge benefit to me. I’ll follow up with another blog how the lens performed for me soon…..