Arena Football photography

I have a sigma 4-5.6, 300mm lens for my canon 300d and I was wondering if this

combo could possibly pull off shots in an arena football game. If anyone has

any advice feel free to reply.

I can tell you now it's not going to work. The best lens I have found is the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 300mm f/2.8. Even with those, you'll be lucky to get the shutter speed up to around 1/350 in the brightest parts of the arena at ISO 1600 or even 3200. I shoot arena football every week and without a fast f/2.8lens your shots will be dark and blurred. Flash does not work very well in those facilities and many teams forbid them. I have attached one of my shots from this past Saturday. It was shot at f/2.8, 1/500 sec at ISO 1600.<div></div>

f/5.6 makes it tough to stop action. If you are shooting ISO 1600, you may not be able to shoot faster than 1/125. This will hardly cover the camera shake if you are shooting hand held.

 

If you have a faster lens, you may want to take it and try both. You should also check with the arena to make sure they will let you in with a 300mm lens (I was not allowed into Miami Arena last month with a similar lens.)