best Minolta prime lens for youth sports baseball 200mm G?

[rob_zukowski]

Just wondering what might be a great prime lens to use for youth

sports. I currently have the 35mm 1.4 G. I was thinking the 85mm G

but then I started to do some reseach and the 200mm G seems to be

great. Let me know if anyone has either forsale. I am leaning

toward the 200mm G if I can find one....Thanks

[michael_hohner]

Maybe a prime is a bit unflexible for sports. Did you also think about the 80-200/2.8 APO G?

[bill_thorlin]

A zoom may well serve you better just for once but if you want close-ups then 200mm may be too short and you need to consider at least 300mm or more.

 

The G lenses are not easy to find and when found are not cheap. B&H might be one place to start if you are in the US and they occasionally appear on fleabay.

[craig_gillette]

For youth baseball? I'd think a prime would be extremely frustrating. For baseball and most field sports, there's just too broad a range of distances involved. Depending on location, the 200 could well be OK for some of it but could easily be either too long or too short for much of it as well. A 70-200/2.8 type lens is usually a good beginning sports choice and only if you are right on top of the action, is it likely to be too long, although on a crop factor camera, perhaps more so than on full frame or film. There are few lenses which have the zoom range to cover both near and far action of field sports - the fence is maybe 300 or more feet out from home, football fields are 100 yards, goal to goal, soccer similar but variable dimensions. A 70-200/2.8 may be too long for indoor sports, again depending on location and sports involved.

 

I found my 75-300 pretty generally useful doing softball (for fun) with a film camera. 100-300 sometimes too long for youth soccer for the closest activity and clearly too short for other end of the field with a 7D. A 400 prime was very limiting for soccer, could deal with midfield action but couldn't easily get action around the goal if I was inside the 18 or outside the touch line on the end.