Canon Outdoor Sports Lens Recommendations

The best Canon general outdoor sports lenses - My Canon general outdoor sports lens recommendations ...

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS L USM Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM Lens

Serious outdoor sports photography employs some of the excellent Canon Super Telephoto Lenses ...

Canon EF 200mm f/2.0 L IS USM Lens
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens
Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens
Canon EF 500mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens
Canon EF 600mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens

There are a huge number of outdoor sports - watching the summer and winter Olympics bring this fact to light. Soccer, football (USA), baseball, softball, track and field, field hockey, golf, surfing, racing (many variations), beach volleyball, swimming, waterskiing and other watersports, cycling, inline skating, skateboarding, lacrosse, snow skiing and snowboarding, tennis, badminton, cheerleading, rugby ... You get the point. I can't cover lenses for all of these sports in this page, but I will recommend some of the popular outdoor sports photography lenses.

When shooting action sports, action-stopping shutter speeds are usually the top priority (1/500, 1/1000 or higher). Outdoor sports are often played in bright daylight conditions - but fast lenses are still an advantage. Wide apertures can blur the distracting background and can yield the fastest shutter speed/lowest ISO setting combinations. Wide aperture lenses often focus faster as well.

Many Outdoor sports cover a wide range of subject distances. Zoom lenses are great for getting the framing right. Typically brightly lit outdoor venues are able to be shot with action-stopping shutter speeds using a zoom lens (which typically has a smaller max aperture than a fixed focal lenght lens). Early mornings, late evenings and heavily overcast days, however, may require very high ISO speeds on lenses with maximum apertures smaller than f/2.8.

Image stabilization, a feature on many of the lenses I recommend, is not a great advantage for many types of action sports photography. The required shutter speed for handholding sports lenses is not usually a concern as the shutter speed required to stop action is usually high enough to stop camera shake. IS is however a very useful feature that you might use for alternate subjects at an event (people in the stands, players on the bench). Many IS lenses also have a panning mode (Mode 2) available. If you have time for the IS to start up (less than 1 second), you might find the panning mode helpful for certain action sports subjects - especially motorsports with a motion-blurred background. I typically have IS turned off when shooting field sports such as soccer as IS and I battle for control of the subject framing.

The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens covers a nice focal length range, has a wide f/2.8 fixed maximum aperture, delivers excellent image quality and focuses fast. Adding a Canon EF 1.4x Extender to this lens makes an even more versatile combination. This focal length range will be a bit short for many field sports events (soccer, baseball ...) unless using a 1.3x or 1.6x FOVCF body. Many pros carry this lens on a second body (with a super telephoto on their primary body) for catching the closer action.

The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM Lens is basically as good as the IS version when used exclusively for action sports. It lacks the versatility (and cost) that IS adds.

The Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens has an excellent focal length range and great image quality. Where it falls a bit short is on its relatively narrow wide aperture. It is the choice of many daylight field sports photographers. The newer Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS L USM Lens is a better lens overall, but lacks some of the 100-400's reach.

The Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM Lens is the value lens in this list. It is just as good optically as the f/2.8 versions but obviously has a narrower maximum aperture. It is compatible with the Canon EF 1.4x Extender as well. The Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens is a really nice upgrade from this non-IS lens.

If you catch a glimpse of the photographers on the sidelines of a professional sporting event, the big white lenses you see are probably Canon Super Telephoto Lenses. These lenses are very expensive but unsurpassed for their build and image quality. Their AF performance is equally impressive. The Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens is probably the best track/field sports lens available. The results from the entire list of Canon super telephoto lenses are nothing short of impressive.

Check my full reviews to see which lens(es) are best for you.