HJK

[HJK]

I have the Sony A600 bundle, and looking to purchase another lens.  My question is, what is the best lens for shooting indoor high school sport?  I would also be videoing the indoor games.

Thank you, HJK

[HJK]

I meant A6000.

 

[Pieter]

I wonder if 'the best lens' is really the one you're interested in. For your use case  I can immagine you'll want the following:

 - fast aperture due to poor indoor lighting conditions and fast shutter speeds needed;l to freeze the action;

 - variable focal length (= zoom) to frame the action at various distances;

 - fairly long focal length as the action may he happening at long distances;

 - stabilized optics, as your a6000's sensor isn't stabilized. Especially when framing at long focal length, IBIS/OSS helps tremendously to properly frame your subject and capture without camera shake blur.

All in all there's currently only one single lens that ticks all these boxes, which is the Sony 70-200 mm f/2.8 GM. Big, heavy, expensive... The best lens, but likely not the one you want.

 

Some other options:

 - Sony 55-210 mm OSS: cheap, small, stabilized optics but optically not stellar at longer focal length. Only works well in properly lit areas due to slow aperture;

 - Sony 70-350 mm G OSS: longer reach if 200 mm is insufficient, 3 times the price of the 55-210. Same slow aperture.

 - Tamron 70-180 mm F/2.8: optically almost similar to 70-200 f/2.8 GM but slightly less reach, half the price and no stabilized optics. I'd recommend this one only on an a6500 or a6600 or any of the fullframe bodies.

 - Sony 70-200 f/4 G OSS: moderately fast aperture, stabilized, decent optics but fairly expensive.

 

Somewhere this year Sigma should bring out a new 70-200 f/2.8 lens, which is expected to combine 70-200 GM performance and stabilized optics with a Tamron 70-180 price tag (maybe slightly more).

[HJK]

Thank you Pieter.  I will keep an eye out for the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8.