Lens Envy – Revisited

My second post in early March discussed my “lens envy” for those with professional-level lenses. A friend let me borrow his Canon EF 70-200/2.8L IS II USM lens to shoot a basketball game. Being able to go down to f2.8 and the higher quality glass made a big improvement over my commercial zoom lens.  I have coveted this high-quality lens ever since - putting it on my wish list for ‘someday.’  That someday has finally arrived! We decided it was time to get it after getting a gallery of my football photos posted by the newspaper.  Last Thursday it arrived and my lens envy is gone!! (Although I am sure at some point in the future I will want additional lenses. But that is for years ahead.)

  

The initial shakedown of the new lens was at the Tuscarora v Broad Run High School football game on Friday September 1^st. It lived up to all my expectations. The quality of the images was much better than my other lenses, especially in the stadium lighting.  Shooting at 200mm, as opposed to 300mm with my old lens, yielded better images of distant action that could be cropped and used. 

Something funny happened late in the game.  A couple parents were on the sideline taking photos.  One I knew and another was usually nearby.  We were comparing images off and on to see if anyone captured a key play. I was helping the one I knew with getting her settings right for the conditions, when the other woman walked by an muttered, “Now I have lens envy!”  All I could do is smile and think, “I’ve been there!”