Sports lens

Shak002

I am shooting my sons football games (outdoors) and my daughters cheerleading (indoors) and dance recitals. I have a 70-300mm f/4.5-5 and I am not happy with my photos (this could totally just be my terrible photo shooting), so I have been looking at upgrading to the canon 70-200mm f2.8 is ii. My question is, is it worth it? Should I just look at the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, or is there another lens that I should look at?
Thanks in advance.

ohyeahar

@Shak002
Your current lens should be fine for sports outdoors in daylight. Just make sure your camera settings are appropriate for the situation. My suggestion would be:
Tv (shutter priority) mode
AI Focus AF or AI Servo AF
AF Point Expansion AF-Area Mode
Auto-ISO
Shutter speed set at 1/1000 sec

Where your lens may start to suffer is when you move indoors into poor lighting. Use the same settings as above for cheerleading. For dance recitals, you can try to slow down the shutter to 1/500 or 1/250 if the action is enough. Regardless, your ISO may shoot up so much that your images start to get noisy. If the high ISO doesn’t bother you, then you don’t need a faster zoom lens.

If you do want to shoot at a lower ISO, then the 70-200mm is an excellent choice. Certainly the Canon variant will be better. I’ve found 3rd party lenses from Sigma and Tamron to be quite competent these days. I have the Sigma 70-200mm which is great. Check out the numerous reviews online and on Youtube comparing the different brands of the the 70-200mm to make your decision.

cameralife

@Shak002
I like to rent a lens that I am thinking about buying. I can try it out in the actual situation I will be using it to make sure it is the lens I need. The store I rent from will deduct the rental price from the new lens purchase if I buy within a specified time. They also offer refurbished lens for purchase with warranty.