Outdoor, should be nice and sunny for prelims, but finals are likely to be towards sunset and quite possibly by that time of day, in the shade. It's a 50 meter pool (Olympic size).

Was thinking of renting a 300mm F/2.8 lens....

if people are going to be in the way you wont be able to get too far back, as you'll need some space to get them in if you use the 400 as mike suggested, but then again, i've only shot indoor pool (SUCKS, NO LIGHT), with a 70-200 and 300 both 2.8

only fairly be determined by knowing if he's shooting film, FX or DX.

Indoor, the right/quality way to shoot swimming well, is with ceiling or high corner mounted strobes, just like basketball.

Best place to shoot swimmers is mid pool, stroke at its best, focal depth right at 500 to 600mm eqiuv, tight on the swimmer, no worry of kick splash at the turn.


My $.02, but 300/2.8 is pretty short for an olympic pool, where you are shooting an image of a swimmer roughly 3 x 3ft at 75ft away.

Mike S

Canon 40D, so APS-C sensor with 1.6X crop factor. I thought 400mm might be too much, but I could rent that lens instead.

I will have access to the pool deck.