The best Canon cameras and lenses for sports photography

Unlike many sports photographers, who specialise in a particular sport and travel from place to place to photograph it, Jorge focuses on international sporting events in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the wider Middle East. "There are so many things happening in this region that I cover a lot of the different events that pass through, from Formula 1 and football to tennis and triathlon," he explains. "I love it."

Fellow Canon Ambassador and extreme sports photographer Jean-baptiste Liautard (Jb), by comparison, travels the globe, but predominantly in pursuit of just one sport – mountain biking, something he has been passionate about since he was a teenager. Jb has recently been trying out the Canon EOS R5, along with a number of Canon RF lenses. "I've been really happy with the RF lenses in my hands," he says. "I'm used to working with great lenses anyway, but when you look at the RF lenses, they're solid and well made. The first impression you have is that this is something that is really well finished."

Here, Jorge and Jb, together with Mike Burnhill, Professional Imaging Product Specialist at Canon Europe, offer some recommendations and insights into the cameras and lenses that can raise your sports photography into a different league.

The new flagship model in the EOS R Series raises the game for full frame mirrorless camera performance. Its rapid RAW continuous shooting speed of up to 30fps with full AF/AE tracking is enabled by a new back-illuminated stacked sensor and AF readings taken at up to 60fps

“This is basically the next generation of sensor technology, which allows slightly bigger pixels and much faster readouts of data than our previous cameras,” explains Mike.

“It has many benefits, one of which is a reduced rolling shutter effect, so you get less distortion on fast-moving objects. Swinging golf clubs appear straighter, for example. Without the faster readout, tennis balls and baseballs can distort into egg shapes when they’re travelling at speed, and even a football can end up looking more like a rugby ball.”

Pro sports photographers have relied on Canon EOS-1D Series cameras to deliver detailed, sharp and stunning quality sports images for decades. The Canon EOS-1D X Mark III is the latest torchbearer, featuring up to 20fps continuous shooting using the electronic shutter or 16fps using the mechanical shutter, deep learning Dual Pixel CMOS AF and a professional, weather-sealed build.

"I love the deep learning autofocus," says Jorge. "It really impressed at a recent tennis tournament where the organisers wanted to have branding visible in the background of the action shots. With the EOS-1D X Mark III, I could just frame the shot with the branding clearly on show, then let the autofocus system track the face of the player. It was a fantastic advantage for me in this case.

"The electronic shutter is very useful as well. It takes a while to adjust to, but being able to shoot silently at points during the tennis was fantastic. It was a closed event and there were no spectators, and in that situation the players can hear your breathing!"

While a super-telephoto lens is essential for situations where you physically can't get close to the action, a 70-200mm zoom lens is ideal for (almost) everything else. "You can do a bit of tennis, a bit of Formula 1, a bit of football – almost anything!" enthuses Jorge, who uses the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM (now succeeded by the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM). "I don't think you can cover any sport without a 70-200mm lens."

Get close with a wide-angle lens and you can create images with the wow factor, says Jorge, who uses either the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM or the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, depending on the requirements of a job or simply the mood he's in on the day.

"Quite often you don't return to your base until the evening, so you have to carry everything anyway," he says. "But if I could take only one short zoom, I think I would choose the 16-35mm because you can always crop a little bit at 35mm."

The fast-aperture 400mm f/2.8 is a classic sports photography lens, providing outstanding optical quality and the perfect angle of view for popular sports. It can also be combined with Canon's 1.4x and 2x extenders to give you even more reach when you need it.

"I have the Canon Extender EF 1.4x III and it works so well with the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens," says Jorge. "I shot a rugby tournament over two weekends and found that the results I was getting in terms of sharpness and focusing with this combination were probably the same as when I was using a previous generation 600mm f/4 lens."

When you can't get close enough to the action, stepping up to a super-telephoto 600mm f/4 lens gives you extra reach with outstanding optical quality and legendary L-Series performance.

"At the Dubai Rugby Sevens, I was using the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM as my main lens and it performed superbly with the face detection and tracking of my Canon EOS-1D X Mark III," says Jorge. "I thought the camera would struggle because there are more faces, but if the autofocus didn't keep up, it was because I was too close with a 600mm lens."

A professional 200-400mm f/4 zoom with the added advantage of built-in 1.4x extender, this versatile lens enables you to react quickly to sporting events as they unfold. "The flexibility it offers means that it has become super-popular with a wide range of sports photographers," says Mike. "Many people weren't convinced by a zoom, but the quality is so good, and the flexibility erases any doubt about using a zoom instead of a prime.

"If you have to carry one lens around all of the time, this is the one to go for. If you're a Formula 1 guy walking around a track, this lens gives you everything you need. You can go from short telephoto to long telephoto, then punch in with the extender when you need to."