What lens for simple sports photography?

[rawstron1]

Hi, I hope you can help-

I am after a lens for my D5100 to take photos of cross country and fell races from a distance of a few yards to thirty or forty.

I only have about £400 to spend at the very most. What can you recommend?

Cheers.

[graham_c]

Hi.
For sports photography you really want to fill the frame with the athlete/footballer, to do this from 30 to 40 yards away you will need at least a 400mm lens and I think you may struggle to find one for your budget. Hope this helps... Graham

[Chris Cool]

A lot depends on what you want to do with the images. For prints up to A4 you can crop the center. For the web you don't need much at all.

So, at most a 250mm or 300mm lens which will be 450mm on your camera will do!

Cheers!

[rawstron1]

Cheers. The photos will be mostly used on a website actually, rather than printed. I know it must seem
Like a simple question but all the different lenses still flummox me!