Sports photography is very expensive since the fast lenses with large aperture are almost always expensive.  The best lens for sports and the most versatile lens is Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. Although IS is not important for sports, it is nice to have it so that you can use IS for other situations. If you don’t need IS, Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM is a great lens too.  You can add a Canon EF 1.4x extender to get a longer reach.  These lenses are not only good sports lenses but also good portrait, and landscape lenses, general purpose lenses as well. A new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM will be available in Feb 2010. The new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM features one fluorite and five UD elements for increased optical quality and reduced chromatic aberration. It has a minimum focusing distance of 1.2m/3.9 ft. at all zoom settings. The most significant improvement over the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM is the 4 stops of image stabilization instead of three.

For more serious outdoor sports photography:

• Canon EF 200mm f/2.0 L IS USM($5300)
• Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM ($4100) (best buy)
• Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM ($6800)

For serious indoor sports photography:

• Canon EF 200mm f/2.0 L IS USM ($5300)
• Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM ($935)  (best value )
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.0 USM or Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
• Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 USM ($1199)

For the in door sports with closer distance, Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM and Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM are good as well.  Both lenses are also great standard lenses or walk-around lenses.

If you feel these lenses are out of your budgets, cheaper alternatives are third party lenses.  The best of the best are Tamera 17-50 mm f2.8 ($405)for in door sports and Tamera 70-200mm f/2.8 ($689) for both in door and out door sports. Both lenses are half of the price of their corresponding Canon lenses.

Although many sports lenses are often recommended,  these lenses above are the very best to get and can meet many, if not all, needs for basic sports photography. For the best digital SLR for sports photography, read here.

For the best polarizing filters, read here. For the best UV filters, read here.

Related posts:

Best Canon portrait lenses

Best third party lenses for Canon DSLR

Best wildlife lenses for Canon DSLRs

Best Canon wedding lenses

Best Canon travel lenses

Best Canon landscape lenses

References:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/

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