Position:Home>Visual Arts> Any feedback on this lens?

Although its a little short for wildlife its still usable!. For daytime sports it should be fine although its still a little short for field sports like football unless you can get around the 50 yard line!. The best thing about this lens is that its a constant aperture!.

Some may say its too slow for night sports and that you need an f2!.8 lens at night!. I'm a proponent of fast lenses but I'm not in complete agreement that an f2!.8 is really needed IF you can deal with some digital noise in your images!.

Suppose you're at a night game and with your f4 lens you get a shutter speed of 1/125 sec!. at ISO 800!. If you had the f2!.8 lens your shutter speed under those conditions would be 1/250 (1 stop)!. Since you don't have the f2!.8 lens, increase your ISO to 1600 (1 stop) and your shutter speed with your f4 lens is now 1/250 sec!. If your camera has Noise Reduction built-in then use it!. If not, use a program like Noise Ninja!.

Remember, for wildlife photography you can always buy the Canon 2X teleconverter which will make your 70-200mm lens a 140-400mm lens!. Yes, there is a trade-off: your f4 lens will behave as though you were using f8!. So you lose 2 stops!. This isn't as bad as it sounds though, especially if you're shooting under sunny conditions!. Lets review the venerable "Sunny 16 Rule" which states: "On a sunny day, set your f-stop to f16 and your shutter speed to 1/ISO!." So if we're using ISO 400 we can shoot with our lens at f8 (remember, the 2X teleconverter will make f8 an equivalent f16) and a shutter speed of 1/500 sec!. Shoot in Aperture Priority and watch that the shutter speed doesn't drop below 400 since you're using a 400mm lens and another old rule is to always hand-hold a lens at a shutter speed equal to or greater than the focal length!. This is especially important since the lens you have doesn't have IS!.

Note: The "Sunny 16 Rule" was developed when shutters were mechanical and we had to use them as marked - 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000 - so we'd use the shutter speed closest to our ISO!. With today's electronic shutters which are, essentially, "stepless" they will come much closer to the actual 1/ISO)!.

Buy the lens and enjoy it!. Learn to work around its limitations and you'll get some good pictures!.

One of my favorite lenses is my 70-210mm f4 and I often use it with a 2X teleconverter!.

EDIT:

An f3!.5 lens is 1/3 stop faster than an f4 lens - hardly a deal-maker when deciding on a lens!. also, since most zooms that are f3!.5 at the short end are f5!.6 or even f6!.3 at the long end, the f4 constant aperture is still preferable!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

By virtue of it's speed and focal length alone I can answer the last question you asked!.!.!. NO, not at all!.

Wildlife and sports are both moving and distance issues!. a slow (quite slow, in fact) f/4 lens is okay for landscapes and compression images (magnification) but is far too slow for action!.

The focal length for sporting usually BEGINS at 300mm and usually doesn't go beyond 500mm (600mm is too much lens!.!.!. I know, I have two of them)!.

I use Nikon so I don't have personal experience with anything but Canon video (and I'm not impressed with it)!.

Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

It is an okay lens, I have experience with the Nikon equivalent lens!. You can shoot sports with it, as in my experience a zoom of 200mm is sufficient, but it is a little slow!. For sports you will be far better off with a lens that can go down to f/2!.8, or, lacking that, even f/3!.5 will do better!.
Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

f/4 is really slow - and 200mm is kind of short!.

Wildlife is best shot at the 100-400mm range!.
Sports are best shot at f/2!.8 and faster, preferably with IS on a monopod!.

You can do better with the same money!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---