Nikon 200mm F2 user?

[inmotion]

Anyone using this lens as I am thinking of an addition to the stable for use in low light horse enviroment so depth of field is of concern at F2
range in use would be 10-50 m on a D3s
cheers jim

[Othrelos]

I have a Canon EF 200mm f/1.8L that I have used in similar situations, and you are right to be concerned about DOF. With the compression effect you get from telephoto lens at very close distances DOF can appear as thin as a 50mm f/1.2

On a D3s 200mm @f/2 focused at 10m gives you a total of 0.29m DOF at 50m focus distance you will get a total of 7.51m DOF. not much room for mistakes.

[Wayne]

I have one, and I honestly don't use it as much as I thought I would. Razor sharp even wide open, but DOF is very small at anything below f5.6 unless the subject is a fair way from the camera. Wonderful bokeh and colour/contrast are fantastic. Works great at F2 in low light, and is good for tight human portraits, but for Horses DOF will probably be a big issue if you use it where it offers the low light benefits, wide open.

Indoor basketball and volleyball shooters along with concert and portrait shooters love this lens. It is very flexible with TC's too, it makes a sharp 280/2.8 with 1.4x and 400/4 with a 2xTC all with 1 lens. Personally, I don't use it enough, and despite having $3500 tied up in it, still find it hard to part with.

[Wayne]

you are right to be concerned about DOF. With the compression effect you get from telephoto lens at very close distances DOF can appear as thin as a 50mm f/1.2

On a D3s 200mm @f/2 at 10m gives you a total of 0.29m DOF at 50m distance you will get a total of 7.51m DOF.

I will attest to it being even less than 29cm at about 10m subject to camera wide open.

[inmotion]

Thanks for the feedback 50% of my shots are of the horse at an angle so DOF is of great concern .I am using the 200-400 F4
but need to go up to 25000ISO to hold shutterspeed but get an acceptable DOF.Dammen restrictive this photo business.Just think of trying this even 10 years ago
cheers jim

[Wayne]

Where are you shooting horses in that darkness??

[inmotion]

HI Wayne any indoor in SA or the Nation Equestrian Centre Where I have shot 4 years in a row and moved
Canon 30D--oops
D700--Sigma 120-300 f2.8 -better but not there
D3 200-400 Vr--Almost
D3s 200-400F4 Vr or 70-200 f2.8 Sigma-----Very close

Hence the interest in the 200 F2 (used by others in this arena)

The light is only a problem for night events and with horses you need 1/400 th as a min
but 1/800 th would be better

cheers jim

[Wayne]

I know that the 200/2 can get good shutter speeds wide open in crap light esp with good Hi-ISO bodies, but DOF is going to kill you. Remember that sticking TC's on it would still see you at f/stops wider than the 200-400 in every case except the 2x TC, and for closer in work, you will have great advantage over the 200-400, but truth is the DOF for Mr Ed is going to be way too small.

[Othrelos]

what kind of equestrian events are you photographing? there are techniques for making lenses with less dof appear to have more. Though if you are shooting from a high angle such techniques are not possible to apply.

At EV5, ISO 12800 @ f/2 you will get a shutter speed of 1/1000th easily.

At EV3, ISO 25600 @ f/2 a shutter speed of 1/500th should be possible

however, be aware that my exposure calculations predict shutter speeds for a lens that is exactly T=2.0 Most fast lenses lose a bit of light transmission due to the fact that there is a lot of glass in their optical designs. More glass = less transmission - lens coatings help to reduce this, but there is always going to be some light loss.

[inmotion]

Hey Othrelos thanks for the reply the National Show Horse and Rider Champs
samples attached

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5001/5250833621_1efdd44ceb_z.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1412/5250833489_a2f0fca6c0_z.jpg

This to Show the difficult cnditions
AWB is sometime swapped for K 4300
other than that I try to screw everything up to achieve a high shutter speed and still keep noise to a minimum
and capture Shadow detail
cheers jim

[Othrelos]

looks like they are doing primarily dressage, the AF of the D3s should be capable of keeping up. I have used my Canon 1DMKII with the EF 200mm f/1.8L under similar situations, a D3s with a 200mm f/2 VR should be fine under those conditions. Though one thing for bear in mind with the shallower DOF is that it will be preferable to be parallel with your subjects to keep the rider and the horse in focus at f/2.

I stopped doing that kind of photography simply because the lighting is terrible to work with, I think there is some committee dedicated to making things difficult for photographers at events like this. And I have far better things to do than spend hours at the computer to get the skin tones to look anywhere near healthy and natural.

[inmotion]

Agree on the lighting it was warm and humid so they switched the lights OFF like that will help sure slowed me down

cheers jim

[kiwi]

I think it's a matter of competition in the business, if you're losing sales to a guy using a 200 because his pics are better, sure, but $6k of sales ? I dunno.

Crap light is crap light and the poin comes where nothing you use really matters

[inmotion]

HI Kiwi its more about giving the customer the best possible image.I am happy with my skill set but feel limited my my gear for the last 2 hrs of s days shoot. I have been thinking of the 70-20 VR11 because of the good low light/low contrast focusing.The opposition both use the 200 but are limited to shooting half of the arena as the horse just gets TOO small.
So I was thinking of swapping DX/Fx thus giving 200/300mm.
Prints are only produced to A3 so this should still be ok.And yes I understand the drop in effective Mp on the Dx image.
This therory could also apply to the 70-200 VR11 and leave me with a much more versatile lens--cheers Jim

[Othrelos]

I think it's a matter of competition in the business, if you're losing sales to a guy using a 200 because his pics are better, sure, but $6k of sales ? I dunno.

Crap light is crap light and the poin comes where nothing you use really matters

yes, as audio recordists have the saying "Crap in, Crap out" and the matter of recouping your expenses on such an expensive piece of glass have to be taken into consideration. Most of my equipment has paid for itself within a year of purchase, though there are a few lenses that are lagging behind.