Fast autofocus lens for sports photography: I have a nikon D7100 and 80-400, 18-200, 50/1.4, all nikon and a Tokina wide angle lens. I take skiing and mountain biking races and find...

picsman Loc: Scotland

I have a nikon D7100 and 80-400, 18-200, 50/1.4, all nikon and a Tokina wide angle lens. I take skiing and mountain biking races and find the 18-200 lens autofocus slow, the 80-400 is fast enough and I have to use the 50mm and tokina lens more to be sure about them as the focal plane is so narrow.

Any suggestions on fast autofocus lens for my consideration, especially to replace the 18-200, but other options also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

picsman wrote:

I have a nikon D7100 and 80-400, 18-200, 50/1.4, all nikon and a Tokina wide angle lens. I take skiing and mountain biking races and find the 18-200 lens autofocus slow, the 80-400 is fast enough and I have to use the 50mm and tokina lens more to be sure about them as the focal plane is so narrow.

Any suggestions on fast autofocus lens for my consideration, especially to replace the 18-200, but other options also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

To achieve a 11:1 zoom ratio many compromises are needed. Not only is this lens slow, optical quality is mediocre. There are many lenses that will out perform it in every way but zoom ratio.

A nice lens to compliment the 80-400mm with out spending much is the Nikkor AF-S 16-85mm f/3-5-5.6G ED VR DX.

CO

I have the new Nikon 80-400mm AF-S lens also. It really has fast autofocusing but it does get heavy when handholding it after a short while. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens has fast autofocusing but it's almost as heavy as the 80-400mm. The newer Nikon 70-200mm f/4 lens is much lighter. I don't know if weight is a consideration but that lens might be one to look at. You can get an optional tripod collar for that lens.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

CO wrote:

I have the new Nikon 80-400mm AF-S lens also. It really has fast autofocusing but it does get heavy when handholding it after a short while. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens has fast autofocusing but it's almost as heavy as the 80-400mm. The newer Nikon 70-200mm f/4 lens is much lighter. I don't know if weight is a consideration but that lens might be one to look at. You can get an optional tripod collar for that lens.

I use the 70-200mm f/4 and it is awesome.

However, if I had the 80-400mm I would not have purchased it. To me it makes no sense to have so much FL overlap.

djenrette Loc: Philadelphia

CO wrote:

I have the new Nikon 80-400mm AF-S lens also. It really has fast autofocusing but it does get heavy when handholding it after a short while. The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens has fast autofocusing but it's almost as heavy as the 80-400mm. The newer Nikon 70-200mm f/4 lens is much lighter. I don't know if weight is a consideration but that lens might be one to look at. You can get an optional tripod collar for that lens.

And on ebay you can get an optional tripod collar for about $40.

CO

joer wrote:

To achieve a 11:1 zoom ratio many compromises are needed. Not only is this lens slow, optical quality is mediocre. There are many lenses that will out perform it in every way but zoom ratio.

A nice lens to compliment the 80-400mm with out spending much is the Nikkor AF-S 16-85mm f/3-5-5.6G ED VR DX.

I agree. I've read that the engineers have to compromise a lot when designing superzoom lenses. I've rented the Nikon 18-200mm. When shooting architecture you can see a lot of barrel distortion at wide angle settings and a lot of pincushion distortion at long focal lengths. You can apply lens distortion correction in software but it won't always completely correct it. I have the Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 lens also. It's a really great lens for Nikon DX cameras. It's sharp, has great build quality, and has half the distortion of Nikon's superzoom lenses.

picsman Loc: Scotland

Many thanks for all replies, I had not thought about the 16-85, so I will consider that.

Moles Loc: South Carolina

I shoot sports every day, and my workhorse lenses are the 70-200 2.8 and 24-70 2.8.

picsman wrote:

I have a nikon D7100 and 80-400, 18-200, 50/1.4, all nikon and a Tokina wide angle lens. I take skiing and mountain biking races and find the 18-200 lens autofocus slow, the 80-400 is fast enough and I have to use the 50mm and tokina lens more to be sure about them as the focal plane is so narrow.

Any suggestions on fast autofocus lens for my consideration, especially to replace the 18-200, but other options also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Why not do it the old fashioned way and continually manual focus?

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I had the 18-200 for my D7100 and for what it is, it is a great lens. I now use the 70-200 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 14-24 f/2.8 and 105G f/2.8. All I can say is that I really, really like this set up.

picsman wrote:

I have a nikon D7100 and 80-400, 18-200, 50/1.4, all nikon and a Tokina wide angle lens. I take skiing and mountain biking races and find the 18-200 lens autofocus slow, the 80-400 is fast enough and I have to use the 50mm and tokina lens more to be sure about them as the focal plane is so narrow.

Any suggestions on fast autofocus lens for my consideration, especially to replace the 18-200, but other options also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

picsman Loc: Scotland

Sometimes the locations and speed of competitors does not give time for me to do that. I could prefocus but that takes away the opportunity to get the best image compositionally in terms of the competitors actions. I want an image of each competitor in each run and don't want to risk not getting the shot.

nevadabug

I shoot day and night rodeos with a nikon d7000 and a nikkor 70-700 2.8 vr1. Yes a little heavy but that weight also stabilizes the shot when panning.

nevadabug

I shoot day and night rodeos. I shoot a nikon d7000 with a nikkor 70-700 2.8 vr1. Yes it's a little heavy but I feel it helps to stabilize the shot while panning.

amehta Loc: Boston

ole sarg wrote:

Why not do it the old fashioned way and continually manual focus?

Because we are not living in the 1970s? :-)

amehta Loc: Boston

picsman wrote:

I have a nikon D7100 and 80-400, 18-200, 50/1.4, all nikon and a Tokina wide angle lens. I take skiing and mountain biking races and find the 18-200 lens autofocus slow, the 80-400 is fast enough and I have to use the 50mm and tokina lens more to be sure about them as the focal plane is so narrow.

Any suggestions on fast autofocus lens for my consideration, especially to replace the 18-200, but other options also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II is the first, simple, heavy, and expensive ($2400) option. There are other 70-200mm (or 80-200mm) options: Tamron or Sigma, used VR I, no VR, or f/4. All of these tend to be in the $1000-1500 range.