SteveR Loc: Michigan

Who says one camera and lens is enough?

cascom Loc: Redmond

You could get this with what you have. Shot through the fence.

cascom Loc: Redmond

I shoot for Referee Magazine and am interested in how the officials cover the play. This was taken with a D500 and a 300mm F2.8 lens. (app 450mm on a DX body.) I am not on the foul line because the umpire will often block my shot.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

IMO, 200-500mm or 150-600mm is waaaaayyy too much telephoto for a basketball court. I can't imagine ever needing more than 300mm, especially when using it on a DX camera.

Another problem might be finding a fast enough lens. Arena lighting is often not all that great and I suspect even f/2.8 is marginal at times. f/5.6 or f/6.3 would be next to impossible unless you use very high ISOs (and accept the loss of image quality).

What you might try is getting a 1.4X teleconverter for you 70-200mm. That would give you a 98-280mm f/4 to work with (AF might be slowed, though.) f/4 ain't great, but the focal length range change will give you some idea of what's needed. (Note: A lens with a smaller max aperture also may effect AF performance.... less light, slower and less reliable AF when the lighting is challenging.)

If you decide ~ 300mm is what's needed.... and f/2.8 is needed.... you're looking at a big, expensive chunk of glass! Check out Sigma's 120-300mm f/2.8.... one of the few zooms that both reaches 300mm and has an f.2.8 max aperture, as well as one of the more affordable options. For extended shooting sessions... like basketball games... you're going to want a monopod or tripod with that lens.

If you ain't gettin' the shots you want with a D7200, you ain't gonna get them with a D500 either. You'll probably just have more missed shots, thanks to the D500's faster continuous shooting rate. I'd recommend you work harder to get what you want and solve your lens conundrum before buying a different camera. Try other AF setups with the D7200 (you make no mention of the techniques you're using with it... which probably make more difference than the camera itself).

One often overlooked thing that's favorable for the D500 is it's Flicker Reduction feature. I know the Nikon D500, D7500, D850, D780, D5 and (I'm sure) D6 have this. I suspect the Z-series mirrorless have it too, but am not certain and don't know about other Nikon models. I don't think the D7200 has it. Flicker Reduction is a still photography feature that resolves exposure and color shift problems common under fluorescent and similar lighting types that are common in sports arenas. Don't confuse it with an anti-flicker feature for video, which is a different thing entirely and found on more cameras.

The problem with fluorescent and similar lighting is that it rapidly cycles on and off. In the US, this cycle is 60 times per second. This is fast enough that our eyes usually can't detect it, but our cameras sure can! Shooting "under the lights", one solution is to use a shutter speed slower than 1/60. But that won't work for sports where you need a much faster shutter speed to freeze action. This is where Flicker Reduction comes in. With it enabled, the camera detects the cycle of the lighting and times the shutter release to coincide with the peak light output.

I've used Flicker Reduction extensively with my two Canon 7D Mark II and can tell you it works very well. Shooting in the same venues with earlier camera models it was common to have half or more images underexposed with an ugly color tint. Back then, the only thing I could do was take a whole lot of extra shots in hopes that some would be good enough to be usable. Now with 7DII's Flicker Reduction enabled I see almost no problem shots, shooting under the exact same lights. (I'm pretty sure all Canon DSLR and mirrorless models intro'd since the 7D Mark II in 2014 have this feature, except for the most entry-level Rebel T6 and T7... aka 1300D, 1500D, 2000D... and the 4000D. I know some Sony and Olympus have Flicker Reduction too, though I don't know which models. I don't know if any Panasonic, Pentax, Fuji, Leica etc. have it.)

The only drawback to Flicker Reduction is that it may cause a delay of the shutter release or slow down continuous frame rates. Speaking only for my 7DII, I hardly every notice it working when the feature is enabled. Every once in a while it seems like there's a very brief shutter release delay. But that's pretty rare. And, while I haven't formally tested it, I also haven't noticed any apparent slow down in the cameras' 10 frames per second fastest shooting rate. However, I also don't tend to take extended bursts of shots. I mostly just fire 2 o 3 shot sequences... occasionally 4 or 5 and only very rarely any more than that. (Mostly I'm trying to minimize the time I need to spend reviewing and editing images later. Even keeping to short bursts, I still usually have to review 2000, 3000 or more images after most events.) I have no idea if Flicker Reduction causes shutter release delays or slows frame rates in other makes and models. I can only report on how it works in Canon 7DII.

rbk35

Baseball not basketball ;)

rbk35

A couple from last year, but i get to many non keepers due to focus issues, maybe just me. Also looking at sending the D7200 and lens in for calibration and cleaning.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Post a couple with "store original" checked. Might be as simple as focus mode selection or shutter speed or even DoF. Can not really help that much without exif data.
I have grand daughters, so mostly fast pitch these days. But I was a sports reporter in my younger days and 20 years ago shot collegiate baseball all the way to Omaha!

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