Extender Distortion: Fellow photogs-Am going to shoot HS Baseball, and will try a friend's Nikon 2X extender on my Nikkor 2.8-70-200 lens, which I normally shoot with my D7200. That...

SBrodsky Loc: Northern Colorado

Fellow photogs-Am going to shoot HS Baseball, and will try a friend's Nikon 2X extender on my Nikkor 2.8-70-200 lens, which I normally shoot with my D7200. That said, I've noted that I can only get to an F stop of 5.6 using this configuration. I like to shoot baseball at around 1/1250 or 1/1000 F 2.8 to stop the action. My question is, will I still be able to use the faster shutter speeds at F 5.6? Will be shooting in sunshine. Thanks

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Unless the facility is very brightly lit or you jack up your ISO, you're likely to run into problems. For example, if you meter reads 1/1000 @ f/2.8 without a 2x extender, with the extender you'll be down to 1/250 @ f/5.6. If you were using ISO 400 originally, you'll have to jack it up to 1600 to get similar settings with the extender.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

SBrodsky wrote:

Fellow photogs-Am going to shoot HS Baseball, and will try a friend's Nikon 2X extender on my Nikkor 2.8-70-200 lens, which I normally shoot with my D7200. That said, I've noted that I can only get to an F stop of 5.6 using this configuration. I like to shoot baseball at around 1/1250 or 1/1000 F 2.8 to stop the action. My question is, will I still be able to use the faster shutter speeds at F 5.6? Will be shooting in sunshine. Thanks

I think you'll be disappointed with the experience. The 70-200 VR II "can" work with a 2X (series III) and produce "acceptable" results. The viewfinder will be pretty dark (F5.6), autofocus performance will be poor, and you will lose about 25%-30% of your sharpness. Setting the lens to F8 will make it sharper than using it wide open, but then you're actually shooting at F16 when you factor in the light loss. Not a great experience and your results will be questionable.

However, I can recommend using a 1.4 extender - which will have a lower negative impact on everything, and only a 5% quality loss.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

SBrodsky wrote:

Fellow photogs-Am going to shoot HS Baseball, and will try a friend's Nikon 2X extender on my Nikkor 2.8-70-200 lens, which I normally shoot with my D7200. That said, I've noted that I can only get to an F stop of 5.6 using this configuration. I like to shoot baseball at around 1/1250 or 1/1000 F 2.8 to stop the action. My question is, will I still be able to use the faster shutter speeds at F 5.6? Will be shooting in sunshine. Thanks

You will need to bump up your ISO. In direct sun, you should be able to shoot at f/5.6, 1/1000, at ISO 200. You can increase ISO if you have a cloudy day.

SBrodsky Loc: Northern Colorado

Thanks guys. Just before game time, I opted to NOT use the extender. Was playing around with it during warmups, and it's exactly as you said-dark viewfinder, and images that were just not sharp enough. It's hard enough to try and get a few "tack" sharp photos with my 70-200, particularly in baseball, where you're spot focusing at considerable distance from the action, and I'm used to that faster speed. Here's one of them-shot a 1/2000 F4 200mm ISO 180 in burst mode with my Nikon 7200 and a Nikkor 70-200 2.8 lens.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

That's a nice shot! Is that the full frame or is it cropped?

SBrodsky Loc: Northern Colorado

Here's one more (no extender) from a Colorado High School Activities Association 5A Regional Baseball Playoff between host Mountain Range HS of Westminster, and Dakota Ridge of Littleton. Similar specs Nikon 7200 Nikkor 70-200 1/2000 F4 180 ISO @ 160mm

(Download)

SBrodsky Loc: Northern Colorado

It is the full frame as I did not crop either of these photos in post. In fact, I really didn't touch them in post at all. Realized that with the sunlight, I could shoot @ 1/2000 @ F4 and get the right kind of exposure. ISO was on auto. The 7200 is a cropped sensor camera, as you may know.

Alafoto Loc: Montgomery, AL

I used to shoot high school football games (on film) using a Nikon N-90, 400 speed Kodak film, a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 with a Kenko 1.4x converter. This rig worked quite well even at the dimly lit stadiums of the smaller outlying schools. A 1.4/1.5x converter only costs you one stop of light as opposed to a 2 stop reduction for a 2x converter. For me it was the difference between being able to autofocus or not and of course, at a higher shutter speed.. This was one of the higher end multi-element converters as your borrowed Nikon is, not the cheapo 2 element $29.95 specials. Got some great actions shots, but they were generally printed as 4x6 for yearbook shots. I did produce a few 8x10's for sale which seemed adequate. Wish I had stuck with Nikon instead of switching to Canon.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

SBrodsky wrote:

Thanks guys. Just before game time, I opted to NOT... (show quote)

It's broad daylight!

You can easily use ISO 800 there should be hardly any noise.

For broad daylight: 1/1600 @ f/11, plenty of DOF, little blur if any. On an overcast day you can just open the aperture a stop or two.

At night under the lights you might have to drop down to 1/250 @ f/4 and use a monopod.

A 2x extender is going to make things very difficult.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

SBrodsky wrote:

Fellow photogs-Am going to shoot HS Baseball, and will try a friend's Nikon 2X extender on my Nikkor 2.8-70-200 lens, which I normally shoot with my D7200. That said, I've noted that I can only get to an F stop of 5.6 using this configuration. I like to shoot baseball at around 1/1250 or 1/1000 F 2.8 to stop the action. My question is, will I still be able to use the faster shutter speeds at F 5.6? Will be shooting in sunshine. Thanks

No problem, if that will be Sunny day, by the rule of Sunny-16 ( at ISO 100; f16; 1/100sec or 1/125sec). If you shoot with 1/1000sec at f5.6 and ISo 100, that will be exactly the same EV value of ISO100; 1/100sec; f16. You can also raise up the shutter speed to 1/2000sec at f5.6 & ISO200.

cthahn

The extender looses two stops. You have to compensate for the loss.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

nicksr1125 wrote:

Unless the facility is very brightly lit or you jack up your ISO, you're likely to run into problems. For example, if you meter reads 1/1000 @ f/2.8 without a 2x extender, with the extender you'll be down to 1/250 @ f/5.6. If you were using ISO 400 originally, you'll have to jack it up to 1600 to get similar settings with the extender.

Good explanation

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Gene51 wrote:

I think you'll be disappointed with the experience... (show quote)

I concur with Gene and also endorse this. I would add that I would not recommend using a TC on any zoom lens, no matter how good it is. If you insist, this lens, with a 1.4 TC, wouldn't be a bad choice. Best of luck.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

SBrodsky wrote:

Fellow photogs-Am going to shoot HS Baseball, and will try a friend's Nikon 2X extender on my Nikkor 2.8-70-200 lens, which I normally shoot with my D7200. That said, I've noted that I can only get to an F stop of 5.6 using this configuration. I like to shoot baseball at around 1/1250 or 1/1000 F 2.8 to stop the action. My question is, will I still be able to use the faster shutter speeds at F 5.6? Will be shooting in sunshine. Thanks

A 2X added to a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens will make for an effective 140-400mm f/5.6 lens.... at the same time the focal length is doubled, there's "light loss" or 2 stops with a 2X teleconverter.

So what your camera is reporting is correct: f/5.6 is the largest aperture you'll have available when shooting with that lens and teleconverter combination. (FYI: a weaker 1.4X teleconverter only "costs" one stop of light... so would make for an effective 98-280mm f/4 combo.)

You'll simply need to increase your ISO setting, to still be able to use the 1/1000 to 1/1250 shutter speeds. Whatever ISO you were using, bump it up by two full stops and you should be able to use those shutter speeds.

You also might want to test the lens/teleconverter stopped down to f/8. It may be noticeably sharper than using the lens wide open with the TC, though you'll have to increase your ISO an additional stop to compensate.