3 replies to this topic

[ml_work]

I will be taking pictures at an outdoor arena next Friday 7pm. Long range forecast show cloudy 50% chance that it will not rain.

Have read reviews about the Nikon 70-200 lens which is expensive for my budget as I just shoot for fun. My Nikon 18-140mm f/3.5 may work but thought this would be a good time to see how the 70-22mm f/2.8 would shoot. 7pm here will have about 30-45 minutes until dusk, do not know how long the event will last and what, if any lights will be there. Sun will set on my right side when doing shots straight in front of event, should be able to position myself for the sun to be behind me for some of the shooting. So for the first time I am renting a 70-200 that will be here Monday. I will have a couple hours after work each day to play with the lens, no way to really learn much before the event Friday. Normally I shoot in Program mode Nikon D5600. The lens will come with a standard filter and hood. My understanding the 70-200 will be like 100mm-300mm on the DX.

 

Any suggestions / crash course for settings with this lens?

Thanks in advance.

[Jerry_]

With the 70-200/2.8 you will have a nice lens to test and experience.

First of all comes a better build quality and the larger CONSTANT max aperture of 2.8 (compared to the 3.5-5.6 on the 18-140), which will help when using longer focal lenghts (i.e. the 18-140/3.5-5.6 is max 3.5 at 18mm, but max. 5.6 at 140mm, while the 70-200/2.8 is max 2.8 at 70mm up to 200mm)

However, with the build quality comes more glass and thereby also more WEIGHT. I guess this will be what you will have to get used to most: hand helding and wearing the heavier equipment for the whole evening.
Do you plan to use a mono- or tripod? This will certainly help in the light conditions that you describe.

Also, you will find on the lens some extra SWITCHES which you should get familiar with. Read the user manual of the lens to decide about the best settings (and pay attention that while wearing the camera and lens, they don’t change position if there is a friction with your clothes; therefore occasionally check that they are still in the position you selected)

Finally, the 70-200 will be like a 70-200 DX lens, do not expect to get a 100-300mm. That COMPARISON is only valid if comparing the lens mounted on cameras with different sensor sizes (and your sentence should read « …, if used on a camera with an FX sensor »); as you have a single camera this is not relevant for your use.

[ml_work]

Jerry Thank you for your reply and information. Not that I will need the 100-300 mm, it was my understanding that is how a lens designed for Full frame camera works on a DX, mine D5600. I realize asking for crash course is a bit much to ask, as I can do my homework with google search, which I have done and will continue to do. However with my limited time to test between now and Friday I thought I would ask. I will be holding the lens, this event will be with a horse, so I will have to be mobile at all times. The lens came in today, it is amazing! I took pictures outside under pine trees testing from 7pm to 7:55 almost complete dark, I was awed at the light in the pictures. When it got so dark the camera said no, too dark. I used the built in flash and it took pictures of objects far away that there seems no way the flash gave light that far away! It is heavy but I hope I can get use to it, I will have my 18-140 in my bag just in case. I read about the 4 buttons that can be set to function, I will not touch those at this time, so hopefully they will not cause a problem if I don't set them up. I do have a question about the AF. I have the AF set to ON on my 18-140 and may not have paid attention to this, but today on the 70-200 with the AF on or off the camera still does Auto Focus. I got to looking and I have the camera set to Auto Focus Continuous. Does that over-ride the lens? should I have the lens AF -OFF and let the camera of it or turn it off in the camera and have the lens AF ON? I have the VR -ON

I don't have the manual, when I search for one it brings up junk site that I would be afraid to download from. I will check the Nikon site for a manual, but again time is limited.

 

Thanks again

Michael

[Merco_61]

The switch you talk about here controls the button function. They can be set to either initiate AF, lock AF or do nothing.

The switch that controls AF is the A/M, M/A or M one. A/M and M/A are both autofocus with manual override, but A/M lets you move the focus ring slightly before temporarily switching to manual.

Here is a link to the user manual.

https://download.nik...JP(7C_DL)03.pdf