300mm F4 + TC1.7 or Tamron 200-500mm for sports

I shoots sports occasionally, so I do not want to spend too much money on the proper lens for sports. That said, so far I have been using Tamron 200-500mm with reasonable success for sports, but lens could clearly be sharper. It appears that Nikon 300mm F4 + TC1.7 is IQ wise perhaps even better.

How is it speed wise? Especially if one has experience with Tamron 200-500mm to compare.

Thanks!

The 300mm AFS is a super lens but the AF is a little sluggish. If you add a t.c. it gets worse. I don't think it's the best choice for sports. I like zooms for sports anyway. I shoot my brother running and cycling and my son playing football. A zoom gives me flexability as they move around. I tend to use a 70~200 VRII with a 1.4x t.c. when necesary.

If you are looking at the non-AFS version of the 300mm f4 it won't work with Nikon t.c's anyway so a 1.7x is not an option. You could use a Kenko 1.4x.

I have never used the Tamron so I can't comment on it but ideally I would prefer a faster aperture lens.

I have used the 300mm f/4 AF-S with a 1.4x converter and I noticed no obvious drop in speed or in image quality, so I can recommend this setup.

The lens was wrote off recently when I dropped it, but I would definately get another one rather than look at something else.

I used mine for birding. The pic below was taken with the 300mm without the TC.









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They are watching us......

If you are referring to this lens


I rented one this weekend along with the 1.7tc-ii. It did not auto-focus for me.
Which is not unexpected as the tc compatibility guide indicated it would not.

Got a lot of good soccer shots when my son played with the 300/4 AFS I used to have on a D200 and D2Hs bodies. The 300 is a very good lens. I usually had the 300 on one body, and an 80-200 on the another. I shot at f/4 or f/4.5, the lens is good open.




The high MP bodies (16MP and up) may have enough resolution to reduce the need for a TC (maybe), with good glass out front. I plan to experiment to see if simply cropping does not produce similar results to a TC. For sports, the loss of shutter speed can be significant with a TC in the mix effectively slowing the lens in addition to the loss of IQ.




I would be interested to see if any others have compared cropping vs TC on high res bodies.




The 1.7 TC may very well be too much for reliable AF (more than 5.6) as another poster has noted. Some of the newer cameras are supposed to AF at up to f/8 with some of the AF sensors.

There are some static wildlife contributors here at dp who get wonderful results from the 300 f/4 plus 1.7TC combo but for sports action you would not find the AF fast or reliable enough, although panning for running or sports in one plane of direction might be satisfactory.

Agree w/ Andy that a better TC might be the 1.4, even though that only gives you 420mm max, compared with your current 500mm max. With the 1.4, you can still use the lens at f/5.6 but it is better stopped down. The 300 f/4 is wonderfully sharp wide open, and would give you better images than your current lens at 300mm. I mostly find that cropped 300mm images are better than ( say ) an equivalent image from the 300 f/4+1.7 TC.

Anyhoo, your present Tamron is ideal if you really, really need the zoom. It is roughly the same size and weight of the 300 f/4. Another thing you can do to explore your need is to do some analysis on how many sport images you shoot betw 400 and 500mm. Maybe you don't need 500mm

I do prefer the 300 f/4 prime for sports, compared with a zoom because I have less to think about to get the shot. ( I use the Nikon 200-400 for some sports - bigger

Final thought : I would keep the Tamron as it seems to work for you, and means no cash outlay, although the 300 f/4 is one of Nikon's best, and well worth the cash. It functions best with the 1.4 TC. When used with the 1.7 TC, keep in mind that this lens/TC combo goes to f/6.7 wide open, and for best results should be used at f/8 or beyond, so that might limit your shutter speed and AF operation, however, there are many other things to recommend the 300 f/4, an absolute gem.

You don't mention whether you are using a tripod. If you have some sharpness problems and are using the lens betw 400 and 500mm, a tripod could improve your percentage of great shots. Many zooms like the Tamron can show a dropoff in IQ as you get into longer ranges. Consider a monopod.

Good luck in your research

Keith

chekist said:

chekist wrote:

How is it speed wise? Especially if one has experience with Tamron 200-500mm to compare.

Click to expand...

Eugene

Back in 2005 I was hired to be one of the photographers for the Canada Summer Games that our city hosted that year. Because of my sailing background, one of the things I photographed was the sailing events.

I used a borrowed a Tamron 200-500 lens for a while. I did like the reach it had (was also on a DX body) but as others have mentioned it was very slow and was not an IF lens. I cannot remember the focus speed whether it was fast or slow, but remember it was 2005.

I did like the results but I had to boost up the ISO. When it was zoomed out to 500mm, it was a fairly large and somewhat heavy lens especially shooting and somewhat unbalanced when shooting from a rocking boat. As I said it seemed sharp enough.



Some of the other sailing shots from this time are here and are mostly taken with my 300/4 without any TC, I don't have any TC's now or then so I can't comment on that aspect : http://www.pbase.com/windancer/sailing

I often now use my 300/4 on my D700 with the ISO up at 6400 for water polo shots, see http://www.pbase.com/windancer/waterpolo

Terry







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Graham Fine Art Photography

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I used to use Tamron 200-500 for BIF,, and eventually sold it and now use 300 f/4 AF-S with 1.7TC. No problem at all for fast auto focus using the D7000 with AF-C. The Tamron is lighter and the zoom is nice, but image quality is sharper and better with the Nikon.

If your children are playing sports, I suggesting spending around $3000 for a used AF-S 300m 2.8 MKII and use it on a D7000 or on a D600 for best results. The VR version (add $500) is not important if you use a monopod. Your children, the other kids and their parents will love you. Now, I'm spoiled and shoot with the 400mm f2.8 VR for the local high school, for free.