Reading mode: Light Dark

Tips on utilizing setup: D7100 & Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D

Go to last post
G

gstadter

Well-known member
Messages
239
Solutions
2
Reaction score
37
Location
Rossville, GA, US
As a result of this recent thread on the subject of gear selection for shooting night time high school football games:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52100399
I am soon to be the proud owner of a D7100 & Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D lens.

I am in search of setup & configuration tips from those with experience.
A) Settings you would suggest changing/setting as soon as I get it out of the box(in regards to general use), and why.
B) Settings you would suggest specifically in respect to shooting high school football games at night from the sideline with this gear, and why.

From what I've read so far, I'm one of those people that some reviews speculate will get "lost" in the granularity of control with such a camera. I do, in fact, plan to dedicate time in the near future to improve my understanding of all aspects of using my equipment, including reading the manual, doing general searches here in the forums on DPReview, and just plain using the camera a lot.

Some folks may skip right over this thread because they find this topic not specific enough...I understand. On the off chance though that some members of this community have a bit of time they just want to kill, and would want to help out a newbie, please do share your thoughts. And although I first thought to start this thread after noticing at least three members in the community had this exact same setup, I would warmly welcome input from experienced users with any simillar setup(D800, D7000, D4, on and on...).
 
That is a GREAT lens, been using one for 8 years. Some people try and use it at f2.8 at close focus and find it very hard to get focus (check you camera manual and you will see a warning). On my D7K I find that using live view or manual focus (esp. MF) you can focus at the 5' min at 200mm but I do that on a tripod. This lens shines, and buy a used KenkoPro 1.4 and you have a decent 120-300 zoom.

I'm getting a D7100 very soon and expect it to rock as a 400m f2.8 at sunrise and dusk for birds with the 1.3 crop. Also I got a Canon 500D and that gives you almost 1:1 reproduction. I like mine enough that I had APS do a $300 refurbish job (I bought it used when I had my D70).

These were with the D200 (Dragonfly with the 500D filter):

Landscapes038.jpg




Macro066.jpg


blackwhite051.jpg


--
Regards,
Jeff
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-jeff-lee.html
 
Last edited:
I forgot to mention to make sure to use the focus limiter, make focusing a lot faster in certain situations.
 
Mainly just keep your shutter speeds up, especially around 200mm as you don't have VR on the lens, other than that I'd use it just as you would any other of your lenses. No real special settings need apply for it.
 
Member said:
Jeff4500 wrote:

I forgot to mention to make sure to use the focus limiter, make focusing a lot faster in certain situations.
Click to expand...
 
MUCH thanks for the reply, herbymel. :-)

small note... although I included the 80-200mm f/2.8 lens in my topic, I'm curious of what setting changes or tweaks users of this camera(or very similar) have made to improve IC or user experience, regardless of lense, in addition to use with this lens.

-Gary
 
Mr. jimoyer,

Thank you for the education!
I may have to read through your post a couple more times to absorb all of it, but am grateful for the time you contributed to compose it!

-Gary
 
jimoyer said:
jimoyer wrote:
jimoyer said:
gstadter wrote:
jimoyer said:
Jeff4500 wrote:

I forgot to mention to make sure to use the focus limiter, make focusing a lot faster in certain situations.

--
Regards,
Jeff
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-jeff-lee.html
Click to expand...
noted..

..and wow, those photos are beautiful! I'm guessing there's a bit of experience(more than just good hardware) behind how good they are though.
..and i hadn't yet thought about a tc. After Googleing the KenkoPro 1.4, and doing some quick reads, I may be following up with you on that topic, for a new thread.
I would ask though, to you currently use one? Or have just used on in the past?
And would it impact IC at all on the wider(80mm) end, when used with the 80-200mm?

-Gary

--
'We fail only when we quit.'
Click to expand...
For the most part, I'd stay away from a TC for night time football or any sports under anything but daytime sunlight. Most importantly, the TC is going to cut your maximum aperture in half turning your f2.8 lens into a maximum of f5.6. See how well you do with your 70-300 at a night time football game and it will give you an idea of what you'll get. TC's are great to use under the right circumstances. This isn't one of them.
Click to expand...
Think your calculations are a bit off on this one, 1.4 tc is only going to lose you one stop, so the 2.8 would be an F4. I used a 1.4 tc on a 300 2.8 very often shooting nighttime football and had no problems with it. Would be even less of a problem on the 7100 with the better focusing ability. Of course back when I was doing it, mine was manual focus...just think of the fun shooting football was with that set-up. I used to use the kenko 1.4 on the 80-200 and had some very good results with it.
 
Here are my camera settings..

* AF-C and Dynamic 9 Point
AF-C is a given.. but i've had best results 9 point Dynamic. You can mess around with 21 point and see if you like it (i'd skip 51 point).

* (A)perture priority in the daylight..
* (M)anual when the stadium lights come on..
I like to control the subject isolation as much as possible (that's why i use Aperture priority). When the lights are on i switch to Manual.

* Auto ISO - turned off!
I bump up my ISO manually as needed.

* AF-ON / Back button focusing.
You either love it... or hate it. But one of the nice things about the D7100 is that Nikon moved the AE-L/AF-L button over just a smidge more to the right making AF-ON more comfortable (then on the D7000).

* RAW 14bit
There are times... and there are stadiums... where the lighting SUCKS! In order to keep my ISO around 5000 (below is better) i've had to shoot a bit under exposed. Shooting 14bit gives me a bit more elbow room.


* AF Priority set to "Release".
Take the picture when i push the button!!!!

* Focus Tracking (menu a3) @ 2
This may or may not do much.. but set it anyway. (google it)

As for shooting the actual games..

get looooow. My son's actual 'team photographer' walks around with a monopod at eye level and stands the entire games. I get down on the ground and shoot as low as possible... IMHO (and others) my images make the players seem ... for lack of a better word.. larger.

Shoot the stands.. Shoot the sidelines.. Shoot the cheerleaders.. Shoot after the play.. My favorite shots are the tears, the game winning reactions, the brotherhood. My son might not remember a game winning play... but he remembers the emotions.

Most of all... HAVE FUN!
 
Last edited:
Mako2011 said:
Mako2011 wrote:
Mako2011 said:
With the D7100 though, might still be a viable option with the 80-200 at f4. Still get very usable shots at ISO 3200, I would think.
Click to expand...
--
My opinions are my own and not those of DPR or its administration. They carry no 'special' value (except to me and Lacie of course)
Click to expand...
Mako, quite honestly I didn't read the entire thing (was reading that on my phone originally) and saw the discussion about a TC, not specifically WHICH TC. Again, I understand the conversion, and yes, a 1.4 would give you a maximum of f4, but still not a great choice given what he's looking to shoot depending on what he's going to maintain for shutter speeds. Obviously adding a TC....even a 1.4....is going to increase his minimum shutter speed. At a night time football game, under the lights, with a 1.4 TC at a maximum of f4, ISO 3200 is going to be an absolute best case scenario. More likely, he's going to be shooting closer to the 5000-6400 range to maintain enough shutter speed to keep a usable image. In the pictures below, we are still shooting in daylight and I'm already at ISO 6400 at f4 and 1/1000 and I still had more light than I would have under stadium lighting.....







 
I'll be making due with my existing D3100 & 70-300mm IS for tomorrow nights game(sadly), but will play around with the process you described, and yes, have fun with it.

-Gary
 
jimoyer said:
jimoyer wrote:
jimoyer said:
Mako2011 wrote:
jimoyer said:
With the D7100 though, might still be a viable option with the 80-200 at f4. Still get very usable shots at ISO 3200, I would think.
Click to expand...
--
My opinions are my own and not those of DPR or its administration. They carry no 'special' value (except to me and Lacie of course)
Click to expand...
Mako, quite honestly I didn't read the entire thing (was reading that on my phone originally) and saw the discussion about a TC, not specifically WHICH TC. Again, I understand the conversion, and yes, a 1.4 would give you a maximum of f4, but still not a great choice given what he's looking to shoot depending on what he's going to maintain for shutter speeds. Obviously adding a TC....even a 1.4....is going to increase his minimum shutter speed. At a night time football game, under the lights, with a 1.4 TC at a maximum of f4, ISO 3200 is going to be an absolute best case scenario. More likely, he's going to be shooting closer to the 5000-6400 range to maintain enough shutter speed to keep a usable image. In the pictures below, we are still shooting in daylight and I'm already at ISO 6400 at f4 and 1/1000 and I still had more light than I would have under stadium lighting.....



Click to expand...
All nice shots. Not sure we need to be at 1/1000s though. A bit of "selection" in terms of when to capture the subject and a lot can be accomplished with 1/500s. You do have to anticipate though. Might be tough. Shooting RAW and using third party noise reduction...Iso 6400 will be very usable, IMO.

Nice examples. Thanks

--
My opinions are my own and not those of DPR or its administration. They carry no 'special' value (except to me and Lacie of course)
 
Unfortunately, especially under stadium lighting, you can't get much lower. In certain shots/aspects of football possibly. Baseball as well except for batting and pitching. The images below are an example of what I'm talking about.

The first image is of LV Iron Pigs, now Philadelphia Phillies starting 3B Cody Asche. If you look at the image you'll see that pretty much everything is sharp at 1/500, EXCEPT Cody's face/head which has some additional noise and motion blur (hopefully it translates with DPR's system...trust me, in the original full size image it's there, and until you look closely at it, it just looks like his face is kind of soft compared to the rest of the image). Given where he's at in his swing, you wouldn't think it would matter much (I certainly wouldn't), but it did and took what should have been a pretty decent image of a pretty hot player (right now) and made it mediocre at best.





The second image is of Pawtucket Paw Sox (Boston Red Sox AAA) pitcher Matt Barnes. No explanation needed with this one.





The point being that if you're shooting any sports under stadium lighting, you need every bit of help you can get, and you probably need a bit more shutter speed than you'd think/than you comfortably have available to you unless you're shooting one of the "top guns" from Nikon or Canon which are just incredibly clean to astronomical levels. The D7100 gives you the ability to get pretty close with a $1200 body, but you still need all the help you can get both from equipment/fast glass as well as, as you said, good NR software in Post (these images processed in Aperture, Nik Color Efex, and Nik Dfine...the original images of the youth game were in LR4 only).
 
From my own experience with the AF-D 80-200, which is indeed a great lens, i would recommend to check the Focus accuraccy first and use the AF fintuning Option to get the best out of this Combo. Focus limiter is also worth to recommend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
  • Question Question
Nikon 80-200mm f/4.5 5.6 D AF (Not 2.8) or Nikon 70-210mm f/4-5.6 D AF on a DF
Replies
7
Views
260
David Lal
D
N
  • Question Question
80-200mm AF-D (new) vs Tamron 70-200mm G2 (both f2.8)
2 3 4
Replies
64
Views
503
NateNZ
N
G
  • Question Question
Used SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 or Nikkor 70-200mm f4 for Nikon D850
Replies
10
Views
253
GeorgeMac
G
F
Budget/Used 80-200 2.8 Glass on Nikon FX
Replies
2
Views
38
dccberry
D
D
Upgrades? D7000 poor low light performance. Just the body or setup?
Replies
3
Views
67
DVF Photography
DVF Photography

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top