Best Telephoto Solution for Action in Low Light?

What do you need 200mm for exactly? What sort of lighting conditions are you shooting at? Why exactly do you need 200mm? It would help, for example, if we knew what sort of subjects you were shooting at what desired SS and ISO. This would help us pick your lens.

Basically, the 50-140 will be your best bet performance wise, even with the TC. You can also shoot at 140 and crop in. The 55-200 is excellent and very sharp, but you might have to increase ISO too much.

For the optimal quality with a telephoto zoom, FF is still a better choice. You can pick up a 70 - 200 f2.8 on a FF DSLR for the same price as a 50-140 on an XT-x. If you plan on shooting this style event 75%+ percent of the time, this would be a better route.

As AF depends a lot on the camera and lens combination, better to rent if you can.

The low light events I encountered recently include a polo match and a rodeo. I need a solution that can give me a long reach since the action isn't always near my position. I was thinking about going with full frame for low light settings, but I would prefer to stay with Fujifilm only, if practical. If I went with the XF 50-140mm, I would use if for general telephoto purposes; the extra reach provided by a TC would be for events that occur about once a month at the most.

Both the polo match and rodeo were in the early evening. The artificial lighting was weak in both cases.

sshapiro said:

All,

I have been using an XC 50-230mm with my X-T20. I have been satisfied with the results, except for action shots, especially in low light settings. The XC auto focus isn't very fast and the aperture at the long end is 6.7, which results in low light shots being a bit noisy. For outdoor daytime events, such as festivals or hiking, the lens is fine for my needs.

My primary concerns are having at least 200mm with the ability to focus quickly in low light situations. Do any of the following options make sense? Are there better solutions?

1. XF 50-140mm with a 1.4 TC (maybe a 2.0 TC)
2. XF 50-140mm with an XF 55-200mm instead of a TC for the 200mm reach
3. XF 55-200mm only (not sure if I will be happy with the overall auto focus speed)

I have read that the XF 50-140mm has better auto focus than the XF 55-200mm; however, I don't know if using a 1.4 TC, or perhaps a 2.0 TC will degrade the auto focus in either good natural light or low light settings. I also know that the TC will impact the aperture of the XF 50-140mm; would an XF 50-140mm/XF 55-200mm be a better solution when needing 200mm?

I do expect to upgrade my camera body to an X-T3 or X-H1 later this year.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Price and image quality wise, for this specific purpose you're better with a used FF DSLR with a 70-200 f2.8. For example the Nikon D750 with a 70-200 f2.8 can be bought for €1,600 to €2000 (similar prices in $).

Now, you are reffering to the 200mm on an APS-C sensor, which is 300mm in FF.

I couldn't find a Nikon 1,4x converter, but the Canon equivalent kit should cost the same and the 1.4x converter is €150 to €200. Your 70-200 f2.8 would become a 100-280 f4 lens. Still around one stop better than the X-T3 with the 50-140 + 1.4x, which is enough to jump from 1/500 to 1/1000 while keeping the same image quality, as ISO 3200 on a crop camera is around the same as 6400 on a FF.

Size is bigger of course being a FF kit, and plus the cost of additional bateries maybe.

Fast lenses over 150mm are very expensive for a reason...

To cover the 300mm FF (or 200mm APS-C), you could get a Nikon’s AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR or Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM which are sold used quite cheap, but they are not really low light with f5.6 at 300mm.

decaf14 said:

It seems like the 50-140 would be perfect, then. If you have the cash, then go for it. It may be a good exercise for you to look back at your photos and see what improvements the lens could make. i.e. if you were shooting at 1/500 at f6.0 and ISO 6400, what ISO could you be at if you were using the 55-200 at f4? What about the 50-140 at f2.8? What ISO level is acceptable for you?

I'm a 55-200 owner because it's near-perfect sharpness-wise, well made, good AF, etc... It's really just a solid lens. However, the 50-140 will provide better quality and its faster as well. Personally, I think it's far too large though. I bring my camera to remote locations so I don't wanna lug it around.

It doesn't make sense for you to invest in two systems if you already like the Fuji for other reasons.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm thinking that the XF 50-140mm would be a good choice. If I do pick it up, I will hang onto the XC 50-230mm lens for hiking or other daytime activities that don't require fast auto focus. The XC lens was a bargain, at about $180 new, when I got it last year. Maybe I won't need a TC; I can just crop during post, if needed.

I appreciate everyone's input!

sshapiro said:

All,

I have been using an XC 50-230mm with my X-T20. I have been satisfied with the results, except for action shots, especially in low light settings. The XC auto focus isn't very fast and the aperture at the long end is 6.7, which results in low light shots being a bit noisy. For outdoor daytime events, such as festivals or hiking, the lens is fine for my needs.

My primary concerns are having at least 200mm with the ability to focus quickly in low light situations. Do any of the following options make sense? Are there better solutions?

1. XF 50-140mm with a 1.4 TC (maybe a 2.0 TC)
2. XF 50-140mm with an XF 55-200mm instead of a TC for the 200mm reach
3. XF 55-200mm only (not sure if I will be happy with the overall auto focus speed)

I have read that the XF 50-140mm has better auto focus than the XF 55-200mm; however, I don't know if using a 1.4 TC, or perhaps a 2.0 TC will degrade the auto focus in either good natural light or low light settings. I also know that the TC will impact the aperture of the XF 50-140mm; would an XF 50-140mm/XF 55-200mm be a better solution when needing 200mm?

I do expect to upgrade my camera body to an X-T3 or X-H1 later this year.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Bright lens, wonderful bokeh amazing colors, can be bought for pretty cheap used.

Not for the faint of heart, because you need to manually focus, but the image quality is stellar. The focusing ring is very large and a joy to use. On a "belt monopod" or any kind of stabilizing support, focusing is much easier. There are also adapters like Finger etc that can do the focusing for you.

To set expectations with the manual focus route: I am an experienced manual focuser and when I recently brought mine to a tennis game, I came back with about 30-40% in perfect focus. It's a low rate, but when you nail the focus, the image is magic.

TangoMan said:

sshapiro said:

All,

I have been using an XC 50-230mm with my X-T20. I have been satisfied with the results, except for action shots, especially in low light settings. The XC auto focus isn't very fast and the aperture at the long end is 6.7, which results in low light shots being a bit noisy. For outdoor daytime events, such as festivals or hiking, the lens is fine for my needs.

My primary concerns are having at least 200mm with the ability to focus quickly in low light situations. Do any of the following options make sense? Are there better solutions?

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Bright lens, wonderful bokeh amazing colors, can be bought for pretty cheap used.

Not for the faint of heart, because you need to manually focus, but the image quality is stellar. The focusing ring is very large and a joy to use. On a "belt monopod" or any kind of stabilizing support, focusing is much easier. There are also adapters like Finger etc that can do the focusing for you.

To set expectations with the manual focus route: I am an experienced manual focuser and when I recently brought mine to a tennis game, I came back with about 30-40% in perfect focus. It's a low rate, but when you nail the focus, the image is magic.

Click to expand...

Tango is headed in the right direction... but relying on MF isn't necessary because the performance with a Fringer adapter (standard or pro) will give you good AF and use of aperture control. The lens is very good, and the AF is fine. I'd look at going with an XT-2 or XT-3 to give you a bit more AF tweaking ability, and better balance with the larger body. The lens also takes to good 1.4x TC very nicely.