topic Re: 70-200 F4 IS in EF & RF Lenses

70-200 F4 IS

bertotr — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 18:14:48 GMT

Hi everyone. Fortunately my son has resumed youth soccer. He is playing in a larger field as he is now playing U11. I have been using the 90D with the 70-200 F4IS. I do not have enough reach with the lens. Does the teleconverter affect autofocus or image quality? Thank you for feedback.

Re: 70-200 F4 IS

wq9nsc — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:09:30 GMT

The 1.4X teleconverter does have an effect upon both, particularly since it now becomes a f5.6 lens which will slow focus speed and limit your shutter speed and ISO options with games in lower light. With good lighting, the 1.4X will work pretty well and I have used it a few times with my 70-200 f2.8.

For youth soccer, a 70-200 on a "crop" body should be enough for most shots IF you can get decent field placement. For high school, which is played on a football or sometimes very slightly larger field, I use either 300 or 400 f2.8 on one body and a 70-200 f2.8 on the other and these are full frame (1DX III and 1DX II bodies). I am on the player sidelines which makes a difference but a large number of the shots are with the 70-200 equipped body. Depending upon your placement, you may find that the combination of 1.4X and a crop body are going to make framing difficult. With decent lighting and the right shutter speed (1/800 should be fast enough), you should have low noise images out of the 90D that will allow significant cropping instead of filling the entire frame via the converter.

As you go to longer focal length glass, following and framing action becomes FAR more difficult. I notice a huge difference between my 300 and 400 lenses in keeping a play properly framed and as you add and try to use the additional "length" of a 1.4X equipped lens you will also experience this framing difficulty.

Images below are the cropped for action and the original full frame shot with a 1DX II and 300 f2.8 (less reach on the full frame than your 70-200 provides on a crop body). This was shot in failing light @ 1/800, f2.8, ISO 1600 and the crop retains good detail. I was far away when this was shot because I was helping one of the players find her missing asthma inhaler so the corner kick occurred when I was between the two player benches and far away from that end of the field.

Stay away from the 2X for sports, even with the great white primes it produces a major drop in IQ and slows AF tracking.

Rodger

Re: 70-200 F4 IS

ebiggs1 — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 21:20:56 GMT

Rodger knows so follow his advice. I will offer a few things I have learned and experienced in general photography.

I taught a DSLR 101 class for Park and Recs for a while. One of the top mistakes a new person to shooting, sports in our case here is framing.

" Depending upon your placement, you may find that the combination of 1.4X and a crop body are going to make framing difficult."

The three main most important thing in photography is location, location and location. Far more important than what lens you have. This is not to say a great lens won't over come a bad spot but a good place to shoot from is paramount.

Whatever lens you have the number one mistake is framing too tight. This means using too much FL can be a problem not an enhancement. It also means you need a good post editor. It also means you shoot Raw file format, always. I would try the game first without the tel-con and see. That is the only for sure way of knowing if you have enough FL.

There is a "penalty box" for using a tel-con. You will lose one stop. Your f4 lens is now a f5.6. Plus some lose of IQ but the 70-200mm f4 zoom has plenty so unless you need to do severe crops you should be OK. You know you are dealing with a crop factor? Your 200mm side of your lens acts like a 320mm lens. That's pretty significant FL for sports as is. With the tel-con attached you will be in the 450mm range. It just might make that all important framing more of a challenge. Remember they are not always on the far side of the field.

If you have not already d/l the free form Canon DPP4 post editor. Shoot Raw and frame loosely. There are several Youtube tutorials on how to use DPP4, watch some. It will make all the difference. Happy shooting.

Re: 70-200 F4 IS

Waddizzle — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:40:29 GMT

Your 90D has an APS-C sensor, which means you effectively have a free 1.6x teleconverter built into the camera. And, you you get the "free teleconverter" without any degradation in image quality, or AF focusing and tracking performance.

With a 1.6x crop factor, your 70-200mm will have an angle of view equivalent to 112-320mm on a full frame. You also have 32 MP, so you should have some room to crop images with a post editor. Canon's Digital Photo Professional can do a more than adequate job of processing images from Canon cameras. Just make sure that you always shoot RAW, even if you have to save as both JPG and RAW.

The thing that you probably need the most is practice. One can never get enough practice using the camera, tracking subjects in the viewfinder, and post processing images. You do not have to wait for game day. If you can shoot some photos at a team practice, then GO for it. You can even practice on passing cars, or the family dog running in the backyard.

Back to a teleconverter. I do not think it is needed. You have a "free teleconverter" with the APS-C sensor, and you have a high resolution sensor, which will allow you to crop images. The key is to capture images with a FAST shutter speed. With a maximum effective focal length of 320mm, I think you would want to use a shutter speed that is twice that value, 1/640 or faster.

If you do decide on a teleconverter, be sure to get a Canon teleconverter. With your camera, you want EF 1.4x III teleconverter.

I like to shoot sports in M mode, so I can set the shutter speed and aperture to set values, and not worry about the camera changing them. I use ISO Auto in Manual mode, too. You can set a maximum ISO value in the menus, or you can keep an eye on it in the viewfinder. Dial in f/4 on the Aperture, and take a lot of practice shots. Be sure to shoot as RAW, and process the images in using a post editor. Canon's DPP4 can do the job that you need.

Thank you for all of your recommendations. I have a tourn...

bertotr — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:40:05 GMT

Thank you for all of your recommendations. I have a tournament this weekend and will try it out.