OK. So I had lead time. I should have known this was the week the went on spring vacation; just forgot about it.
I rented the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS to see if I want to invest in that glass. Allow me to say "Holy Crap, Batman!" That glass is SHARP! I take photos right out of the camera and print 'em. That lens with the 2x T/C doesn't inspire me too much but the lens by itself is STOUT! Now I'm ready to pull the trigger and I realize it'll be another week before I can buy it! What a goober I am.
Well, at least I was able to provide some good baseball shots to some parents and send all my family members off to work with photos of our little one (and man is she cute).
I rent lens for about 25-35 dollar a day, it is a cam shop near my place called leo's, it is a great thing to do before you buy an expensive lens, recently i rented the 12-24mm (was thinking of buying it) decided that it did not give me what I was wanting, saved a LOT of money!
I rented this from Professional Photographic Resources of Atlanta (//www.ppratlanta.com/). The lens was something like $35/day and a week costs 3 days and the 2x TC was around 15-20/day and 3 days on that for less than $150 investment. Now I know that I want the lens and I have several hundred photos to prove it (also to justify it to my business partner; my wife).
The 2x TC caused a little mushy detail when zoomed all the way out to 400mm and it really cut down on the light (f/5.6). After looking through sports shots on SportsShooter.com and FredMiranda.com I think we have agreed that if I can find a 400mm f/2.8 without IS for around $3,000 then I'll open up the business for more sports photography instead of directing my business around portraits as much.
B&H is a brick & mortar business that has a web presence. 1/2 the businesses in NYC "faithfully" close down for improtant Jewish holidays. This is just the one that is a week long instead of just a day & happens to line up with some school districts spring recess this yr. Hubby is a sign manufacturer in the city & always has to work around thier holidays since it includes such a large # of businesses. You can't even go measure a sign on one of their buildings....NO WORK on the holy days, not even on thier buildings. Hubby took vacation this week ;)
And if I'm not careful they'll have to make a room in the back of the building for me to stay in when I get kicked out (along with my equipment, of course).
;)
A web vendor that takes a week off from shipping seems a bit odd to me. I've ordered from them a ton before, but this just seems strange.
What did you not like about the 2x teleconverter w/ the 70-200IS? I'm thinking about buying that very combination.
IMO the 70-200/2.8 IS and the 2.0 will work together, but with some very stringent limitations. At 200mm, the combination is pretty soft, you need to stop down two full stops from wide open to gain back all the sharpness of the lens. That puts you at f/2.8 + four stops, or f/11. Useable, but on bright days only!
Yeah but most of the high school sports and even some local college action around here occurs in the mid to late afternoon so that's why I'm looking for a used 400mm f/2.8 L non-IS. I just can't shoot that slow an aperture and still stop the action with late afternoon sunlight even at ISO 400. ISO 800 really starts to show grain and artifacts from the 70-200/TC coupling when I upsize it to produce 16x20 or so.
Yeah but most of the high school sports and even some local college action around here occurs in the mid to late afternoon so that's why I'm looking for a used 400mm f/2.8 L non-IS. I just can't shoot that slow an aperture and still stop the action with late afternoon sunlight even at ISO 400. ISO 800 really starts to show grain and artifacts from the 70-200/TC coupling when I upsize it to produce 16x20 or so.
Kev
Yep, a 400/2.8 non-is sounds like the perfect solution for you. You're going to shoot at relatively high shutter speeds, and you prolly would be using a monopod (at least) with that kind of weight, so no IS is really a non-issue.
I've realized that eventually I will be looking at a 400mm prime as well, don't think the 400/2.8 IS is budgetable, so I may look at a 400/4 DO IS at some point, if the price is right. I still don't think it's worth $5k.
I'll be buying the 1.4x II converter for use with my 70-200 IS.
