Football day game.

ronlane · Dec 2, 2015

Going to shoot a high school football championship on Saturday afternoon. It should be sunny or at least partly cloudy.

As most know, I shoot the Canon 7D mk II and a 70-200mm f/2.8 (or f/4).

If I were to rent a Canon 2x TC, I know that I'll loose 2 stops but even with that, I should be okay with light with the f/2.8. Correct????

Would this be something worth doing?

AceCo55 · Dec 3, 2015

I can't help you with Canon, but the other issue with TC is image degradation.
I have heard the Nikon x2 TC ... version 2 ... is not good whereas the version 3 "X2-TC" is noticeably better.
Best of luck

BillM · Dec 4, 2015

I haven't used TC's too much but would you also lose a little AF speed and accuracy ? Just my opinion Ron but I think you should just keep doing what you have been doing. You'll be more comfortable using what you know, if you want to start experimenting with different equipment a Championship game may not be the best place to do it. You have all offseason to try different things.

ronlane · Dec 4, 2015

Thanks Ace and Bill. I will probably just use what I have. I can continue to work on the things that I have been, which is shooting jpeg and trying to capture the linemen in addition to getting the key moments.

dennybeall · Dec 4, 2015

Personally I would try it for myself and see how the combination of my camera and the 2X worked for me. The quality will be reduced some amount but it may still meet the needs for the day. Changing the 2X in and out may be a bother if you're not used to it.?
Having grown up just using prime lenses I'm more used to changing lenses more often so would try it anyway.

Derrel · Dec 4, 2015

I'm kind of in the anti-TC camp when it comes to using a 2x model on a zoom lens, especially with an f/4 main lens; the two-stop light loss would make AF suffer on many cameras/many AF modules. Over the years, the minimum amount of aperture needed for successful AF has shifted, from f/4.5 to f/5.6 to now f/8 on the very most-capable AF modules/cameras...but still...when the camera is given sub-optimal AF data, it hurts focusing. A 1.4x converter is a slightly different animal...and yet, it compromises every single image made while it's on the camera, and you only gain the 200-280mm range....at a football game, you just can NOT be taking the converter on and off all day long...so once you put it on, it's on.

My gut is: crop later, at the computer, and enjoy TWO, full Exposure Values more of aperture and/or shutter speed, and wind up with a good, sharply-rendered image, which you can later crop-in on at the computer if needed.

ronlane · Dec 5, 2015

Thanks Derrel. It is the morning of and I am still undecided, which means, I probably will not get it. I will be using it with a 70-200mm f/2.8 instead of my f/4 which makes it max of f/5.6, but I understand all that it slows down the autofocus. The sun is out here this morning, so if I am lucky it will stay out. Going to be a fun day here, so let's see what I can get.