Long post coming:
I shoot high school night games with a Nikon 70-200/4 lens on a DX Nikon D7200.
While I would like the faster f/2.8 lens, the f/4 lens is half the weight and half the cost of the f/2.8 lens.
At my senior citizen age, weight is an issue, so the 2x weight of the f/2.8 lens was a big negative against it.
Yes, I could shoot on a monopod to support the heavy lens, but I found that shooting handheld allows me to track the players much easier over a wider arc of coverage, than on a monopod. Though this is tracking arc is more important for shooting soccer and lacrosse than football, because a play can go the length of the field, not just 10 yards.
IMHO, the 100-400/4.5-5.6 is too slow for night games. That would be an OK day-time lens, but NOT a night lens.
I replaced my 18-140/3.5-5.6 with a 70-200/4 primarily for lens speed for night games.
You want at least a constant f/4, but even better a constant f/2.8 lens. The 70-200/2.8 is your best bet, if you can handle the weight and cost.
For the weight, you will most likely have to shoot on a monopod, to support the weight of the lens + camera, especially if you shoot both JV and Varsity games, one right after the other. Or your arms will be TIRED and SORE. You also need to practice using a monopod to track players; you have to revolve AROUND the monopod using your feet to move your body.
I've seen a few people with primes (300/2.8), but you are limited with the prime lenses, it will be; too long, just right or too short. IOW, you loose all flexibility. I would consider a prime if it were faster than the zoom. But the 200/2.8 is the same speed as a 70-200/2.8, so you do not gain speed, and you loose flexibility.
When I was in high school, a long time ago, we shot with primes. But we also shot with a team of 5-7 photographers, so we had coverage all over the field, and thus did not need the focal length flexibility of a zoom as much. If the play was too far away from me, it was close to my team mate on the other side of the field.
Note: In my experience a 70-200 is best on a FF camera. On a crop camera like my D7200, when the players get close to you, the 70mm end is too long to shoot them. IOW, when they get close, you get out of the way, because they are too close to shoot anyway.
However, on a crop camera, you have more reach than a FF camera, for the longer shots.
Each camera, crop and FF, have trade-offs.
At my high school; football is a fall game, soccer is a winter game and lacrosse a spring game. All start at about 430 for the first game and about 7 or 730 for the 2nd game. Part of the 1st game is under lights and all of the 2nd game is under lights.
If your high school has a similar schedule, I suggest you go out and shoot as many games as you can, to get used to shooting in that light and see just what your gear can do, and how far you can push it.
- Can you get by with your 70-200/4, or do you need the faster f/2.8 lens?
- How high can you push the ISO on your camera and still maintain decent image quality?
Here is my setup:
- Camera = Nikon D7200 DX/APS-C/crop sensor
- Lens = Nikon 70-200 f/4
- exposure mode = M
- ISO = 6400
- shutter = 1/500 sec
- aperture = f/4
IF I had a f/2.8 lens I could be down at ISO 3200, or ISO 6400 and shutter = 1/1000 sec.
I shoot in M mode, because I am on the field, and I am shooting ACROSS the field, where the background is the DARK area beyond the field. As a result, direct metering is difficult. A player shot and metered with the DARK background will be overexposed.
I have been able to use a trick to sometimes shoot in Aperture priority. Set meter to CW, set AF point to 1 or 2 above the center of the screen. This way you aim and focus above the center of the screen, and force the center and the CW metering area down onto the field. This way you meter the light on the field, not the dark background. But this does not work very well for the LONG shots, to the other side of the field.
The lighting on fields are NOT the same. My high school and the next high school north of us have 2 different lighting setups. So as I did, you have to determine what YOUR lighting is and then figure it out.
The lighting on our field is not even
- There are 2 light stands on each side of the field, at approximately the 15 yard line.
- Another school has 4 light stands on each side, with more even lighting to the end zone.
- Lighting is decent between the 15 yard lines. See my setup above.
- 10 yard to goal and the light goes down by about a stop.
- In the corners it is down about 2 stops.
- And it sucks when a player decides to run for a TD, down the sideline and into the dark corner.
Because of this lighting, I do NOT shoot from the end zone once the sun goes down. Anyone inside the 15 yard line will be side or backlit, and you can't see their faces, and the front of their body will be in a deep shadow.
SAFETY WARNING:
Always remain mobile and always have an OPEN escape route. If you get hit/run over by a football player, you loose. They have padding/protection, you don't. The varsity players are faster and bigger than the JV players, and the JV players are faster and bigger than middle school players. So,
do NOT wait till the last minute to get out of the way, or you may not make it.
