Photographing Red Bull Air Race

[Primoz]

Hello!

Next month I will have the chance to take some photos at the Red Bull Air Race event (the photos will be just for my own enjoyment and skill development).

I have a bit of a dilemma though when it comes to what lens setup to use and would appreciate advice from someone with expirience.

My longest lens is the Nikkor 70-200 2.8 VRI (on a cropped format sensor) but I am not quite sure if it'll be long enough?
I looked into borowing a teleconverter, but: 1.) They are hard to find & 2.) I heard the optical quality is quite poor and I might achieve the same thing by cropping the shot. (I might have a Nikon D7100 available which has plenty of pixels)

In the air race planes are flying extremely low and quite close to the croud - what do you think? Should I try to get a teleconverter or will 200mm get me close enough?

Thanks!

 

[KmH]

Because the airplanes fly quite low, a key will be including some of the environment. So, you don't want to have to much reach.
I would want as high a camera perspective as I could get.

Will you have special access, or will you just be a regular spectator?

A 1.4x TC will make the lens f/2.8 aperture setting effectively f/4. - f/4 effectively becomes f/5.6, and so on
A 2x TC will make your f/2.8 effectively f/5.6 - f/4 effectively f/8, and so on.

However, as far as airplanes go the airplanes they fly in the Red Bull races are fairly small, and fly a course that for spectator safety attempts to maximize the distance from spectators while at the same time being close enough so the spectators can see the airplanes negotiate the course obstacles.

 

[sk66]

There's no easy/clear answer.
A TC reduces light and DOF, requires stopping down for IQ and DOF, and that requires higher ISO. But you retain the pixel advantage (downsizing to reduce ISO noise).

Cropping allows lower ISO, but you loose the MP advantage (ISO noise is more apparent). Also, a higher MP count (for a given sensor size) requires a higher SS to prevent image blur which requires higher ISO or wider Aperture...

I've gotten very good results using a 2x (ver III) on my 70-200 f/2.8 (II) even wide open... when the light is good. The IQ would be better stopped down ~ 2 stops; so even better light. The Other 2x's I wouldn't use (Ver 1/2 or 3rd party). The 1.4 II isn't bad at all (and some 3rd party are just as good IMO (i.e. top Kenko's).

I would probably use TC's if the light was good enough and I needed them. Otherwise use the bare lens and plan on some looser compositions.