This post about using lens extenders was so popular from my old blog, that I decided to recreate and update it here. Here's the original post:
I'd love to own one of those very expensive 400mm, f2.8 lenses for my soccer shots. But I don't. So what do I use instead? I've got a 1.7x Nikkor lens extender that I use with my 70-200 f2.8 Nikkor lens to produce shots like this. This photo was taken at 340mm focal length, 1/2000s shutter speed, and aperture priority f5.6. The 340mm focal length is a little misleading, however. The actual focal length is 510mm. How can this be? My Nikon D70 has a 1.5 times lens multiplier factor. Thus the 70-200mm lens at the 200mm end times the 1.7x extender times the 1.5 multiplier equals the 510mm focal length (200 x 1.7 x 1.5 = 510). That's pretty good reach for soccer. So why wouldn't the professional sports photographers use this combination of lens and extender as well? My setup isn't without some significant sacrifice. By using the extender, I'm losing about an f-stop and one-half of lens speed. Thus the f2.8 lens becomes about an f4.7 (I think??). And I lose a little bit of image resolution. With all of that glass stacked on top of one another, the image quality is bound to suffer. The professional guys use a 400mm f2.8 lens which gives them the long reach, great blurred backgrounds, and the ability to shoot in low light situations (like under the lights during night games). And if the pros want even more reach, they can always add an extender to their 400mm lens if the lighting environment permits. In fact, during my Detroit Lions vs Chicago Bears session last year, many of the pro photographers on the field were quickly adding and removing extenders to their 400mm lens / monopod setup during the course of the game.
Since this original post back in 2006, I've acquired a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 AF-S lens as well as a Nikon 1.4x lens extender to go along with my 1.7x. I also don't own the Nikon D70 anymore either. For most soccer matches, I team the 300mm lens with the 1.4x extender attached to my Nikon D300 body for longer reach situations. Concurrently I use my Nikon 70-200mm lens attached to my Nikon D200 for the action nearer to me. In the future I will test various lens / extender combinations in various outdoor light environments to get a better sense optimum performance. Of course, you'll be the first to know, once I know.
