Sunday, March 25, 2012

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR test run


Few weeks ago i gave in to temptation and bought a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR. Since then i have been sick with a upper respiratory tract infection, hence bed ridden.  Then came the rainy days.  Fortunately, the weather wasn't bad this weekend. I brought my new toy out to the park for a test run.  I have chosen rugby players as subjects.  The last time i tried shooting a rugby game i was using Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR. The reach of the 300mm on my crop sensor body was reasonable but that lens was simply too slow for the fast pace of rugby players. 

Comparatively, the 70-200mm f2.8 VR is a lot faster. I shot in shutter priority with shutter speed varying between 1/1250 to 1/2000 of a second, auto ISO. I was quite happy with the outcome. The lens autofocus locks focus on the person a lot faster than my 70-300mm.  This is an expected result considering the price difference between the two lens. But i must say 200mm is still a bit short to cover a big field. 

The photos here were all shot as JPEG, not RAW. Picture control set to vivid mode with 2+ saturation and 1+ sharpening.  These photos were then lightly managed in Aperture 3 with mostly just cropping and slight level adjustment to boost contrast. 











Arriving home, i spotted a few ducks by the creek in front of my house.  I fetched the bag of expired bread from my fridge and fed them to the ducks, with my camera on standby of course.  The ducks were a lot faster than i expected when they fought for the bread. In a few of the shots i had trouble locking focus on their eyes.  Some of these were corrected with Aperture's sharpening brush.




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