Nikon D3 and which lens

morgan20nz

I have a Nikon D3 camera and use tamron 17-50 F2.8 DI II and a TAMRON AF 70-200 F2.8 (Non VC or VR).

Despite the lack of stabilization the lenses have been amazing for both indoor basketball and outside sports and events.

A friend suggested upgrading to a NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR LENS and NIKON AF-S 70-200MM F4 G ED VR.

Has anyone got the same lenses I own and have upgraded to the Nikon F4 ED lenses and can give me some advice?

Or has anyone got the same lenses and upgraded only to find they regretted the decision.

Morgan :clap

Mitchell

If you are using these for sports, don't buy new lenses because of stabilization. VR will not help you for sports.

I wouldn't upgrade to the lenses you listed for sports. Why get an f4 lens when you already shoot at f2.8? The AF-s lenses may focus faster than your Tamrons (i don't know), but your loss of those f-stops will hurt you.

ziggy53

The minute you said, "indoor basketball" you defined the correct answer. (At least for the longer zoom, IMO.)

Indoor sports, night sports and indoor action photography all require a fairly high shutter speed in order to stop the action, the same as outdoor sports. But indoor sports, etc., has the disadvantage of less light.

One needs a large aperture lens and a relatively high-ISO just to reach the required shutter speeds to stop action. AF also benefits from a larger aperture, as the AF sensor is really just a specialized CMOS sensor, subject to both lower sensitivity at lower light levels and the smaller reference base afforded by a smaller aperture lens.

An f2.8 aperture lens lets through twice as much light as an f4 aperture lens, when they are both used wide open. This means that an f2.8 aperture lens allows either a lower ISO at the same shutter speed as an f4 aperture lens, or twice the shutter speed allowing better action stopping.

An f2.8 aperture also separates the subject from foreground and background better than an f4 aperture.

If anything, the Tamron VC USD version of the 70-200mm lens provides faster AF speeds by virtue of the ultrasonic focus drive (USD), versus the micromotor drive in the non-USD version. A used Tamron USD version is probably a very good option to increase your keeper rate.

morgan20nz

Mitchell wrote: »

If you are using these for sports, don't buy new lenses because of stabilization. VR will not help you for sports.

I wouldn't upgrade to the lenses you listed for sports. Why get an f4 lens when you already shoot at f2.8? The AF-s lenses may focus faster than your Tamrons (i don't know), but your loss of those f-stops will hurt you.

THANKS Mitchell, appreciate your reply.

morgan20nz

ziggy53 wrote: »

The minute you said, "indoor basketball" you defined the correct answer. (At least for the longer zoom, IMO.)

Indoor sports, night sports and indoor action photography all require a fairly high shutter speed in order to stop the action, the same as outdoor sports. But indoor sports, etc., has the disadvantage of less light.

One needs a large aperture lens and a relatively high-ISO just to reach the required shutter speeds to stop action. AF also benefits from a larger aperture, as the AF sensor is really just a specialized CMOS sensor, subject to both lower sensitivity at lower light levels and the smaller reference base afforded by a smaller aperture lens.

An f2.8 aperture lens lets through twice as much light as an f4 aperture lens, when they are both used wide open. This means that an f2.8 aperture lens allows either a lower ISO at the same shutter speed as an f4 aperture lens, or twice the shutter speed allowing better action stopping.

An f2.8 aperture also separates the subject from foreground and background better than an f4 aperture.

If anything, the Tamron VC USD version of the 70-200mm lens provides faster AF speeds by virtue of the ultrasonic focus drive (USD), versus the micromotor drive in the non-USD version. A used Tamron USD version is probably a very good option to increase your keeper rate.

THANKS Ziggy53 - what would be the difference in speed between the lenses I have now and the USD versions?

ziggy53

morgan20nz wrote: »

THANKS Ziggy53 - what would be the difference in speed between the lenses I have now and the USD versions?

I forgot that you have a Nikon body. (ziggy "duh" moment ) You probably currently have Tamron lenses which use the body's screw drive for autofocus, and no in-lens AF motor. In that case the Tamron lenses you have are somewhat body specific, with the Nikon D3 among the fastest in-body drive motors.

Still ...

Full rack-to-rack time would probably be cut in half. (That means the time to focus on a very close subject, and the time to then shift to a distant subject.) In basketball that might happen frequently, partly depending on your shooting position related to the court, where you might have action close to you for one shot and then the ball changes teams and your next shot is all the way at the other hoop.

With an ultrasonic AF motor technology, you just stay in continuous AF and as long as you can find the subject with the AF dot at the time you need the shot the camera can better snap to focus.