Well, I've just recovered from 2 days with the 200-400mm and here are my findings from 2 footy games, MK Dons v Bristol City and Watford v Notts Forest.
The two games provided very different shooting conditions. MK Dons was wet and dreary and I was able to sit on the goal lines, where I prefer. Watford was bright and sunny, but us types are only able to sit between the goal line and the 18 yard line on one side of the pitch only (Getty get to sit on the goal lines)
Just to say I normally shoot with a 70-200 f2.8 II with 1Dx and a 400mm f2.8 II with a second 1Dx
The 200-400 is that it focusses fast and accurately and is as easy to handle as the 400. Being able to zoom took quite a bit of getting used to and added something else to think about.
The big advantage is that you can pick up an advancing player and stay with him on a run for much longer. You can also get full frame shots in a much larger area of the pitch. More opportunities presented itself.
I know this is stating the obvious, but it does take some getting used to after using just the 400mm for distance. The result is, I took far more shots of the game, especially the second, Watford game (530 with the 200-400mm, whereas my usual number of shots is in the 150-200 with the 400mm)
Previously, the majority of my shots at a game has been with the 70-200, but with the 200-400, this statistic was reversed. I found myself holding on to the 200-400mm for a lot longer than usual. This was to my detriment on one occasion at the MK Dons game when I missed a scoring shot while changing cameras all too late :bonk:
I found it easier to pick up the action at 200mm then zoom in and track to get a better composition too.
Now for the built in 1.4x extender. I used this sparingly as it takes the aperture down to f5.6 with the resulting increase in DOF that this brings. All us sports photographers know about isolating the subject with shallow DOF, don't we. I only used the extender when the ball was right up the other end for corners and free kicks and also for some stock shots of defenders at the other end and managers on the side line. I set the 1Dx to auto ISO because I didn't want to have to waste time altering this manually to achieve a good exposure when swapping the extender in and out.
I could go on about this lens, but time for a summary. Cracking quality, quick and accurate focussing, opens up opportunities to get action shots in the middle of the pitch and towards you, less swapping of cameras and the added bonus of 560mm if and when needed.
On the down side, zooming is an extra activity and takes a bit of getting used to after having the 400mm, the extra stop when using the 1.4x extender is a problem for isolating subjects and needs a higher ISO to maintain 1000th shutter speed.
And then there's the cost, £12k is a lot of dosh. I could buy one tomorrow if I wanted to, but I won't, even though I could claim back the vat. I need to improve as a photographer using the kit I have first and learn to live without that flexibility between the 200mm of the 70-200mm and the fixed focal length of the 400mm.
