Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VRII or?

[LGWGM]

Originally Posted by JohnG

I tend to agree with NHL on his assessment. BUT, I will add this. Plays are an area where VR may be beneficial. Unlike sports, where you need a high shutter speed and thus camera shake is not an issue, at plays you may decide to go with lower ISO and shoot around 1/200-1/250. In that range, image stabiliztion on a 200mm lens can be beneficial depending on how steady you are. Once you're up to 1/400 type shutter speeds then it really doesn't matter for a 200mm lens.

That's a tough call though. As NHL said, the Tamron is great bang-for-the-buck, but you'll probably want to get your shutter speeds up around 1/320 or so when shooting the plays so that means a bit higher ISO. It all depends on how well you can hand-hold such a lens and what your standards are.

Cool! You hit the nail right on the head. Exactly what my wonders are (figures for min -> std shutter speeds w/o OS)

*I'm trying to get the best IQ as possible but for the price difference, I might go with the Tamron instead

I'm sure IS (I shoot Canon) might have helped when looking at 100% but it also get's a bit dodgy with human subjects because they're not completely still. So it's debatable how much blur in any photo is due to camera shake vs. movement.

Wanted the VR/OS version to lessen the camera shake when shooting with teleconverter (outdoors) but after comparing shots with and w/o TC, I will definitely not gonna use any teleconverters anymore. (worth nothing but neg. effects) geez..


EDIT: NHL, JohnG, JimC thanks a lot for helping me out. You guys are the best!

[Slyfox]

Sigma APO 70-200mm f2.8 EX DG OS HSM (Nikon)

[LGWGM]

Nice! How do you find the lens?

I'm still trying to decide between the two lenses (Sigma OS HSM vs Nikon VR I - used) since they go around the same price.

[Slyfox]

Sigma APO 70-200mm f2.8 EX DG OS HSM is currently available in our place and cheaper than a second hand nikon 70-200mm vr1 a lot

[LGWGM]

Just curious if the current price cheaper than you quoted me earlier?

After some diggings, I'm now leaning towards the VR II, btw.

[jacobt]

Go with the 70-200mm VRII, it's the "must have" lens for all Nikon shooters

Unfortunately the price has gone up a little after the japan quake

[Slyfox]

Originally Posted by LGWGM

Just curious if the current price cheaper than you quoted me earlier?

After some diggings, I'm now leaning towards the VR II, btw.

that's my dream lens also but due to tight budget i landed on sigma. very happy with the performance of sigma