What Do You Shoot at 200mm Plus?

BradM wrote in post #9443441
700mm (1120mm - 1.6x, 50D) at 12 feet w/ a 50D

Wow!

banpreso wrote in post #9442113
many consumer level zooms reaches out beyound 200mm, and people pair it up with a crop senor 99 out of 100. so that's 320mm on the conservative end (200mm) or 480mm on the aggresive end (300mm). what does an average joe photo hobbiest shoot at that kind of distance??? portrait at 1/4 mile away?

I have a 70-300 and occasionally borrow a 170-500 from my mate and shoot anything from motorsports , airshows, ice hockey, family events etc.

Someone else has said that consumer lenses are too slow for sports - not if you know how to use them! The 70-300 i have is F5.6 at the long end and the 170-500 is f6.3 at the long end (reported to the camera as f5.6 so AF still works). They still return very good images but arent ideal under low light conditions.

Anything that can't be reached by photographers at a safe or awkward position

banpreso wrote in post #9442113
many consumer level zooms reaches out beyound 200mm, and people pair it up with a crop senor 99 out of 100. so that's 320mm on the conservative end (200mm) or 480mm on the aggresive end (300mm). what does an average joe photo hobbiest shoot at that kind of distance??? portrait at 1/4 mile away?

Many "average joe photo hobbiests" go to the zoo

egordon99 wrote in post #9446587
Many "average joe photo hobbiests" go to the zoo

This! I was at the zoo a few months back and had the opportunity to use a Tamron 200-500mm; I finally got the shots I always wanted to get from the zoo!

My 100-400L LOVES the zoo!

BradM wrote in post #9443441
700mm (1120mm - 1.6x, 50D) at 12 feet w/ a 50D

or

with the 1D3 a 1.3x body, 12' again 700mm (910mm 1.3x)

Beautiful shots!

This is kind of like trying to explain to people why high ISO is important and valuable.

Jazz concerts.
Pacquito D'Rivera at the Red Sea Jazz Festival
Sigma 150-500 racked all the way out:

Sports and wildlife and anything else I can't get close to.

1) Powder Puff Football

My DsMk III has a 70-200 mm or a 300 mm f/2.8 mounted 99% of the time...using those two lenses plus photomerge will give me almost anything I want to shoot sans any distortion at the edges.

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I shoot everything from sports to my dog with a 400. It's actually my most used lens.

Girls in bikinis on the beach