Grimsby Ontario is on the raptor migration route and every year the town holds an indoor “RaptorFest” event at the local hockey arena during which various presentations of live birds, and educational initiatives are conducted. A fast, mid-range telephoto like the Nikkor 200 mm f/2 would be the perfect lens to photograph birds during this indoor event. Like most people, I don’t have the $6,000 or so it would take to own the 200 mm Nikkor…but I thought I might have a reasonable solution in my camera bag.
(NOTE: click on images to enlarge them)
Knowing that the lighting in the venue is less than ideal, I thought it would be a great opportunity to test out how well the Nikon 1 V2 would work with the FT-1 adapter and my Nikkor 85 mm f/1.8 G to create a ‘fast telephoto’ combination. So I put the components together, creating an equivalent field-of-view of 229 mm @ f/1.8, and headed off to the event.
In order to keep the ISO as low as possible with the Nikon 1 V2, I shot everything at f/1.8. This allowed me to shoot at either ISO400 or ISO800 depending on the lighting in various parts of the arena and keep my shutter speeds at decent levels.
Overall I was very happy with how this combination performed. Focus was very fast and accurate and the set-up was very light and easy to handle. It would have been even better if my 85 mm f/1.8 G had VR, but I was able to keep most of my shutter speeds at 1/200 or higher. There were a few instances where I did have to shoot as low as 1/60th and 1/100th… but the results were still quite acceptable.
The next time you need a fast, mid-range telephoto lens to capture an indoor event…and you don’t have $6,000 laying around to buy the Nikkor 200 mm f/2…think about using your Nikon 1 V-series camera along with the FT-1 adapter and one of your F-mount prime lenses like the 85 mm f/1.8G. It can be a great solution. Obviously the image quality isn’t going to match a Nikkor 200 mm f/2… but it doesn’t cost $6,000 either.
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