I am in need of some advice. I have a Canon S2 IS. and I get paid to take sport photos of people during the day. I am having a problem with capturing images from dusk, and afterwords, even though the softball field or soccer field is lit very well. I am not able to keep the high shutter speed needed to capture the players in motion. I have tried setting the ISO from 100 to 400, and that just created more noise. any suggestions, or is it just not possible with this camera?

If your having noise issues at 400 your out of luck with that camera. You need 1250 -1600 ISO to keep your shutter speed up. An f2.8 lens (minimum) will also be needed. Since your being paid for this you may have to consider going to a good DSLR and lens, but expect to pay $3000 and up for body and lens unless you get something used, but finding a good enough lens for sports used is tough. The Canon 70-200 f2.8 USM IS is $1500 or more. To get the 1D MKII N and a 70-200 you'd pay $6000 or more. I got my MKII N, 70-200, 28-300 USM IS f3.5-5.6 and 58-EX flash and some other odds and ends for $8500.

JS

Well-lit to your eye and well-lit to the camera aren't the same thing. Your eyes and brain do a lot of stuff that your camera can't do in order to allow you to clearly see in low light. Compact cameras like your S2 IS, while good in daylight, are generally very poor at night. JSPhoto is right about you needing a digital SLR. If you're getting paid for your photos and you also want to do night photos, it's time to invest in a digital SLR and a good lens. The top-of-the-line digital SLRs from Canon and Nikon are both awesome. But less expensive models like the Nikon D70s or the Canon EOS 30D will also offer far better performance than your S2 IS. You could reasonably get into a new system for around $2500. That would be for a Nikon D70s or Canon EOS 20D or 30D and a 70-200 f/2.8 lens. You'll see a world of improvement in image quality, auto focus performance, and night photos will actually be a reality.

Dude, when you go for a budget DSLR system, don't skimp on the lenses.
If you put your money into a 70-200 f2.8 L IS then that will be just as good on a 1DmkIIN as on a 350D, and it will enable you to get low light shots.
The differnece going from the 350D, to 30D to 1D is in low light performance, weatherproofing, and controls.
You'll notice a big step from the 350D to the 30D, but the noise performance of the 1D and 30D are pretty close - the 30D is good.

I also conquer with the group and urge you to go DSLR. However, since you want to specifically shoot low-light you are going to need fast lenses and/or fast lenses with IS. Do you plan to use a tripod when shooting? If not and your shutter speeds are going to be getting down below 1/50 you may conside the need of IS.

Good lenses:
70-200 f2.8 IS
70-200 f2.8 (the one I have)
300mm f2.8 IS
16-35 f2.8
15mm f2.8
85mm f1.2 / f1.8
50mm f1.4 / 1.8
100m f2
24-70 f2.8

I would suggest looking for a used Canon 1D Mark I, Canon 20D, or even a Canon 30D. The amount of $$ you spend on the glass will put you back and there really is no need to go out and buy a brand new body if you don't have to. I bought the 30D new and would again, but it's also close to $1,400. You can buy a used 20D for about half of that if you look hard enough. A used 1D, yeah it's only 4MP but it's waterproof with super fast AF, can be had for $800-1,200.

Good Luck in your search. Bottom line is to get good night time or low light photos you need a superfast lens with fast AF on a body.

--Dave

I shoot mainly sports and landscapes for my personal enjoyment, but like anyone I would
like to get better and what better way to get better than to ask the pro's. I am on a budget
as you will learn by my lenses. I shot these with a Canon D300 in 2004 and 2005. The Stanford USC game was from the stands with a manuel focus Quantaray 500mm lens. The High School game was from the sidelines with a Quantaray 70-300 f4-5.6 with the cameras flash. I saved my money (what my wife would let me spend) and bought a Sigma
70-200 f2.8 and a Quantaray 900 flash. I also got a 20D.right before the 30D came out.
I hope this will improve my images , along with practice.

I like you started out with a simular camera and couldn't figure out what was happening at dusk and beyond. I moved up to the Rebel 300D, but had a slow lens. I was able to limp along at night, but we are talking major ps help and so-so photos. Then I got the f2.8 lens in my siggy per suggestion on this board. My night action shots improved vastly and by the end of football season I was getting some good captures (just a few). Also by the end of the season I DETESTED my 300D. Long recovery, only 4 slow shots in a row, noisy iso at 1600.

So if I was to redo the purchase of the Rebel 300D, I would have bought any Rebel that was a notch or two above the 300D. That camera got too limiting too quick.

Anyway, good luck & have fun!