Looking for a Great Night Action Camera

[Ironman11]

Hello all!

I am looking for a great digital-camera for night sports photography, specifically high-school football and auto racing. My budget could go to around $1500 (for camera and all lenses, if D-SLR). I am leaning towards a digital SLR, mainly because of the high ISO settings available. However, if you know of a non-SLR that would be good for the night action shots, please feel free to tell me. Of course, I would like for the camera to be good in other areas too. I would love to have great, high-quality daytime shots, such as people and animal pictures.

To get into specifics, I'm looking at the Nikon D50. The lenses I'm looking at are the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX and 55-200mm f4-5.6G ED AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor lens. One of my questions is if an aperture of f4 is enough for the night action shots. Another question is if any of you have had experience with these lenses. Please let me know what y'all think about this.

I'm not set on the D50 though, or those lenses. If you think you know of something better, please let me know.

Thanks alot,
Alex

[masdog]

Hi Ironman. I hope you haven't made a purchase yet.

A DSLR would be a good choice for night photography, especially when your subject is sports. Whether you choose to go with a Canon or a Nikon body, you will be making a serious investment.

The most important things you can purchase when doing sports photography are the lenses. No matter how good of a body you get, it will never work up to its potential if you have poor glass. I wish I would have known this last year when I purchased my first super-telephoto zoom lens. Had I done my homework and known that there was a level above them, I would have tried to purchase one of those lenses instead of the Canon 75-300 f/4-5.6 IS that I currently use for sports photography.

Regardless of which system you get, you'll likely spend most of your money on lenses. You'll want to try to get faster lenses, which have larger apetures. Most professional telephoto lenses are f/2.8, but I think you can get by with an f/4-5.6. If you have the money, try to get at least one f/2.8 lens.

I believe that Nikon has a few of these lenses, and there are some good 3rd-party lenses available from Sigma and Tamron.