Advice Required Please

[Canyon]

Hi All,

I am new to digital SLRs. I have just purchased a Nikon D60. Would you know it, the next day I get asked to photograph some basketball matches for my friends team. I tried the first match on Sunday and though I thoroughly enjoyed it, the lighting was so poor that I couldnt get fast enough shutter speed to catch the action, as the pictures would just turn out v v dark.

I lowered the aperture as much as poss. but it only goes down to about 4. I have two lenses an 18-55 (f3.5/5.6) and 55-200 (4-5.6).

I played around a little with ISO and set it at 1600 and tried to change the white balance, but to be honest, nothing seemed to work.

So I had the choice of taking photos that were too blurred as the shutter speed couldnt go any quicker than 1/50, or really really dark pictures..:mad2:

Any ideas....?

All help much appreciated

Cheers

Canyon

[jacobovs]

Welcome to the real world.

I believe there are only a few options, some of them expensive. I shoot night sports with a 70- 200mm f2.8 that helps but still may not be enough. I have used it with my D80 and got the similar results ie. the ones you describe. The other lens option is to get another f1.4 or f1 fixed lens, not ideal for sports in my opinion. You could use a flash SB 800 or 900 will work, but some sports teams and leagues don't allow them.

IMHO the best but most expensive option is to get a D3 or D700 both of which have unbelievable low light performance.

I shoot a lot of night soccer and not allowed to use a flash and the only good results I have achieved is with the D3 and D700. Even indoor basketball worked out well with no flash.

Hope that helps.

[dhyravy]

If you're going to shoot BB without flash, faster glass is the only answer. That being said, about the best deal for that environment would be a 50mm f1.8 at around $100. You can get faster primes but will pay a premium for them. The only issue is that the 50 won't autofocus on the D60 due to it's lack of an internal focus motor. There are equivalent fast primes with built-in servos but we're back to that premium price again.

[Frog]

Basketball seems to be the bane of sports photography mostly due to the poor lighting.
I don't think the 50 mentioned would work not only due to not auto-focusing but you also would not be able to zoom in on subjects. There is a 50 f/1.4 that would auto focus but its close to $500 and you'd still be unable to zoom for composition.
Even an sb800 flash is only good for about 30 feet so I don't know a good way to shoot basketball without spending big bucks for fast zoom lenses.

[Ultra Magnus]

I just posted some links regarding this very subject in this thread.

BM

[Canyon]

Thanks loads for your help. What I ended up doing as an interim solution, as I had another opportunity to shoot another match tonight, was purchase a sigma 24-70mm f2.8 DG lens, which as far as the distance goes, was perfect, I could get good shots of the action.

However, two issues. 1) The darn thing doesnt allow auto focus on my D60, this I took for granted, so I spent a couple of hours trying to photograph, fast pace basketball, whilst going mental trying to manually focus. If this is possible, someone tell me how............. I found it nearly impossible. It is even more frustrating looking through the shots I took, which, with a little more focus could have been awesome. (well for my level of ability)

2) The ISO had to be set so high that now looking at the photos, the blacks are soooooo grainy and it looks rubbish.

So Next step, get a lens that has autofocus.........3rd time lucky....???!!