Basketball mom needing help with Nikon Coolpix 5700

[kinderkimk]

Hello everyone! I have a Nikon Coolpix 5700 and I just can not seem to get my settings right to take good pictures of my daughter playing basketball. I have read the manual several times and I seem to try different settings at each game. She is in elementary school and has been selected to play on an AAU team, which will mean many more years of basketball to come as well as many more pictures to take. I purchased this camera from our local camera shop and not from a big retailer, however since purchase the shop is no longer selling cameras. So I am hoping to find some much needed help here. The shots that I'm getting at the games are not focused well and are grainy. I have tried using the ISO 800 setting which helped some but I'm still not getting really good shots. I'm no professional by any means, I just want decent pictures for family members and my photo albums. Otherwise, the camera takes great pictures. Any help for a mom just wanting good pictures of her kid playing ball would be greatly appreciated.

[Old Timer]

I can relate to your problem one that I have fought for several years. I don't mean to be discouraging, but the fact is, here in Kentucky at least, that most high school gyms just do not have enough light to do good available light photography of moving players. My daughter, now a college senior on basketball scholarship to a small college here in KY spent several years playing in these poorly lighted gyms. About the only good still that I have of her basketball career came when I used flash or we were playing in large tournament in well lighted gyms. I was shoting all film at the time and ISO 800 film was the fastest that I had available. Since that time I have switched to a digital SLR and with the higher ISO speeds available and faster (f2.8 glass) the situation has changed a little. I have never used the 5700 all reports are that it is a very good quality digital camera, but not ideal for sports. A friend that had the 5700 sold it a month or so ago because she was frustrated with the shutter lag and her inablity to get the shots she wanted of her sons athletic events. I know I have not answered your questions but hope that you don't feel alone in you frustration now. My main suggestion would be to try something other than the built in flash on the camera. Get or borrow a more powerful speed light and try to use some form of reflected or indirect lighting to avoid distraction to the player and harsh shadow in your images. You might look at my thread below (low light basketball) where I used this technique. Good luck and let us know how you come out. You might want to post a few of your current pictures, it could help other to give suggestions for help.

[hellinvader]

here's some sugession about shutter lag, pre-focus @ lines on da ground where u think the player might go and shoot da pic when she gets there or any where have the same distance. i was the school year book photographer, we used nikon coolpix 995 and canon Pro 90IS, the canon do a better job in dark gyms. avoid using telephoto, cuz it makes ur brightest apeature smaller. in most gym, u probaly need ISO800 or higher, we usually try to get as close as we could and use wide angle, we managed to get 60-125/s w/ both cameras. and set ur camera's white blance setting so it wont be yellowish.

[clickstop59]

One way around the Auto Focus delay that occures with the Coolpix cameras is to preset the distance manually. (Yes, you have to guess the distance). But it works, no shutter button delay while the camera is trying to focus. I have a Coolpix 5000 and do this. You can also prefocus on a spot and hold down the AF lockbefore you release the shutter.

If you use an accessory Nikon flash unit in the hot shoe (and turn off the internal camera flash) will get enough flash to not only stop the action but use a smaller aperture so you can can have a greater depth of field. You can also shoot at a lower ASA for less noise. As these cameras go the apertures are small to begin with so depth of field is pretty good. The main thing is you want to stop the action and an external flash is good way of maiking the most of these cameras in a situation like this.

Also, you can get the highest quality available light images if you shoot in 12-bit RAW format. If you shoot in 8-bit JPEG and adjust the exposure+, your darker tones will look terrible, noisy, etc.

Mark