canon powershot s2 IS Action shots

[mattr2]

I'm trying to take indoor basketball shots also(my ISO only goes up to 400 though) I have a continuous mode setting/panning/shoot only settings on my canon s2 IS all the pics I tried at my nephs game were blurred it looks like 1/3200 of a sec goes @ f/8. Do u have any ideas for me for football games and basketball games?? f/8 is as high as it goes on there. Does f/8 is that slowest then the more u go down is fastest. I haven't messed w/manual since H.S. I thought 8 was fastest. what's fps I c 640x480 30 or 15 fps or 320.it says theres an mf point zoom??safety shift?? AF mode has continuous and singlalso several in the IS modes. continuous,shoot only and panning. when is best to use those. what is an intervalometer? I can speed or slow that down too. I know, soo many qurstions. There is soo much u can do in manual too. let me know. thanks
Matt

[ACDCROCKS]

I'm trying to take indoor basketball shots also(my ISO only goes up to 400 though) I have a continuous mode setting/panning/shoot only settings on my canon s2 IS all the pics I tried at my nephs game were blurred it looks like 1/3200 of a sec goes @ f/8. Do u have any ideas for me for football games and basketball games?? f/8 is as high as it goes on there. Does f/8 is that slowest then the more u go down is fastest. I haven't messed w/manual since H.S. I thought 8 was fastest. what's fps I c 640x480 30 or 15 fps or 320.it says theres an mf point zoom??safety shift?? AF mode has continuous and singlalso several in the IS modes. continuous,shoot only and panning. when is best to use those. what is an intervalometer? I can speed or slow that down too. I know, soo many qurstions. There is soo much u can do in manual too. let me know. thanks
Matt

For Football: (American?) I use IS0 1600 1/320 F2.8, 70-200IS
F8 is WAY TOO slow.....F2.8..../F1.8 is "pretty fast"
For Basketball: 85MM1.8

Use manual....highest ISO, And fasted F stop, such as 1.8 ETC..

[RossW]

Whoa... slow down Matt!! :-) I see you've peppered several of these forums with similar questions about your S2. First of all, good choice -- the S2 can take great shots, but as your questions hint at, there's quite a bit of "stuff" for you to absorb for different shooting situations. Cruise up to the "Small Compact Digital Cameras" forum up in the Equipment Section here... that's where most of the S2 users hang out. Some of your questions/concerns will be addressed there already. I also suggest another review for your reading pleasure at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is . I found it very helpful to clarify some of the settings and features of the S2.

Basketball games can be pretty tough -- not the greatest lighting typically, and lots of movement. The long zoom on the S2 is great, but the more you zoom in the more likely the image will be somwhat out of focus and movement will blur things. Per the reviews' recommendations, set the IS for "shoot only" mode. Gym lighting is also tough... try a custom white balance for it, or at least experiment with the "indoor" scene setting. I can't believe you would be able to shoot at 1/3200 second @ f/8 in a gym, even at ISO 400. You probably want to experiment with the Tv mode (Time value) so you can set a relatively fast shutter speed -- maybe 1/250 for a start -- and let the camera sort out the rest.

Good luck, and have fun sorting it all out.

[liza]

For basketball, I use ISO 1600, and set the camera on manual (i.e. 1/500 and 2.0 to 2.2 with an 85mm focal length). Not sure what your camera is capable of doing, though. And IS won't help you much with sports. It's meant primarily for static images.