ISO speeds with sports

[Yella Fella]

Even on bright sunny days, i have noticed some people using ISO 200 when shooting sports stuff like baseball, motorsport etc. Any reason for it?

I thought film speeds is just regarding light not how fast something is that your trying to capture? Can someone shed a light on this, thanks :confused:

[Jon, The Elder]

Rule of thumb - use the lowest ISO that will give you the shutter speed you need, at the aperture setting you want.
Higher ISO = faster (but more noise).

[chris clements]

ISO is just the third variable to juggle with to get correct exposure.
If the available light won't allow the shutter and aperture values you'd prefer, then there's no reason you shouldn't change the ISO to get them back on track.
Quality (noise) at higher ISO is not as big an issue as it was with film. So, don't hesitate to crank up the ISO to keep your shutter speed fast enough to freeze the ball/car.

[cecilc]

Even on bright sunny days, i have noticed some people using ISO 200 when shooting sports stuff like baseball, motorsport etc. Any reason for it?

Are you asking if ISO 200 is too low or too high an ISO to use on bright, sunny days ?

In shooting sports, I like to keep my shutter speeds UP .... preferably in the 1000's/second ....

But Chris is right - it's an exposure variable that you have to figure into your shoot. If you're shooting wide open at 2.8 in bright sun, then a low ISO may be necessary to keep the shutter speed within your camera's capabilities.

But if you're looking for a really expanded DOF with an aperture of 16 or so, AND you want to keep your shutter speed up, then you're going to have to bump up your ISO setting to make that happen.

Personally, in bright sun shooting lacrosse my ISO is normally at 100 or 125 with a 400 2.8 shooting at between 2.8-4.0.

[primoz]

I usually have it between 160 and 320 even on sunny days. It all depends on particular moment, but with sport you usually need fast times, and sometimes 1/1000 is not fast enough. Or at least you are more on safe side with faster times. And with nowadays cameras there's really no difference between iso100 and iso200. I mean for normal use, not for some weird comparison in PS at 1600% zoom.

[KennyG]

ISO is 'factor X' and is often used in sports photography to control DOF. Shooting motorsport at say 1/320 on a bright day, a change from ISO 160 to ISO 250 will change the aperture to increase the DOF. There is no noticeable effect on noise levels. We motorsport photogs never really get above 1/500, even for F1, and for us fast shutter speeds just produce pictures of 'parked' cars/bikes. We use ISO for a very different reason to the two previous posters.