Shooting Help for Amateur

[wolfes5]

I just purchased a Digital Rebel XT...I love it so far although I'm a real novice. I got some great action shots at an indoor volleyball tournament, but didn't quite get the clarity I was hoping for. The shots were a tad blurry. I was using a 24-85mm lens. Any suggestions?

[gasrocks]

More details please. As soon as you say indoor and blurry, I assume you didn't bump up the iso and used some slow shutter speeds, and either you shook the camera and/or the subject was moving too fast.

[tim]

Welcome to POTN :)

You need a faster shutter speed for sports. The way to do this is to increase your ISO, or get a faster lens (ie F2.8 instead of F5.6 or whatever the kit lens is). Have a look in the EF/EF-S lens forum, there's a sticky thread with a list of recommended lenses that might help you out. Pay particular attention to the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 and the Canon 50mm F1.8, the Tamron is the much better lens IMO.

[ssim]

I have/had (my son has it now) a copy of the 24-85 lens. It is not a bad lens but is not the sharpest. I found that it's sharpness was best at about f8 which would pose you problems indoors.

http://www.pbase.com/ssim/image/42612286.jpg to the forum

[wolfes5]

Thanks to all who replied...it's really helpful. Lighting is different in every gym and the game is fast so I'm going to get another lens based on these recommendations.