S2 IS Action Shooting

I recently got a Canon S2 IS, with the goal of being able to shoot action shots at my sons high school wrestling meets. My initial pictures all seem either too dark or blured. I was using the Special Scene setting of "indoors", and was using the high speed continuous shooting. The wrestling mats are too far from the stands to have a flash be effective.

Any suggestions on the best settings to use? Would it help to manually adjust the ISO setting to capture the action both fast and with the indoor lighting?

Thanks for any advice.

Pushing the iso up to ISO 400 might help a little, but the noise also will be very high, you won't like it either. The S2IS is a good performer in daylight car racing and such, but for indoor sports without the flash (like all the other point & shot camera) is dead meat, especially for fast action where shutter times need to be faster than 1/100, and at high distances as you said.
If you've bought this cam primarily for this kind of shooting, you were wrong.

I'll tell you what. You sell the camera and (if you have the budget) buy a decent DSLR , Digital Rebel XT (has ISO up to 1600 at $800) or wait until march, when the 20D (ISO 3200 actually $1400) most likely will get a big price drop due to the introduction of its descendent, And a good telephoto lens with an opening of F2.8 or wider. That will suit you for the task.

I forgot to mention that the noise of this cameras at ISO1600 and ISO3200 is roughly equal to what you get from the S2IS at ISO100.

Cloonish - remember its all about light..how much and how fast.

Kicking up your ISO range will help light speed. Use the largest lens opening available f2.8 if you can. After about 17 ft. your on-board flash is a joke.... don't waste your time.
Fast action and a closed down lens isn't going to get you nice clean shots. If your viewfinder shows times of more than a 60th of a sec, chances are camera movement or subject movement or both will work against you. Speaking of viewfinder - USE IT not the geeky LCD held out in front of you, the LCD is a real culprit in soft or blurred shots. Get the camera uptight and close to your body.
The very best thing is to shoot several practice sessions...it's not easy, actually it's hard work to get all these elements to work together. Back to the "light" problem. Your eye/brain do some fast tricky work in order for you to adapt to available light. The camera (any camera) has nowhere near the light gathering qualities of your eyes. Thats why my 20D and my 70/200 L f2.8 are used for my sports stuff. You CAN however, get very acceptable images from the S2 - it just takes more work and planning.
Go see my S2 samples at
www.pbase.com/jpfergus​on

Jon F.

okay, here are my settings that I use for shooting H.S. basketball and cheerleading with my S2....turn dial to manual, speed 1/30, f3.5, iso 400. then eval. white balance (this is a must do for gym shots!!) Definately use the viewfinder, focus lock helps too. I manage to get lots of good shots, esp. for the 4x6 photos.

Cloonlish, this is a very very tall order for the S2. I would say get a DSLR or find a way to get closer so the flash can be effective.
I don’t know babynursedawn, 1/30 seems real slow for basketball. Can the S2 do RAW? If so you can under expose and bring it up in the converter.

no, no RAW feature available on the S2