First time shooting basketball (Cavs-Wash game)

Pic size reduced!

The Cleveland Cavaliers made the playoffs! A friend got us some very good seats for Saturday's game -- 4 rows in, right behind the Cav's bench.

This was the first time I've attempted to shoot indoor sports with my XT - used my new 10-22mm lens for the very first time to capture the feel of the arena. Fun lens. The action shots are all handheld using a 70-300 IS USM. Now I know why people spend more money to get a faster lens and a camera with higher ISO settings!

C&C welcome!

Here's a few pics:
The Quicken Loans arena, from our seats:

Your timing is good in these. The expression on the player's face in number two is great. It appears that you were having problems with higher noise levels, though. What were your camera settings for these?

I agree, a bit noise, kinda looks like my swimming shots...LOL

But great shots...have you tried a noise reducer?

Those are very good for a 70-300, great job. Yes faster glass will get you lower ISO settings to clean up the noise and stop action better.

Cheers,
Pete

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I shot all of the images at 1600 ISO, with varying shutter speeds. Strangely, the presence of of noise seemed to vary from shot to shot when I reviewed all of the images.

For example, the third and fourth shots were both taken at 1/400th @ f/8, yet there seems to be a lot more noise in the fourth shot. The closeup of LeBron was at 1/250th @ f5.6 and has even more noise.

PP was with RSE, but it was my first attempt at the software and I have yet to master the workflow and noise reduction capabilities. Perhaps I should get a copy of Noise Ninja?

Brad

Noise Ninja will help, go for the 70-200 f2.8 instead.......

PEte