Standard procedure at NBA games and most major arenas, pro and college. It's not unusual for some arenas to have as many as five sets of Pocket Wizard-triggered strobes. Those strobes are so important that the NCAA has rules on which photographers use them during tournaments (Sports Illustrated always gets a set).
Most arenas at the NBA and major college level are lit well enough that photographers can get usable images without the strobes, although the pros who shoot for daily papers and major magazines will use fast lenses that can handle that light. Mackey Arena, the Purdue University basketball arena in West Lafayette, Indiana, is a place that is very well lit and where strobes are almost redundant. Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis has dimmer light and strobes help, but the arena has only one set.
Yes, sometimes you'll expose a non-strobed frame at the instant that someone discharges the strobes, but there's no way to avoid that - just take lots of redundant frames to increase your chance of a usable shot.
ngineer wrote in post #2914761
Just curious:
I was at an NBA game in January (go Spurs!) at the AT&T arena.
The venue was lit very well, but fairly often, there were a number of the arena lights that would flash.
I looked along the long line of white lenses, and saw that one of the photogs had a radio transmitter on his hot shoe mount.
Is this a standard practice at NBA games to have arena strobes that fire when a certain photog takes a picture? I didn't see anyone else with radio transmitters, but maybe I missed them. I guess it's fair to assume that everyone else will be taking pictures at the critical moments, so maybe it ends up helping everybody. It just seems as if non-flash vs flash exposure levels could end up screwing up other photographers.
Anyone have any experience/knowledge to share?
