70-300 IS USM for indoor basketball game

Hi everyone,

My aunt asked me to shoot my niece's (age 14-and-under) basketball game this afternoon... It's her last intramural game for the year... I lent my Canon 70-200 f/4L to a buddy of mine to shoot a wedding today and all i have left for a zoom in my bag is the Canon 70-300 IS USM...

The gym they're playing in has decent flourescent lighting all round... I'll be mounting the 7-3 on a tripod for stability... Do you think I can get decent shots out of this lens? What settings (Tv/Av/P and ISO) do you think would be respectable?

I'm using an Xti body and my initial camera settings would be at Tv (to freeze the motion) with ISO set at either 400 or 800 (1600 if need be). Lens settings would be "IS" OFFf (since it's mounted on a tripod) and Stabilizer Mode at 2 for left/right panning motion..

Any info, comments, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance...

- airbutchie

Setting IS to off would switch the stabiliser off so putting it on mode two would do nothing. Either have it off or, on and in mode 2.

I am by no means an expert, but my best shots this season were all taken from under the basket, you can actually get faces in the pictures this way. It sounds like (since you mention panning) that you are planning on staying on the sidelines. I would really recommend spending some time under the basket that your niece will be shooting at.

FWIW

Mike

Thanks for the tip Mike... Unfortunately, the refs won't allow photographers behind or underneath the basket... They're only allowed on the bleachers... So I'm setting up shop about midway up, if not at the top... It doesn't really get too crowded, so I can pretty much setup anywhere on the bleachers...

- airbutchie

allymac wrote in post #3155510
Setting IS to off would switch the stabiliser off so putting it on mode two would do nothing. Either have it off or, on and in mode 2.

Duh... I didn't think about that... Hhahahhha... I feel really stupid now... Thanks for the comment Ally... I must've had a brain fart or something...

- airbutchie

I'd rather set up at one end and shot the players coming at you rather then the middle where you'd like always be shooting the players backs.

i think you will soon find out what 1600 ISO looks like! with that particular lens, you need all the speed you can get. set it on AV and set the aperture to f5.6 so the lens doesnt keep on changing aperture as you zoom in and out. keep an eye on your shutter speed and make sure that it is at least 1/200 with IS ON to stop motion.

the last basketball game i shot was with the 70-200 f2.8 IS, 1600 ISO @ f2.8 just to give you an idea. but then again, your gym might have better lighting. GOOD LUCK!

Can he shoot in raw and brighten them up later if a lack of light is a problem?

I say somewhere on here you can fix underexposure but not over exposure

With IS he can probably shoot at 800 ISO. This lens is a better choice than the 70-200 because it does have IS.

joshandlauri wrote in post #3156013
Can he shoot in raw and brighten them up later if a lack of light is a problem?

I say somewhere on here you can fix underexposure but not over exposure

Lots of noise if he does this, especially if he decides to shoot at 1600.

Greetings

We have done a lot of sports and this is what I would try

AV mode @ max aperature---ISO 1600---IS on---and a monopod or good braced position handheld--check your histogram to see if you can get away with a little underexposure to bump up the shutter speed.

Your problem will be in getting a fast enough shutter so the players don't come out blurred.

A little noise is better than a blurred subject

Best of luck and let us know how it works out

iso 1600, tv mode, select your chosen shutter speed, shoot raw. bump exposure up in raw and use noise ninja or the like to reduce the noise later.

joshandlauri wrote in post #3156013
I say somewhere on here you can fix underexposure but not over exposure

Not entirely true, in a Raw converter, you can often recover details lost in shadows(underexposure) and the highlights (overexposure) to about 1/4 to a half stop both ways.

Hi everyone... First and foremost, thank you for all your comments and suggestions... I will post my basketball results in the morning... But in a nutshell, I set the mode to Tv, toggled between ISO 800 & 1600, and used 1/20 to 1/60 shutter speed... Pictures to follow in the morning... Stay tuned!

- airbutchie