shooting soccer in bright day light

Hi there,
I am new to this forum and I read through the threads on this forum and I still have some answered questions.

I have soccer tournament coming up in about 10 days and I would like some tips on the best way to shoot games on bright day light. I have Canon 5D 20D, 24-105mm f4, Canon 70-200mm, f2.8, IS , can 17, 40mm f4.

There are some great suggestions about location to shoot the photo from but I have not seen the tips on how to set the 5D to get the best shots. The questions I have are:

1) Is 24-105 f4 useful for soccer? If yes, how close should I be from the field?
2)what are the best f, Iso, and shutter, settings for the sunny day and cloudy day? I have been reading about the "Sunny Day f16 rules" but I don't how much this rule apply to the action shots which requires faster shutter speeds. For example the above rules calls for
- f16, ISo 200, 1/200 - bright sunny day
- f11, IS 200, 1/200 - bright cloudy day
Now if I am shooting soccer and Increased the shutter speed to 1/5000, should I crease the ISo the reciprocal of the shutter speed? What about the aperture settings. I heard f2.8 is the best for sports but I am confused with f16 rules. Are there similar rules for Sports/action photography? Please help. I am new to action photography and also just started in photography.
Thank you in advance
Moaa.

Well, I will give a try and answer you in someways.. others can come in and give you more advice as well I am sure.

In my view the 25-105 won't be much good to you (unless you use that in a second camerabody), so I would go for the 70-200 if I were you.
Even with that one you'll be left wanting some reach, but it surely is better of the two lenses.

From my own experience I think f2.8 - f.4 would be what I use for my shots in soccer.
Depending whether you actually get the sunny weather... well if it is sunny you can easily use ISO100 (or at least it works for me) to shoot. Just try to keep the shutter speed faster than 1/320 , I never try to go slower than that. And if possible trying to keep in at least 1/640.
On a sunny day I usually set ISO to 100 - 200, f. 2.8 - 4.0 and then just make sure shutter speed is what I said above.

On a cloudy or darker weather you might have to up to ISO to 400 (so I can keep f. at 3.2) or something, but rarely have I had to go higher than that.

That's really my little bit of advice... hope it helps a little.

X-it Spook

I shot a friend's son playing soccer last weekend ...

I chose to have my 40D in Av mode and set to f/5.6 [I wanted the 70-200mm f/4.0 fairly wide open and I thought this aperture would give me ample DOF]. I then adjusted the ISO [there was a bit of scattered cloud around] until it gave me a shutter speed of somewhere around the 1/1000 to 1/1600 mark.

AF mode was set on AI Servo and drive mode was high-speed continuous.

They all turned out pretty well ...

Hope this helps!

cheers,
J&D

you'll probably want to use the 70-200 especially with the FF...

as for exposure.. shoot wide open.. leave the iso lowest possible and have the shutter highest possible.. bump your iso up if you can't get a good shutter speed.

Thank you all for your help. I will give it a try this week on some speeding cars near by hwy to get some practice before the game.

Oh I forgot to mention that I have 2x Extension lens for my 70-200.
Moaa

Gavin shoots a lot at high ISO & provides fun captions as well. The first & many other images are at ISO Speed Ratings = 1600!
The week's sporting events in images...

I shot a quick test with the 2X a few months ago to see how the AF works with traffic at effective f/11. Se post 12:
70-200 f/2.8 & 2X TC combination "Test"

Shoot wide-open on a non-zoom, 1-stop down on a zoom.

For a 70-200/2.8, I normally shoot 1/2,000s @ f/4, ISO 100 in full sun.

so what happens if the match was at night ? I have a 30 d and also a canon 70-200 f2.28l is usm and not sure what setting to use ? i am not very good with yet with manal settings yet ,do i use sports or tv ect really not sure ,hope someone can help me

crank the iso as high as you can stand..(noise wise) shoot wide open try to get the shutter as high as possible and hope for the best.

fraggles wrote in post #5907065
so what happens if the match was at night ? I have a 30 d and also a canon 70-200 f2.28l is usm and not sure what setting to use ? i am not very good with yet with manal settings yet ,do i use sports or tv ect really not sure ,hope someone can help me

depends on how the bright the light is.

Shoot M, and start at 1/640s @ f/2.8, ISO 1600 and see how they look.