First, thanks for the comments so far! I was really happy with the results and was hoping others would feel similarly. I'm now a manual convert; the results are just so nice! 
Very nice! Guessing you used the 70/200 lens all night? If so, what length do you find you shoot at for the action and around the basket shots? I've taken off the 70/200 for HS basketball because it's just too long most of the time.
dave
Yes, I used the 70-200 the entire night. Shots near the basket are tough with the 70-200, especially on a crop. I've found the only way I can really get anything usable is to sit on the baseline closer to the three-point line. Based on the settings I was able to use, I may try and use my 24-105 under the basket next week (with a serious bump in ISO to compensate). I think the 24-70 would be a great addition to my lens lineup (along with another body) for these situations, but I haven't found enough change in my couch cushions yet. I do have one reserved from lensrentals.com for the MAC Championships next month though.
namasste wrote in post #7317102
Nate, you did a great job here. Honestly, I think I'd rather see these at 1200 as they are just a touch dark imo. Action is very solid and you nailed focus it seems. You should be thrilled with your results.
As for crit.. 3 and 7 jsut do little for me. Crop a little dead space on 2 and 5 and straighten 6 a touch and you're money!
That's some serious lighting to get 800 and 1/500! The Wolstein center is 1600 1/500 and still needs a small push sometimes if the players are in dark spots. Even the Q is only about 2/3 brighter.
Shots 3 and 7 were my attempts at trying to find something interesting "outside of the action". I think some of my other non-action shots from the night were probably better examples, but I liked the way these looked.
I'll give 1200 a shot on Wednesday and see how they come out. I was very surprised that I was able to get 1/500 @ 800... so much so that I thought something was wrong and went to recheck my settings a couple times during warmups. I'm definitely getting spoiled by the new lights at Savage Arena; I went to shoot the women's game at BG last night and struggled to get 1/400 @ 1600 (and they still ended up dark). I don't like the output of the 40d @ 3200, so I'm hesitant to use it. Thanks for the info on the Q; I'll be covering the semis and finals of the MAC Championships there next month.
Thanks again to everyone who commented -- I really love the help and support that people on this forum are willing to offer!
