Last JV football of the season

This is my first season shooting JV football and I feel my photos have improved over the course of the season. However, the last two games were under lights and I really struggled. I rented an EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS and an EF 135mm f/2.0 for the final game. I was disappointed with the results and did not get what I expected with both lenses. I had a lot of OOF shots or shots that looked blurry around the players.

Since my highest ISO is 1600 I found the 70-200 2.8 left my images underexposed and I could only get 1/320 SS which caused a lot of blur.

I attached a few pics I shot in the 1st half w/ the 135mm lense. I shot most of the 1st half in aperture priority and thought the lense handled the lighting well. I was able to maintain at least a 1/500 SS and often times higher.

I have an EOS XS/1000D and was wondering if the camera body could be to blame for the blur or could it be an AF issue? Any assistance would be appreciated.

#1 135mm f2.0 1/640 ISO 1600

I'll be curious to see what some of the more experienced photog's have to say about the camera body. I'm far from an expert, but I would have thought and ISO of 1600 with the 70-200 lens whould have been fine. Also, is that a girl kicker in the last picture? Cool if it its. Was just wondering (long hair, more slender of a build)

I see a couple of things: All 3 shots are underexposed leading to a bit more noise than better exposure would have shown; The focus on the QB appears to be behind the player and not squarely on the player; Focus is good on the FG shot--pretty sharp on the ball and kicker's foot, but overall the shot isn't as sharp as it should have been.

Maybe the camera was moving a bit while you were shooting? The 70-200 IS is a pretty heavy lens and getting into rock solid shooting position is essential to get clear focus. Here's an example of your shot #3 with better exposure. Not exacly sure of the exif data, but probably wasn't any faster than 1/640:

IMO you should be able to get the results you are looking for with that camera body and lens combo, but it will be a bit more work for you to achieve them. The smaller batteries in the consumer models take a bit longer to drive the auto focus on some of the bigger lens and this can lead to some frustration on out of focus shots. I might suggest trying to manually focus the subject (which I think is becoming a lost art with a lot of sports photogs), but again another limitation on the Rebel line is the smaller viewfinders and in low light this can be very challenging. I would also suggest to try and use a flash to help stop the action.

Below is a shot I took with an XT at a game I was shooting last weekend using a 70-200 f/2.8 IS. It was a day game so hard to compare the two. I probably would not use this body for a night game situation, but you can still get some great results with it.

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Thank you for the comments.

When I look at these pics, I see a quality I am trying to achieve. During daylight games, I was able to get some decent pics, but in low light games I have struggled. I guess that is to be expected since I have only had my XS since the start of the football season and that is when I started taking photography seriously.

Yes it is a female kicker (she's a soccer player). This is her second year kicking for the team and in fact played a little DB last year during a blow out. It was great to see her be the only one between the receiver and a TD. She dropped her shoulder, hit him and held him long enough for the cavalry to arrive and take him down. It was great, our fans went wild.

No matter what I tried, I kept finding the pics underexposed, blurry or I had motion blur. I shot in both AV and manual modes but couldn't get it right. In AV the SS was too slow and in manual I had to sacrafice exposure for a faster SS (1/320 was all I could obtain). I don't know if that thinking is right, but it made sense.

I definately will not stop shooting. I have caught the bug and really love shooting sports. I am even thinking about upgrading to a better body. With what I have seen I would love the 7D. Especially now that I am going to try my hand at shooting hoops. I tried tonight and found I am severly limited with my equip but I had good time trying.

Thanks again for your comments.