Night baseball tips

After shooting dozens of daytime little league baseball games with my Rebel XT and Sigma 120-300 f2.8, I had the opportunity to shoot tonight under the lights. Ouch, my ISO! Is there any way to push the ISO on this camera over 1600 or did I just talk myself into a 20D or better? Yikes! I ended up at 1/125 and f2.8 which is totally unuseable.

A colleague loaned me his 20D and I shot manual ISO 3200 f4 1/400 and got some OK shots, but not great.

Doesn't give me much hope for this Fall's football season or HS basketball.

Help?

200 f/1.8 has you! hahaha

If you were at iso 1600, f2.8 and shutter at 1/125.... upping the ISO to 3200 would only get you to ISO 3200, f2.8, and shutter 1/250.

ISO 3200 f/4 gives you the same shutter speed as ISO 1600 f/2.8.

My question is what's the best White Balance Setting for working under the lights? And don't suggest shooting raw and worrying later , I don't have that much CF card(s) to shoot a whole evening under the lights....

KAC

OK, David, you're right. And? I said I was shooting in manual and "selected" my combination of shutter and aperture to match the ISO 3200 of the 20D based on the suggestion of the guy who owns the 20D. We figured some PP would be required, and it was.

I guess my question is how should I go about using the XT under the lights to shoot sports? I was surprised how poorly it did at 1600 even with the f2.8 lens. I had hoped that the relatvely fast lens would allow me to take acceptable shots, but it only did on certain parts of the field where the lights concentrated their illumination.

Dennis

well dmwierz I have a 20D (not that it matters, between that and the XT) and I've shot softball games at night at 1600 and haven't had any problems. I use a 70-200mm f2.8 IS wide open. I will say this though.........I have found that the fields are lite such that you will have different shutter speeds at different places, so that kinda stinks. And it has helped to have a monopod. I can post some pics if you'd like so you can see my results.

Quasi,

What speeds were you getting at f2.8 1600? I was around 1/125 at the plate, which paradoxically was the darkest location on the field, and up to 1/400 at the "hot spots" on the filed.

Dennis

Unfortunately little league fields are just horribly lite. It is just a fact of life. I haven't done LL in a while but when I did, when the sun went down I changed the types of shots I took. Forget the diving catch or sliding into 2nd. And a monopod will make a HUGE difference. I've shot some minor league recently and oddly enough even at these parks the batters box is one of the poosest lite areas. Lastly, even with the 20d you will need to clean up shots taken at higher ISOs with products like neat image. I know this doesn't help much - but things could be worse. F4 would be that much worse. And IS will only help with camera movement - not subject motion. Again, a good monopod will do the job for a fraction the cost. Cheers.

Croa - Thanks. I was using a monopod. And I did clean up the images with Noise Ninja. Still not to my satisfaction.

Oh well, guess it's just more challenging than I though. How am going to do football this Fall (in the dark on fields sometimes lit with rented portable lights)???

Sounds like you are doing all the right things for Little league. for HS football - well - here is what I do - I know it isn't right but it's saved my rear more then once. I move to RAW and underexpose by a stop. I then correct one image getting the setting right - then batch the rest. It's not ideal but sometimes you gotta do what you gatta do. I have a canon 300 2.8 but have used my brother in laws sigma and it should do just fine. I usually end up with ISO at 800 (sometimes 1600), wide open, and at about 250. It will stop most action coming towards you. Good luck - I can't wait for football season. cheers.