Camera Labs

I plan on going to a Def Leppard concert in Athens this July. The band will be playing in the centre of the pitch. I am planning in getting a seat ticket, which will be about 60 metres or so I suspect from the stage. A standing ticket would be cheaper, but I doubt I'd get to be right in front of the stage, and since I'll be taking my D80 with me, I'd rather take my chances with my 70-300VR, than have someones head or arms in half my shots if you see what I mean. It will be at Olympiacos's home ground stadium, Karaiskaki, so I'm assuming the stadium will be relatively well lit.

What I'm wondering is how far you reckon I'll be, is 60metres just too far for this lens? If I use Iso 1000 and shutted speeds as low as a tenth of a sec what do you reckon? Do I stand a shot of getting any good shots? I know theres a big 'if' here, and I can understand alot of you if anyone replies, will probably say you can only really say when you get to the event yourself. But any info/advice would be appreciated.

I can't get any new lenses, as I plan on spending some saved cash on a Flash, a 35mm F2Dprime, second battery and some other bits at a later date.

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

1/10 would be far too slow as a shutter speed to freeze motion, and you'll end up with motion blur (unless that's your artistic aim). You should be thinking within the realms of 1/100-1/250.

If your subject is well lit by a spot then use spot metering and perhaps you might be able to get away with ISO 800. If not there's nothing wrong with the D80 at 1250 or even 1600. Granted it will be moderately noisy.

As for the 60m distance from the stage, I use the 70-200 from 50-100m away for certain action shots, so the 70-300 will be able to cope with that.

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Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the tips. I obvioisly dont want to have to use such slow shutter speeds, but am just trying to get a grasp of how good the lighting will be. If I could get away with using Iso 800, and not having to go past the 200mm mark then I'll be set.

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

why dont you measure out roughly 60m before you go and practice to see if you can get a good shot.

Also find out from the venue before hand that you can take powerful cameras in, for sporting evens they dont usually let you becuase the photographers round the edge pay a fee so they can get good pictures ... better to be safe than sorry