Camera Labs

So I went to try out my new Nikkor 55-200mm VR by taking pictures of our schools first football game so I could see how the VR did, and I really struggled setting the exposure becasue in those conditons I really had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't get everything right, like I couldn't put a shutter speed faster then like 1/100 without it being pitch black and so I thought o make the apeture wider so it would bring in more light and it still wasn't illiuminated. I guess the atmosphere was a little trying for my first time, it was night there were the stadium lights on I had a focal length usually around 105mm - 200mm and still they always turned out with some blur like the players would have motion blur and others weren't. I guess the 2.5fps doesn't help all that much either but I really need to learn because my school wants me to be they're photographer for the season.

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Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_ward

Hi nathan! You certainly chose the most challenging setup to "test" your and your camera's skill: night! Stadium lights are only so bright, they're not comparable to daylight!
So next time try daylight, fully automatic to become acquainted with your gear.
If you go night-shooting, consider the following advice:
- crank up ISO to 1600 (if everything works out fine, but you see too much noise, reduce to 800)
- avoid your onboard flash popping up ( the camera thinks: "Ooh that's dark, I should light-up this scene with my flash"). If the flash is up (and running) your shutter speed is fixed to 1/60 and the cam believes it can really throw some light at the players at the field. Oh boy is this camera dumb To avoid this go to "A" = aperture priority and open the aperture to the max (F5.6)
This together with the high ISO makes sure that you get (1) a well lit photo plus (2) the shortest possible shutter speed.
If this doesn't help either make the club install brighter stadium lights or buy a Nikon 200mm/F2.0 (no, I will not tell you the price of this gear )

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

haha, yeah those are expensive, I went down to the field and saw a photographer from the Logan paper and he had a D1hS with I think an older SB-600 and I am pretty sure he had the Nikkor 200mm.haha. thanks I will definetley try.

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Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_ward

Well, my suggestion (200mm/f2.0) was not serious!
If you do sports, you need a zoom. Your 55-200 is pretty good, only prob being the small aperture of f5.6. But even going to a 70-200mm/f2.8 will cost you dearly. So the only way you can compensate for this lack of aperture is ISO: The difference between a f5.6 and a f2.0 is 3EV and this can be compensated for by increasing the ISO by the factor of 8 from 200 to 1600. This is so much cheaper and with your D40 you still enjoy pretty good IQ at that setting...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

well what would also help is if i could hurry and get the D200 or wait to see what is realeased, but I would be fine with the D200. Yeah I will try the ISO but I am not all that sure it will work I had it on like 800 and didnt think to change it so we will see what happens.Thanks.

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Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_ward

Hi Nathan, the D200 won't help you in this situation.

As Thomas says, you simply need more light, which means one of the following:

1: Spend a fortune on a brighter lens.

2: Install brighter bulbs in the stadium floodlights!

3: Increase the ISO in your camera and accept the quality will suffer a bit.

4: Or slow down the shutter speed, but that's no appropriate for most action shots.

So unless you've got a big lens budget (or access to the dimmer switch in the stadium!), your only practical choice to enjoy fast shutter speeds under low light is to increase your ISO. That's it.

This also puts your D40 on EXACTLY the same playing field (if you'll forgive the pun) as a D200 or even a D2x. These pricier cameras do not offer any advantage for this particular problem.

Gordon

Gordon,

I understand that it won't help all that much aside from the 5fps would be nice, I plain out want the camera.haha. This isn't a big thing on my list I am into portraiture and macro stuff.

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Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_ward