dhilberg
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2008
- Messages
- 516
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- Location
- Washougal, WA
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I shoot my son's indoor basketball every Saturday with a D90 and the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-D. If the gyms you will be shooting in are lit anything like the crappy gyms my son plays in, you'll need the extra speed offered by a prime lens, unless you can shoot clean ISO 6400, which the D90 can't. 3200 is not a problem though, cleans up very nice in Noise Ninja, provided you expose right, which helps to minimize noise.
I tried shooting one of his games with my Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 and even at ISO 3200 the best I could get was 1/125, although occasionally depending on their orientation to the lights I could get 1/250. But that's only fast enough to stop the slowest action.
However, that gym is lit much worse than normal. There's about five burnt out lamps...it's like a dungeon, and unfortunately most of his games are played there. Another gym he played in I was using my 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2, ISO 1600 and was easily able to get 1/500 shutter, with most being 1/500-1/1000. That's about the shutter speeds you want to stop action; 1/500 will stop most everything, except the fastest action. Next time he plays there I will shoot ISO 3200, because some of the best shots I got had some slight motion blur on the ball (at 1/500).
I would absolutely recommend the lens. Don't use it wider than f/2 though, unless it's an absolute necessity. It get's pretty soft and the depth of field is really shallow. Even at f/2 the face will be crisp but the ball in front of them will be slightly out of focus. Up your ISO instead. Don't be afraid to shoot at ISO 3200, the D90 can handle it. If you don't have noise reduction software (Noise Ninja, Noiseware, etc.) then shoot JPEG and use the Normal in-camera noise reduction, it's actually pretty good, much better than the D80 was.
I tried shooting one of his games with my Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 and even at ISO 3200 the best I could get was 1/125, although occasionally depending on their orientation to the lights I could get 1/250. But that's only fast enough to stop the slowest action.
However, that gym is lit much worse than normal. There's about five burnt out lamps...it's like a dungeon, and unfortunately most of his games are played there. Another gym he played in I was using my 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2, ISO 1600 and was easily able to get 1/500 shutter, with most being 1/500-1/1000. That's about the shutter speeds you want to stop action; 1/500 will stop most everything, except the fastest action. Next time he plays there I will shoot ISO 3200, because some of the best shots I got had some slight motion blur on the ball (at 1/500).
I would absolutely recommend the lens. Don't use it wider than f/2 though, unless it's an absolute necessity. It get's pretty soft and the depth of field is really shallow. Even at f/2 the face will be crisp but the ball in front of them will be slightly out of focus. Up your ISO instead. Don't be afraid to shoot at ISO 3200, the D90 can handle it. If you don't have noise reduction software (Noise Ninja, Noiseware, etc.) then shoot JPEG and use the Normal in-camera noise reduction, it's actually pretty good, much better than the D80 was.
