Sports Photography Questions

[rusty9]

Hey guys. I'm really into sports photography, just as a hobby though. In the next 2 weeks I'll be going to the Ole Miss spring football game and some OM baseball games. I have a Nikon D5000 with a Nikkor 55mm-200mm f/4-5.6 lens. I do realize that this lens isn't as big as other sports photographers lenses and it's not quite fast. I'm wondering if this lens will be good enough for these events. I can get close at the spring football game because not many people will be there and I can get close at the baseball games too. Just wondering if the lens can do a decent job.

 

[Big Mike]

Your biggest issue will be the maximum aperture of the lens. At 200mm, it's only F5.6, which may make it hard to get shutter speeds that are fast enough to freeze the action. The primary factor being the light that you are shooting in.

You can turn up the ISO, to increase your shutter speed, but at the expense of digital noise.

If you have good light, you shouldn't really have a problem. With a cheaper lens like that, you probably won't get the type of shots that you see in SI, but as a hobbiest, it should be good enough to shoot with.

 

[rusty9]

Your biggest issue will be the maximum aperture of the lens. At 200mm, it's only F5.6, which may make it hard to get shutter speeds that are fast enough to freeze the action. The primary factor being the light that you are shooting in.

You can turn up the ISO, to increase your shutter speed, but at the expense of digital noise.

If you have good light, you shouldn't really have a problem. With a cheaper lens like that, you probably won't get the type of shots that you see in SI, but as a hobbiest, it should be good enough to shoot with.

Thanks for the reply. I don't think lighting will be a problem because the football game is at 1PM and about the same time for the baseball games. I have done some reading and learned that with a DSLR you put the ISO at 800-1000 and the images won't be very affected with noise.

 

[Shane Anderson]

Rusty, I have the same set-up as you.

I'm a fan of motocross and I recently went to an indoor motocross (supercross), held inside a baseball stadium. I knew my lenses weren't going to be up to the task so I rented a 70-200f/2.8. Wow - what a difference the lens makes!

The lighting challenges are a little different but here are some sample shots from my D5000. I shot at ISO800 (the D5000 handles this pretty well noise-wise) and shutter priority at 1/250.

The f/2.8 made a huge difference. If you are able to, I would highly recommend renting a good lens for your needs.

 

[Big Mike]

I have done some reading and learned that with a DSLR you put the ISO at 800-1000 and the images won't be very affected with noise.

Depends on the camera. For example, the $5000 D3s probably has less noise than your D5000.