What would you suggest? Football and basketball?

[Breath of Spring]

Before digital I had a Canon Rebel, 28-80 and 75-300 lenses and loved that set up for softball and soccer. Mind you I'm strictly a parent and grandparent but it beat the heck out of a point and shoot.

Now I'm wanting to shoot the grand kids playing and just need a fairly fast shutter speed and ability to shoot in low light conditions. Would 1/4000 still be fast enough for action shots? I would imagine they are faster now.

I'm not into the latest gadgets so much as making sure it gets the job done. I may shoot some video but probably not as much. I plan on making scrapbooks for them. I may do a few portraits also.

I'm not sold on Canon totally but it was what I was familiar with at the time. I do know I would like image stabilization.

Do you have suggestions for camera, lenses and gear? I would like it not to be too heavy but i suppose a tripod and rolling case might take care of that problem.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Breath of Spring]

After reading more posts here it looks like the D5100 might be the best bet. Also it appears I might be out of luck in my budget for lenses to shoot football and basketball. I would hope football will be in the afternoons and that I would be able to keep close to the hoop. Not a simple thing, is it?

[SIMON40]

I hope you have a decent budget available,if sporty low light pursuits are your goal...or is that sports AND low light use...? If the former- expect to pay some decent money for a suitably fast lens... and a body with a reasonably decent burst/continuous shooting mode wouldn't go amiss- say upwards of four frames per second...
1/4000th sec shutter speed is more than fast enough for sports use- and is still generally the upper limit of low end entry level DSLR's- with mid range models going up to 1/8000th sec.
If your budget is restricted to lenses that aren't fast (wide aperture),you'll need a body with good high iso performance to compensate- though to be fair,most models are pretty good these days- even entry level ones...
You say you're not totally sold on Canon- but In my experience,at the budget end of DSLR's they tend to be the faster focusing of the bunch- even their kit lenses focus faster than the opposition- and for sports use- especially on a budget- this is the way I'd go....
Other considerations would be the built in stabilization that Pentax and Sony bodies offer- potentially keeping lens costs lower- though for sports one could argue you wouldn't need IS- though of course very handy for all else...!

[TCav]

If you still have the Canon 75-300, you can use it on a Canon dSLR to shoot Football. It's not as good as the lenses that are currently available, but it could help you afford what you'll need to shoot Basketball.

While all dSLRs can use shutter speeds as high as 1/4000, there are a few that can go faster. but for what you want to do, 1/4000 is more than adequate. And frankly, you'll rarely have the opportunity to get that fast anyway, even in bright sunlight.

Which brings up another point. Image stabilization is a useful feature for eliminating (or, at least, reducing) motion blur due to camera shake. Since you'll be shooting sports/action, you'll need to use fast shutter speeds anyway to reduce motion blur due to subject movement. So the fast shutter speeds you'll be using anyway will eliminate the need for image stabilization.

Now comes the tricky part. Shooting Basketball.

You need to use fast shutter speeds to prevent motion blur due to subject movement. Getting a proper exposure using fast shutter speeds in low light means you need to use larger apertures, higher ISO settings, or some combination of the two.

Large aperture lenses are more expensive, and large aperture zoom lenses are even more expensive. For primes with appropriate focal lengths, Canon has an 85/1.8 ($369) and a 100/2.0 ($499), Nikon has an 85/1.8 ($397), and Sigma has an 85/1.4 ($894 for any brand of camera.) For zoom lenses, Tamron has a 70-200/2.8 ($769 for any brand of camera) Sigma has a 50-150/2.8 ($999 for any brand of camera) and a 70-200/2.8, as do Canon nad Nikon, all of which cost over $1,000.

Going with a larger aperture lens means that you don't have to increase the ISO setting as much, risking image noise. But a zoom lens gives you greater flexibility for framing as well as choosing your vantage point.

As far as camera bodies goes, Nikon's current bodies have slightly better image quality than Canon's, but not by much, especially at higher ISO settings.

[Breath of Spring]

I am assuming basketball will be low light although I'm not sure.

I think I've forgotten anything I ever knew about photography because I'm having a hard time putting all this together. I've mostly used zoom lenses for sports and never considered anything else. Might be fun to learn tho.

I thought I would start with a kit as budget friendly as possible. Would you have suggestions for me? I have nothing left fr before and would be starting over.

Thanks again for being patient with a newbie - that's what I feel like.

[TCav]

Originally Posted by Breath of Spring

I am assuming basketball will be low light although I'm not sure.

Yes, it will.

Originally Posted by Breath of Spring

I think I've forgotten anything I ever knew about photography because I'm having a hard time putting all this together. I've mostly used zoom lenses for sports and never considered anything else.

Shooting sports/action is the toughest thing you can do in photography, and doing it in low light is tougher still. Since you've been out of it for a while, perhaps you should concentrate on the outdoor stuff in daylight (Football) first. When you get comfortable with that, you can take on the challenge of indoor sports.

For Football, if you're shooting from the sidelines, a 70-300 should be ok. If you'll be shooting from the stands, you might have trouble getting good results unless you have something longer.

Tamron has a stabilized 70-300 ($349 for any brand of camera.) Canon, Nikon, and Sony all have better choices that are correspondingly more expensive.

Originally Posted by Breath of Spring

I thought I would start with a kit as budget friendly as possible. Would you have suggestions for me? I have nothing left fr before and would be starting over.

There are no kits that will suit what you say you want to shoot, so without knowing what else you want to do, it's hard to recommend a kit. Most frequently, an 18-55mm zoom is included as part of a basic package deal, and that's not a bad choice for typical uses.

[Breath of Spring]

Ended up getting the T4i and 18-135 IS STM kit for $999 at best buy, the EFS55-250 lens, the 270EX flash cause it was on sale. I'm on my phone but will update after its out of the package a while. Did some research and it was a great deal I thought.

[SIMON40]

Have fun with your new kit...