is ISO 1600 suitable?

[JimC]

You'll need to decide if ISO 3200 is worth it or not.

For indoor sports like Basketball, this would be my short list for an entry level DSLR model:

Konica Minolta 5D or 7D
50mm f/1.4 or f/1.7
and
85mm f/1.4 or 100mm f/2

Nikon D50 or D70s
50mm f/1.2 or f/1.8
and
85mm f/1.4 or 85mm f/1.8

Canon Rebel XT or EOS-20D
50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8
and
85mm f/1.2 or 85mm f/1.8 or 100mm f/2

Then, I'd use my feet for zoom.

[jlacasci]

Nice shots. I looked at the Canon 85mm f/1.2. There's two models of this lens. The old one will focus way to slow for action shots. The new one will focus faster according to Canon but the lens isn't out yet and I don't know the new model will befast enough forsports or not. It's really designed as a portrait lens and it's expensive. I think the new model will be over 2,000.000. Plus the DOF on this lens at 1.2 will be next to nothing!!!! I can't speak to the other models you suggest, but I'd have to agree that a winning and affordable combination would be the 20D with an 85mm f/1.8. You can now get the lens and body for around 1500.00 at B&H.

Joe

[JimC]

As a general rule of thumb, the primes with the widest available apertures (especially the f/1.2 variety) will tend to focus slower than the cheaper lenses with the same focal lengths (probably more due to softness than gearing). Often, the cheaper lens is sharper at wide open apertures.

For example, my Minolta 100mm f/2 is sharper at all apertures compared to the Minolta 85mm f/1.4G (one of Minolta's "flagship" lenses). Of course, you don't get f/1.4 with the cheaper 100mm f/2. But, for my purposes, I could care less. lol

I just threw the brighter ones out there as alternatives. One of my favorite low light lens on film was a Nikkor 85mm f/2 (MF), which is relatively cheap, bright and sharp.

But, today's DSLR viewfinders don't lend themselves as well to Manual Focus. So, you're right to look at AF speed, too.

[jlacasci]

This is a great thread, I'm having a ball!

Not to beat a dead horse but focus spead is critical for action shots like basketball especially when you are working with very shallow depths of field.

I'd saythat the 20D with its 5 fps with the 85mm f/1.8 you might get 2 or 3 clean shots out of a layup sequence. You'd be lucky to get 1 with the 1.2 It really focuses that slowly combined with the shallow DOF. I'm talking about the current 1.2 model not the soon to be released model. Now, if you are talking about theMark II N, that's a different story. This camera will outperform the 20D by leaps and bounds on AF, thanks to2MIPS CPU'shandling focus and lens communication/motor. With the same 85mm f/1.8 lens at 8 fps, you're looking at doubling, maybe tripling your sellable shots. However, with the f/1.2 the bottleneck would be the lens focus speed and I doubt you'd get many more keepers than with the 20D.

I think we've beaten the tar out of this one, but still a lot of good info :-)

Joe

[me2]

You might have beaten it to death, but some of us learned something watching. Thanks.