Nikon d5100

[Marsha78]

Anyone know how to take indoor action pictures at basketball games. I have Nikon d5100,also have 70 300mm lens,but my pictures are blurry? Someone please help!!!!!

[TCav]

You want to take action shots indoors in low light. You need fast shutter speeds to avoid motion blur due to subject movement. To compensate for the fast shutter speeds, you need a large aperture and a high ISO setting in order to get a proper exposure. Your 70-300 only goes as large as f/4 at 70mm and f/5.6 the longest focal lengths. At the very least, you need an aperture of f/2.8, and even that will only get you so far. Depending on the lighting in your gym, you'll also need to use ISO settings of 1600 to 6400, and possibly higher.

Shooting sports is the toughest type of photography there is, and shooting sports indoors is tougher still. It places great demands on the gear and on the photographer. Your camera may be up to it (depending on the gym), but the lens you're using is holding you back because its maximum aperture isn't large enough to let in enough light to use faster shutter speeds.

At the very least, you should consider a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens from Nikon, Sigma or Tamron, all of which are available for rent, so you can try them out before you buy one. See LensRentals.

Remember, it's the maximum aperture you should concern yourself with: f/2.8 or larger (numerically smaller.)

[Photo 5]

From personal experience using a Pentax K-5 with the variable App lens you have, you'll need a minimum ISO of 6400 for basketball and night time football images......... I do not know your camera but on the Pentax K-5 the images at ISO6400 are ok but not the greatest (have some fine grain to them,.....)