Lens working distances .

[Flying Fossil]

My Bad,
The other is indoor Basketball.

Mark1616 wrote:

Flying Fossil wrote:

Which two sports are you talking about, I only spotted volleyball?

I personally would/do shoot volleyball with an 85mm lens as this give a pretty good coverage. Not sure what Sony has in this range but that's the place to be.

[Mark1616]

If shooting from the corner then again 85mm is a good length to have for both VBall and BBall.

[JimC]

Flying Fossil wrote:

I was at court side right next to the line judge, using a Sony A-700/wMinolta 50mm f1.7 set to sports mode, ISO 3200, no flash and I was getting shutter speeds pretty consistently at 320 which is way slow.

The metering was probably overexposing the images, resulting in a slower shutter speed. I've never used any of the scene modes, so I don't know if Sports Mode impacts the type of metering used or not. Things like darker uniform colors can could easily cause overexposure, too (especially if using spot metering).

Make sure to turn DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization) off at higher ISO speeds. Although it can do neat things with an image like darken the brighter areas, so that you don't get a blue sky that's as "washed out"; or brighten darker areas buried in shadows for more visible detail, using DRO can result in increased noise levels, as well as unnoticed exposure errors.

I'd suggest manual exposure, starting at around ISO 1600, f2 and 1/400 second and see how that works, adjusting as needed for the lighting. Bump up your ISO speed to ISO 2000 or so if you need a bit faster shutter speed.

Or, if you prefer Aperture Priority, try different metering modes (for example, center weighted, which is usually more consistent), using Exposure Compensation settings for a brighter or darker exposure as needed (and in Aperture Priority Mode, the camera will adjust the shutter speed to darken or brighten an image).

Make sure to use a Custom White Balance with a gray or white card. I'd try to set it when you're in between multiple lights on the floor before a game to try and average out any differences between light sources.

[Flying Fossil]

Thanks folks for the comments and suggestions.
One lens I am considering is the Sony 70-200 "G" series f/2.8
Maybe with a high enough ISO I will be able to get to that 1/500sec. shutter speed and would still serve as an excellent outdoor lens for soccer.

I have not fiddled around with custom white balance. Not quite sure how to do this.

Thanks again for the input.

Jim

[JohnG]

Flying Fossil wrote:

Thanks folks for the comments and suggestions.
One lens I am considering is the Sony 70-200 "G" series f/2.8
Maybe with a high enough ISO I will be able to get to that 1/500sec. shutter speed and would still serve as an excellent outdoor lens for soccer.

If it's full-field you'll find 200mm is way too short for soccer. 25 yards of coverage doesn't amount to much when shooting soccer.

[JimC]

Flying Fossil wrote:

Thanks folks for the comments and suggestions.
One lens I am considering is the Sony 70-200 "G" series f/2.8
Maybe with a high enough ISO I will be able to get to that 1/500sec. shutter speed and would still serve as an excellent outdoor lens for soccer.

For outdoor use, you may want to consider the Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM, or Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM.

I have not fiddled around with custom white balance. Not quite sure how to do this.

P.S.

See pages 63 and 64 of the A700 manual. You can store 3 custom white balance settings and select the one you want to use. Use a few white coffee filters stacked together if you don't have anything else handy (and even a white napkin can work in a pinch). The camera is just taking a photo of something with a known color (and you can use a white or neutral gray card to set a custom White Balance). That way, it knows what white is supposed to look like in the lighting you're shooting in (since different types of lighting have very different color temperatures).

Here's a link to the .pdf manual. See pages 63 and 64:

Sony DSLR-A700 User Guide

[lomitamike]

Glad this is still here. I just needed it again.

[ste6]

Hi Mark, my question is, I take shots at all kind of gyms and my friend at the same event sometimes sitting next to me gets better quality. I get the better shot, but she pix are not grainy when we zoom in. I have a Sony Alpha A330 an she has a Rebel Ti, we both shoot at 3200 ISO, but she used a zoom lens. So my question is it the camera and HD capability for quality pix or do I need to get a zoom to get better picture quality?
ste6

[JimC]

The sensor in the T1i has lower noise levels compared to the sensor in your A330 if you're shooting in similar lighting with the same ISO speeds and similar exposure levels (and if you underexpose a photo, it will tend to have higher noise levels, so make sure you're exposing bright enough). In the Sony lineup, the A500 (which uses a Sony 12MP CMOS Sensor) will do a bit better for noise levels at higher ISO speeds compared to your A330 (which uses a Sony 10MP CCD Sensor).

[Chato]

Originally Posted by JohnG

And contrary to myth, using a 1.6x sensor camera doesn't really allow you to shoot from further away.

http://www.univie.ac.at/aarg/php/cms...AARGnews34.pdf

Page 30...

And yes, you are absolutely right, although there is a benefit from the cropping factor, being closer to target isn't one of them.

Dave