Steve'sDigicams

ASteele85 · Dec 28, 2003, 11:27 AM

I am going to the Lady Vols vs. Texas Basketball game today and I am wanting to take pictures of the game with my Nikon Coolpix 4300. I am wanting to use the best settings possible to shoot basketball pictures. What settings would work best? Thanks in advance.

wvyankeegurl · Dec 30, 2003, 3:30 AM

Good luck!
hope it has good white lighting in there.
Gym shots are hard , at least most people have said that.
dont forget to put htem on here for us to see!

darlene · Dec 30, 2003, 3:15 PM

I just got a Minolta z1 and am trying to figure it out. My biggest thing right now is taking pictures at my daughters basketball games. If you get it figured out, please share it with me!! I hope to eventually learn all the manual settings but need a quickie help to get me going NOW for those games. I've tried just using the Sports mode but didn't get very good pics so today I used Shutter Priority and set it for about 1/160. I am in the dark about all this. Some came out good (very few). The lighting is good but they are slightly blurred. Help if you can!!
Thanks,
Darlene

cowboy43 · Dec 30, 2003, 8:40 PM

Darlene... I hope I can help you with this. I believe and I may be wrong, That the Minolta Z1 Is a SLR (Single lens Reflex) type camera not a true SLR . Now try an experiment shoot action outside, the picture comes out great right, now you go inside and they are blured or dark , right. OK Light outside is measured at about 5,200 k in the gym the light is probobly about 3,000 k even though it seems brite to the naked eye, to the camera it is 2,000k less.
This is why we use Flash, ( and Flash is sometimes not allowed at some indoor events) now the fun part , this camera even with built in flash may not be suitable to achieve what you want. I have people ask me all the time how I achieve my shots. Practice , Knowledge of Equiptment, and what the equiptment will achieve . This is a industry shame, I feel some of cameras represented by companies that lead good people to believe that they can get" Pro" quality photos out of cameras not intended to do what the customer hopes to achieve. Now I am not saying you cannot get good results with your camera, but dont expect to much inside, fast paced , stopping the action shots without the proper equiptment . I have spent over $30,000 in equiptment to get my shots, and years of practice so don't stop learning and practicing And asking questions. Next time you are watching a game take note as to what the pro shooters are shooting and you will see how we get those images. Good Luck

-jb · Dec 31, 2003, 1:45 PM

Assuming you don't have $30,000...

Set the ISO as high as possible on your camera and shoot with the least zoom possible to get the shots you want. (Using the lease zoom will hopefully pick a larger aperture so you can bump the shutter speed up.) If your camera has aperture priority, set the aperture to the largest opening your camera suipports... F2.0... F2.8... etc... That will make your camera choose the fastest shutter speed...

Don't be afraid to show some blur... it depicts motion...

Check them out in your camera's LCD after the first few shots. Use the magnify feature of your camera to look close. Alter the settings if required...

Have fun...

-jb

darlene · Dec 31, 2003, 3:01 PM

The thing is I do get some good pics so I believe the "camera" is capable (maybe not the shooter.haha). I do use the zoom (hey that's why I bought this camera; they won't let me on the court

!!) My camera does have app priority and I haven't tried that. I used shutter priority and set it at 1/160 simply because that number was what the camera picked on auto and one of those pics came out decent. I really need to learn all of these settings. So if I try app priority the largest opening is the smallest number? The camera has been setting it at about f3.2 mostly. Good idea about magnifying the review so that I know how it's doing BEFORE I get home. Do you know of a good website where I can learn what all these settings do. The manual assumes you have knowledge of these things. I really appreciate your input. One of my daughters is a senior in high school and I'm putting together a scrapbook of her games. (We are 27-4 right now, ok now I'm bragging. My daughter's basketball skills are better than my camera taking).
Darlene
PS. Do you think it's a possibility that I"M moving the camera too much trying to follow the action?

cowboy43 · Dec 31, 2003, 10:13 PM

I agree use the largest apature(smallest number) is a must ,2.8 etc . Using high ISO is good but always use the lowest possible you can get by with, otherwise noise will start to show. and yes you have camera movement , invest in a monopod and you will see much clearer pics, im afraid I do not concure with blur shows motion, blur is a blury shot unless you are using a technique called panning and that is a whole diffrent style. you need as much light as possible to get to the sensor and your camera must be STILL!!!!! and no shutter lag. Try this experiment , go outside in good light and hold your camera, now have someone jump up and down in front of it, snap the picture, now put your camera on tri-pod or a table or what ever you have. if your camera has a self timer use this feature and have them jump up and down again. you will see a difference. now do the exact same thing using flash, You are shooting Digital so play with it, its not costing you anything to develope your pics so have fun and good luck.

Dec 28, 2003, 11:27 AM	#1
ASteele85 Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 4	Settings for Basketball Game I am going to the Lady Vols vs. Texas Basketball game today and I am wanting to take pictures of the game with my Nikon Coolpix 4300. I am wanting to use the best settings possible to shoot basketball pictures. What settings would work best? Thanks in advance.

Dec 30, 2003, 3:15 PM	#3
darlene Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 34	Hey there I just got a Minolta z1 and am trying to figure it out. My biggest thing right now is taking pictures at my daughters basketball games. If you get it figured out, please share it with me!! I hope to eventually learn all the manual settings but need a quickie help to get me going NOW for those games. I've tried just using the Sports mode but didn't get very good pics so today I used Shutter Priority and set it for about 1/160. I am in the dark about all this. Some came out good (very few). The lighting is good but they are slightly blurred. Help if you can!! Thanks, Darlene

Dec 31, 2003, 3:01 PM	#6
darlene Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 34	Thanks to you both! The thing is I do get some good pics so I believe the "camera" is capable (maybe not the shooter.haha). I do use the zoom (hey that's why I bought this camera; they won't let me on the court !!) My camera does have app priority and I haven't tried that. I used shutter priority and set it at 1/160 simply because that number was what the camera picked on auto and one of those pics came out decent. I really need to learn all of these settings. So if I try app priority the largest opening is the smallest number? The camera has been setting it at about f3.2 mostly. Good idea about magnifying the review so that I know how it's doing BEFORE I get home. Do you know of a good website where I can learn what all these settings do. The manual assumes you have knowledge of these things. I really appreciate your input. One of my daughters is a senior in high school and I'm putting together a scrapbook of her games. (We are 27-4 right now, ok now I'm bragging. My daughter's basketball skills are better than my camera taking). Darlene PS. Do you think it's a possibility that I"M moving the camera too much trying to follow the action?

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Dec 30, 2003, 3:30 AM	#2
wvyankeegurl Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 356	Good luck! hope it has good white lighting in there. Gym shots are hard , at least most people have said that. dont forget to put htem on here for us to see!

Dec 30, 2003, 8:40 PM	#4
cowboy43 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 923	Darlene... I hope I can help you with this. I believe and I may be wrong, That the Minolta Z1 Is a SLR (Single lens Reflex) type camera not a true SLR . Now try an experiment shoot action outside, the picture comes out great right, now you go inside and they are blured or dark , right. OK Light outside is measured at about 5,200 k in the gym the light is probobly about 3,000 k even though it seems brite to the naked eye, to the camera it is 2,000k less. This is why we use Flash, ( and Flash is sometimes not allowed at some indoor events) now the fun part , this camera even with built in flash may not be suitable to achieve what you want. I have people ask me all the time how I achieve my shots. Practice , Knowledge of Equiptment, and what the equiptment will achieve . This is a industry shame, I feel some of cameras represented by companies that lead good people to believe that they can get" Pro" quality photos out of cameras not intended to do what the customer hopes to achieve. Now I am not saying you cannot get good results with your camera, but dont expect to much inside, fast paced , stopping the action shots without the proper equiptment . I have spent over $30,000 in equiptment to get my shots, and years of practice so don't stop learning and practicing And asking questions. Next time you are watching a game take note as to what the pro shooters are shooting and you will see how we get those images. Good Luck

Dec 31, 2003, 1:45 PM	#5
-jb Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 189	Assuming you don't have $30,000... Set the ISO as high as possible on your camera and shoot with the least zoom possible to get the shots you want. (Using the lease zoom will hopefully pick a larger aperture so you can bump the shutter speed up.) If your camera has aperture priority, set the aperture to the largest opening your camera suipports... F2.0... F2.8... etc... That will make your camera choose the fastest shutter speed... Don't be afraid to show some blur... it depicts motion... Check them out in your camera's LCD after the first few shots. Use the magnify feature of your camera to look close. Alter the settings if required... Have fun... -jb

Dec 31, 2003, 10:13 PM	#7
cowboy43 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 923	I agree use the largest apature(smallest number) is a must ,2.8 etc . Using high ISO is good but always use the lowest possible you can get by with, otherwise noise will start to show. and yes you have camera movement , invest in a monopod and you will see much clearer pics, im afraid I do not concure with blur shows motion, blur is a blury shot unless you are using a technique called panning and that is a whole diffrent style. you need as much light as possible to get to the sensor and your camera must be STILL!!!!! and no shutter lag. Try this experiment , go outside in good light and hold your camera, now have someone jump up and down in front of it, snap the picture, now put your camera on tri-pod or a table or what ever you have. if your camera has a self timer use this feature and have them jump up and down again. you will see a difference. now do the exact same thing using flash, You are shooting Digital so play with it, its not costing you anything to develope your pics so have fun and good luck.