Basketball Shooting Questions

[Photo 5]

If this needs moved to General Q&A since this is not a photo post please move it as needed. Not sure where ti post this but since this is sports related I thought I'd post it here for advise.

Hoping John G and the other sports shooters can chime in.

I am not a sports photographer for say. But working a for the county newspaper I have been begged to cover a charity basketball game next month. Both the school and the paper individually ganged up on. I have access to a Sony A350 as well as an A200. I had a Sony A700 but returned it and got the A350 cause it didn;t feel right in my hands etc. Tarmon 28-300mm f/4.5-6.3; 50-150mm sigma f/2,8 and 70-200 f3.5-4.5 Minolta as lenses.

I will have access to the sidelines of the court and under the baskets. Will take place in a high school gym with poor lighting and the walls are painted yellow if that matters. A very bad roller paint job with some white undercoat showing.

Would my best bet be the A350 with 50-150mm shooting in Appature mode to keep the lens at F/2.8 shooting at ISO 1600...... ISO 3200 has visible noise but ISO 1600 is usable by newspaper with not so much visible noise. Or should I be shooting in sports burst mode. I know that if I switch to shutter Priority mode sometimes the lens will not stop down to f/2,8 depending on shutter speed. Also will 50mm be wide enough to get full player making a basket when I am just to the side of the basket on the court line......

I have 2x 8GB Extreme III memory cards and another 8GB 133x transcend card so speed shouldn't be an issue. No external flash at this time. Have a shoe mount flash on order now.

Once again I am not a sports photographer but feel I should give this a go. I do have a chance to cover a High School game before that date to do some test shooting.

dave

[JohnG]

See this thread:
Indoor Gym Shooting- AV help-sorry for same old question

[Photo 5]

Thanks I was not aware of this other thread thanks for the help

dave

[Photo 5]

Awesome cheat sheet in the other post you linked me too and it answer my questions.

dave