asher

<p>To answer your original question regarding shutter speed and ISO, I suggest the following:</p> <ul> <li>Use manual exposure: set shutter speed to 1/1000 or 1/1250, and set your lens aperture wide open</li> <li>Set ISO to Auto</li> <li>Set your meter to "partial" metering mode</li> </ul> <p>This will improve the likelihood that you will freeze the action with the lowest ISO necessary, thus minimizing image noise.<br> Also, please pay attention to white balance, as lighting type in gyms is variable. Using custom WB is actually very easy and effective:</p> <ol> <li>Take a properly exposed photo of a white sheet (or something white) in the gym light AT 1/30th or slower (some gym/arena lights cycle at 50-60/sec)</li> <li>Go to Menu --> Custom WB → select the photo just taken → Set</li> <li>Set your WB to "Custom" (remember to set it back to AWB after you're done shooting the event)</li> <li>Take another photo of the white object to check.</li> </ol>

<p>Shooting hockey I've noticed that the back button focus results in more missed shots, probably because my thumb knocks my cheek and eye slightly away from the VF and I don't place the focus point accurately on the subject.<br> Using the 'one-up' center point (the AF point one above the center point, to preferentially focus on faces) with the "AF expansion" cross-hair pattern (Canon) works well as long as:</p> <ol> <li>I keep the point on the player of interest, and</li> <li>I zoom out a touch as needed to make sure I get the entire scene as visualized.</li> </ol> <p>As far as other settings, I'm still experimenting with AI servo (Canon 7D). It seems to work well, as long as I do as above with the focus point.</p>