indoor basketball lens

<p>Sorry for all the spaces and other stuff, seem to be having compatability issues with PN.</p>

 

<p>I'll just throw in my two cents. I work for a small newspaper out here in Alaska, and spend a lot of time shooting sports in our gym which, thankfully, is decently lit. </p>

<p>When I'm shooting from the baseline I will most often have my 35-70mm f/2.8 on, my 50mm f/1.8 in reserve, and my 80-200mm f/2.8 for cross-court shots, or if I decide to go for a different angle, or from the balcony over the basket.</p>

<p>The 35-70 provides just the right amount of versatility to cover most action on the near half of the court. Most of my shots come from that end, simply due to the fact that the action is coming towards me and I can see faces instead of backs, as I would on the other end of the court.</p>

<p>Another thing to consider, and I don't mean this to be patronizing but I definitely wish someone would have told me this when I started, if you're having trouble balancing out noise/appropriate shutter speed make sure that you're exposing shots as close to the appropriate level, or perhaps a little overexposed. You'll get better results exposing correctly in the first place than trying to push the exposure in PP. And, if you overexpose you can usually bring the noise level down by bringing the exposure level down in PP, which is handy.</p>

<p>For instance, at our regional Wrestling tournament I shot at around 1/320 and ISO 3200 f/2.8, and then dealt with dialing back exposure in PP, and the results from earlier tournament shots at ISO 1600 show substantially reduced noise. </p>

<p>It's funny to see folks saying the 85/1.8 is too long for this as it is what I almost always use. But I imagine some have a taste for wider or tighter shots, so I'll attach an uncropped one from the 85 to show the field of view from the corner.<br /> I occasionally use the 50/1.8 and if I have enough light I get out the 180/2.8.<br /> I'm not usually right on the baseline, but on the corner of the floor probably five to ten feet from the edge of the court.</p><div></div>

<p>My recommendation for use on a 30D is the 50/1.4 stopped down to 1.8 (light permitting). Center focusing point, center-weighted average metering, AI servo-continuous drive, Av shooting mode. Behind the baseline and out to the corners. I've never used flash or strobes and can't help with that.</p><div></div>

<p>I like using a variable zoom, i dont like the fixed focal length. I have a Sigma 24-70 f2.8. the zoom is perfect, but the focus is a little slow. the 2.8stop is also a tiny bit slow in some gyms but the zoom factor works great. you dont really want to crop in an image shot at iso1000 or greater as this will increase your noise ratio (the noise gets bigger and stands out more) i would greatly reccommend a 24-70 2.8 if you can find one with a faster focus then the sigma. I also have the 50mm f1.8 and its focus element is even slower then the sigma and a fixed zoom can kill you sometimes.</p>