randall_mcadory

For $1600, the Nikon D200 is your best bet. It has everything the Canon 20D has and it has sealed buttons to be used in inclimate weather with sealed nikon lenses. The Canon 5D is a great camera, but not for sports photography. It's only 3 frames per second and is a full frame camera (thus, there's no multiplication factor for you zoom lenses)

I use a D70 all of the time for photographing kid sports (I'm an amateur by the way). The 3 fps is absolutely fast enough for most action shots. Your most important consideration for sports will be the lenses you choose to use. Indoor sports are challenging because of poor lighting (thus you need fast lenses). Some outdoor sports (like soccer) are challenging because you need reach (combined with a fast lens depending on the the outdoor lighting conditions). Buy the D70 if you're considering a Nikon camera and spend some time researching lenses needed for sports.

 

Check out my <a href="http://kidsportsphoto.blogspot.com/">Kids Sports Photo blog</a> which has pix and links to other good discussions regarding sports photography.

A great noise reduction software is Noise Ninja

I'm not sure about taking hoops pics with the Rebel, but I've had some luck taking indoor hoops pics of my kids with the Nikon D70. Since I can get relatively close to the court, I now use a 50mm, f1.8 lense exclusively (with the 1.5x multiplier of my digital camera, this essentially becomes a 75mm lense). I crank the ISO up to 1600 (this introduces lots of noise, but some noise is better than no pic). I stop the lense all the way down to f1.8 (utilize aperature priority mode) and hope for the best with the resulting shutter speed. Usually a shutter speed of 1/200 will suffice to stop the some of the action. 1/400 is better. What's neat about this solution is that a 50mm, f1.8 lenses can be purchased for less than $100 for both Nikon and Canon digital slr cameras (Nikon and Canon brand lenses). And you'll have one of the highest quality lenses at any price. I also have a 70-210, constant aperature f4 Nikon lense, but it just isn't fast enough for indoor sports. I hope this helps...