Article:		Top Ten Digital Photography Tips
Subject:		Camera settings
Date:		2005-11-22 09:42:16
From:		BasketballMom
Response to: Camera settings
This has been an ongoing problem for me. I don't know a lot about cameras, but as you, I'm trying to figure this out. Recently I viewed some basketball game pictures a fellow parent took, that were able to stop the action, and were still bright and colorful. He had manually set his aperture to 1.8 with a 1/250 exposure time. I was excited about this revelation. When I got home, I quickly pulled out my Olympus 700, and played around with the manual settings. Unfortunately, my camera's aperture settings would only go down to 2.8. I tried some sample pictures this morning (with my daughter bouncing her basketball in our bright florescently lit garage), and unfortunately had marginal luck with the 2.8 setting. The best combination I could come up with (on my camera) was 2.8 at 1/50 shutter speed. I'll try it in the gym, but I think my solution will unfortunately need to be finding a digital camera that can go down to the completely open 1.8 aperture(to provide enough light), an adequate zoom, and a minimal delay between when I hit the shutter, to when the picture actually is taken. At this point, I don't know what cameras can do that (and I'm on my 6th digital camera over the past 10 years). If anyone out there has suggestions for me or "badexposure", please respond. I, too, would be very grateful.

Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

• Camera settings
  2006-01-03 03:51:58  cam2003 [Reply | View]
  
  
  This is exactly why people pay lots of money for "fast" lenses, basketballmom... (Fast here means that the lens can open its aperture wide - the lower the f-number (e.g. 1.8) the wider the aperture is open. The wider the lens aperture is open, the more quickly the camera captures the light ergo the shorter the time required for the shutter to be open - low shutter speed will freeze action shots.)
  
  Like the advice above, you might want to try setting a higher ASA number. The higher this number the more quickly the camera captures light - it is a holdover from the days when you purchased faster film. Higher ASA will also help you freeze action shots - but at the cost of some graininess. Good luck!
• Camera settings
  2007-04-19 12:57:15  fotog [Reply | View]
  
  
  Nikon's 50mm f1.8 af lens is about $100, and it's marvelous.

• Camera settings
  2006-06-14 09:14:50  JCiccone [Reply | View]
  
  
  simple...you need a Digital SLR camera.
  check out the Nikon D50...if you can find one in stock.
  
  The lens aren't that fast but you can shoot at a faster 'film speed' and still get decent results when shooting the sports your talking about.
  
  The other solution when using the type of digital your shooting with is to use it's rapid fire mode...burst mode....usually it will help you capture a few good photos with each 'burst'
  
  The video clip feature of many non-slr digitals produce great video clips you can view on your large screen TV...there fun too.