Shooting a B-Ball Game tomorrow

[Dave Throgmartin]

Dave,

I recently tried a couple high school games and often shot between f/2.2 and f/2.8 at 1/500 second and ISO was typically around 1600. I would guess the 85 f/1.8 would be the best option among what you've listed. The 70-200 f/4 could be good when the players aren't moving around as quickly, but you may be forced to really crank up the ISO to 3200 or so for action shots.

Dave

[iND]

From years of experience the zoom is really nice on 70-200
BUT
4.0 is definitely too slow for the low light in most gyms realizing you need a speed of at least 1/100 and 1/250 if you want to freeze a ball in flight.
the 70-200 2.8 is much much better but really not fast enough.

My best shots are from a 135 2.0 prime and using a foot zoom.
Better yet get court side and walk around and use a 50 1.4 or 24 1.8 (never use flash)
You need a fast lens to shot indoors and a fast shutter speed.
This is really difficult: low light and fast moving objects
good luck.
position yourself on the wall close to the basket and change ends periodically.
watch your background but with the fast lens you also get the blur