Renewed interest in photography

Hello, I am new to this board and have a lot of questions. I actually have been shooting since I was a child. Then, it was my fathers Nikkormat camera and of course I learned Manually. I now own a Nikon D40x, however I need to upgrade to something suitable for lowlight fast action shooting, so of course I need some input from the forum. My camera is just not able to stop the action like I want. It shoots excellent posed outdoor photos but I can't get those nice indoor low light action shots. Anywhoo. I am excited to be on this forum to get a better understanding of my renewed interest.


forum

Hello and welcome to the Nikonites Community. You will find the people here friendly and ready to talk photography and about their Nikons. One thing that would help in answering your questions is to complete your profile especially with your camera, lenses and any other equipment you are using. I don't know what lens you have now but the Nikon 50mm or 35mm, f/1.8 will give you good low light results. You can use either lens on the D40 as well as any other body if you ever want to up grade to another body model. As far as fast action shooting in low light depends on how fast you mean by fast. Low light and fast action is like oil and water, they don't mix very well. In any case post some of your shots with the EXIF data and I'm sure some one here will be able to tell you what you need to do to correct problems.

Hello and welcome to the site, I started on a Nikomant myself and still own it...lol. Hope you enjoy the site .

Hello and welcome to the site! This is definitely the place to get your questions answered.
Looking forward to seeing some of your shots posted on the forum!

Best Regards

Thanks for the input. I updated my profile with my camera and lens equipment. I have to work on uploading the photos, my only concern is that I am currently shooting in the preset settings, I am too chicken to go "manual" for the actual sports shooting. I fear I will miss something. I an considering upgrading to the new D7000 that is set to come out in December. Do you think that is ok for what I am shooting. I think I need to probably get a round about shooting setting for the cheer competitions and go from there. I am experimenting with my new lens to see if thats what I need. Right now for me it is trial and error, I have to get my confidence back up to shoot in manual. And yes I have taken several photography courses which of course mandated that I shoot in manual, but of course if you dont use it you loose it. I need a beginning sports photograhy shooting course for beginners, LOL. My new lens is the Nikon 85mm 1:1.8D AF Nikkor.

And thanks everyone for the warm greetings.....

Any easy way to slide into manual without losing any sport/action shots is to set your camera to shutter priority (at a high shutter speed if you want to freeze the action).

Best Regards

Hello Mobedda, glad you stopped by. There are lots of talented folks here willing to give you some help and advice to improve the action photos you are trying to achieve. Indoors or outdoors it's always about the light or lack thereof. So, higher iso speeds and faster glass for in, higher shutter speeds as Helene suggested for out. You still gotta get the light to the sensor and that's usually what we all struggle with one way or another.