High School Football & Basketball

Hello

What has the experience been of folks using the D7200 for low light sports? Night football in high school lighting and indoor basketball in poorly lit gyms? I am looking at moving up from a D80, which has worked great for many years. But as my kids are growing, and playing sports at night, the camera is due for an upgrade. My budget choice is between the D7200 and d610. My biggest pro/cons are the reach and auto focus of the D7200 and the low light abilities of the D610. My biggest question I guess, is how well the D7200 actually works in sports action. What has been your keeper rates due to missed focus, or needing to bump the ISO too high?

Thanks for your input.

Well first off Welcome to Nikonites.:cheerful:
I really can't help cause i just received the D7200 the other day.
But some guys will come along with more experience then me and help
with your question.

Alexander Supertramp said:

Hello

What has the experience been of folks using the D7200 for low light sports? Night football in high school lighting and indoor basketball in poorly lit gyms? I am looking at moving up from a D80, which has worked great for many years. But as my kids are growing, and playing sports at night, the camera is due for an upgrade. My budget choice is between the D7200 and d610. My biggest pro/cons are the reach and auto focus of the D7200 and the low light abilities of the D610. My biggest question I guess, is how well the D7200 actually works in sports action. What has been your keeper rates due to missed focus, or needing to bump the ISO too high?

Thanks for your input.

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Keeping the argument between the D610 and the D7200, and for the specific shooting conditions you have laid out, I would lean toward the D7200. If you add the D750 to the mix, my answer might change, but we're not; we're keeping this to the D610 vs the D7200. The D7200 is a superb action camera in my opinion and is pretty much "the whole package". Not that you couldn't do well with the D610 in these circumstances, I just think the D7200 has the edge in this specific comparison. If you can't regularly nail the shot at a HS football game with a D7200 I'd have a hard time blaming the camera.

As for high ISO, noise and so forth... How high is "too high"? How much noise is too much noise? Those are questions only you can answer. There are software solutions that are excellent at removing digital noise. I don't shoot JPG often, so I don't really know how well they work with compressed files, but when working with RAW files these applications are typically excellent.

Re: High School Football & Basketball

I have a 600 and 7100, not the 610 or 7200. So unless the 7200 can handle high ISO a whole lot better than the 7100 I would lean towards the 610. Almost all of my late season football shots are high ISO and my 7100 can't handle it as well as the 600. All of my wrestling shots were high ISO and both types require fast shutter speeds.

With that said if I had the extra money I would get the 750, from what I have seen and read it is superior to the 600 series when it comes to high ISO.

They will all handle high ISO, it will be hard to say what is acceptable for you.

Edit.

Like stated below the lens choice plays a huge role in the results you will get from each camera. So keep that in mind as you might want to evaluate your lenses as well.

Good luck

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I shoot a 7100 and 600 and have shot both of these sports. Outside during daylight I prefer my D7100, low light or indoors I prefer my 600. However, the 7100 will do it but requires more skill with cleaning up ISO noise through Nik Tools Define, Luminance slider in camera raw, and the clarity slider to clean up noise in the skin.

Lens quality and choice is huge.

These were shot with my D7100 at our local high school football game. The D7200 will do equally well. The nice thing about the D7200 over the D610 is that the reach is better on the D7200. Also lenses for the D610 are much more expensive.

Thanks for the replies!

I I was able to borrow a relatives D7100 for a recent basketball game. And the ISO was good enough for that. But it was also using a nifty fifty. For football I will be using a zoom, and the smaller apertures may become a problem.

The D7100 did the job, but the missed focus rate was fairly high. Like 40%. Using continuous spot focus wit some short bursts. When the focus hit right on the images were good enough for me. But the focus keeper rate bothered me.

I understand the faster processor and better focus card on the d7200 are supposed to improve af. But I wondered what the real world experiences were. Is the focusing really that much better?

Thanks again for the replies.

Those look good. What kind of ISO were you using?

Alexander Supertramp said:

Those look pretty good. I would be satisfied with those. What kind of ISO were you using?

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If you put your cursor over the photo you should see a pop-up over the photo that shows all the EXIF data. That will work on most of the photos on the site if the person uploaded has processed it and not stripped out the data and if they followed the directions for uploading.

The first shot was at ISO 5000 and the other ones were at ISO 4000. If you really need better low light capabilities then skip the D610 and go for the D750. Right now it is the king of low light in the Nikon line.

Alexander Supertramp said:

Using continuous spot focus wit some short bursts. When the focus hit right on the images were good enough for me. But the focus keeper rate bothered me.

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That is a pretty high miss rate and then saw your setting. Use the continuous, but set it to a 9 or 21 cluster, not single point. A single point in all the action could cause some massive fluctuation of focus and possibly (we all have different experience levels) explain your high miss rate. Contributing factors could be your depth of field and shutter speed, but highly likely it's the single point of focus.

I should have probably said that different. I did try several of the af settings. I did not try the 3D. I meant to, but simply forgot. So maybe a more general question. Is the d7200 focus noticeably better than previous Nikons

Don't expect to be perfect, and don't expect to start out at the best you're going to be if you keep at it. There is a learning curve to shooting any subjects, but especially fast action sports.

I'd go full frame, camera wise, to help you pick up on and track the action, and also get a 70-200 mm f2.8 zoom. Try to get the latest version of any available. (I know; I went cheap and initially purchased the Nikon AF-S 80-200 f/2.8, but ended up also purchasing a Nikon AF-S 70-200 f/2.8 VR2. I could have saved several hundred dollars skipping the 80-200.)

Learn how to use the Auto-ISO feature of your camera, and then determine the maximum preferable ISO for your camera, as well as the minimum shutter speed for your subject and gear.

Get a good quality monopod; they are available used at very good prices. Keep the head mounted on the monopod as simple as you can, which is likely dependent upon the camera and lens you mount on it.

Shoot in a shutter mode that allows the focus to continuously track the subject. (For my D700, and most, if not all Nikons, is CH.)

I'm sure there's more to say on this, but I've said enough, already.

WM

If you want to see what the 600 series can do for you then feel free to look at my site.

Kevin Stillwell Photography

Nikon 600, Nikon 70-200 2.8 II lens.

I can upload a few here, but you really need to see what a FF will do when it comes to high ISO and detail recovery.




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Krs_2007 said:

If you want to see what the 600 series can do for you then feel free to look at my site.

Kevin Stillwell Photography

Nikon 600, Nikon 70-200 2.8 II lens.

I can upload a few here, but you really need to see what a FF will do when it comes to high ISO and detail recovery.




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Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Your photos are great. What kind of iso's are most of those taken with. And are you using any post noise clean up software, and if so what kind.

Do you ever shoot basketball?

thanks

In order to preserve some facial detail I keep mine on Auto-ISO and capped at 3200. It will go higher, but for football and really low light shots I keep it at 3200 or lower. To help offset it I will bring the shutter down but no lower than 1/500 and prefer to keep it at a faster rate to freeze the shot.

I shoot up to 5 games a week, and my sons are always texting me the next day asking when the pics will be uploaded, all the kids are bugging them as well. So I normally don't spend a lot of time on shots unless a parent ask for the picture or its of my sons. So all processing and noise cleanup is handled through Lightroom and pictures are posted the next day. The 600 series just provides more details for recovering in post processing.

You can do it with a lot of different cameras, just set your priorities on a fast lens to go with the camera.

I have shot basketball, I can look to see what I have but my wrestling shots would be similar in light comparisons. I did use my 85 1.8 g shooting basketball, just due to closer range of the subject.

For wrestling and all other sports it's the 70-200 2.8 for me. It will be trial and error to find the best combo of shot to post processing.

I am considering trading in the 600 for a 750 sometime this year, but only because I want the higher ISO ability of the 750.

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Once again - those are some great shots! The thing about basketball is how fast, unpredictable, and close the action is. That's why I was giving the improved focus on the D7200 such consideration. It is reported to be the same system as the d4 and I believe the d750. I was wondering if folks who use it on a regular basis notice a big difference. Or is it just a marketing upgrade, but one that isn't really noticeable in practice.

The D750 is more than I'm willing to part with. And I still need to get that 70-200 2.8.

Re: High School Football & Basketball

Yeah, I wish I could speak to the focus system difference. With the crop factor of the DX body and shooting basketball you will want a shorter lens. But that also depends on your shooting location. I have field privileges with the school district, but my boys no longer play basketball so I don't shoot it.

As far as keeper rates that will improve with most cameras as the shooter gets familiar with it and knowing how to follow the action. The 7200 should serve you well but don't expect it right off the bat, it will take a few thousand shots to really get the feel for it when shooting sports. It's challenging, fun and rewarding so that's why I really prefer shooting sports.

Try to stay mobile and watch the backgrounds and you will be fine.

Focus speed has never really been an issue with my setup and I never say I wish it would focus faster, maybe faster in the sense of fps or a reliable higher ISO.

Just remember the camera is one part, the other big part is the lens so save for that if you can.

Thanks for the compliments on the shots.

With all sports the are pretty much unpredictable but you will start to see tendencies of the players which will help and also situational plays.

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I shoot with a D7200 and D750. There are many examples of my sports pics on my website and on my facebook page. I try to keep the ISO at 3200 or below and get great photos. On the 750 I get about the same photos at ISO6400. I shot with the D7100 before the 7200 and for sports it is leaps and bounds improvement.

What is your thought on the difference between the D7200 and the D750. I currently had the Nikon D5100 and have been completely happy with it for outdoor sports. I have been struggling with indoor sports. I have tried with my Nikon 35MM F1.8 and my Sigma 17-50MM F2.8. All in all the photos come out ok but because of the noise from the higher ISO on the 5100 I spend a lot of time post processing in Lightroom. I'd like to cut down on the post processing time. I have been leaning towards the D750 but I keep going back to the D7200 since I already have a few faster lenses. If I went with the D750 I would be adding a 24-70 and a 70-200 2.8. If I went with the D7200 I would just need to add the 70-200 2.8. I know the cost is double with the D750 but I'd hate to invest in another cropped sensor to only be dissappointed. Again any thoughts would be appreciated.

Re: High School Football & Basketball

I shoot indoor basketball, and using af-c, 21 points, and long refocusing delay (a3 custom setting). What settings are you using?