Indoor sport and portrait photography

Greetings Everyone,

I am relatively new to the D600 forum, I have had my camera for about 5 weeks, and I am loving it. I am primarily a landscape, macro, and wildlife photographer. I will be traveling to Wisconsin, and I will have my first opportunity next weekend to photograph my sons basketball team, in their first game of the finals.

In the past I have had a problem blurry images, even when mounted on a tripod, and individuals are posing for the shoot. In my viewfinder they look fine, but when I download to the computer, the blur in some is obvious, in others I see it when I magnify. I will not get a second opportunity to capture these images.

I figure on setting the shutter speed between 250-500 to freeze the action. Previously when I have set my shutter speed in this range indoor, my photos are dark… and in some cases a totally black screen. Shooting outdoors, I don't need to up the ISO often… is that what I should play with? I normally keep the camera's set to matrix mode, I would like to shoot hand held, or on a monopod… I imagine with my inexperience, the tripod might be a little awkward.

I plan on taking both my D800, and D600. Lenses that I thought to take are the Nikon 70-200mm F2.8, Nikon 28-300 F2.8, Sigma 85mm F1.4. I plan to get down on the floor, so I am not sure how useful it would it would be in this venue, but I have a Tokina 16-35 wide angle.

I am looking for any advice I can get this is new territory for me.

Thanks in advance

I'd be using the camera in shutter priority mode set to 1/500 and push the ISO up. The D600 is a great low light camera. Better a clear shot than a dark blurry image.

Thanks for the advice, not knowing what the lighting conditions are… in order to shoot at 1/500, what range should I consider raising the ISO?

Thanks again

I've taken some shots of a stage performance that I'm really happy with at 12800 ISO!!!
Blown up to A3 size they look pretty darn sharp.
Same situation as you - photo opportunity that had to be taken. No second chances. The ISO system on the D600 makes it really hard to take a dud shot.

If you're using a tripod, turn OFF the VR! VR is for hand held shots! If shooting hand held at moving objects, such as fast moving basketball players, using the 70-200 I would shoot at least at 1/250th of a sec.....minimum!

If shooting posing players that are sitting still, shoot in Aperture mode, VR on (hand held), (VR off on tripod), ISO 800 in gymnasium light. They use a sodium type light in most gyms, so set your white balance accordingly.