D70s Shooting Indoor w/o flash

I am the proud new owner of a Nikon D70s camera. It came with the kit
Nikkor 18-70mm zoom. I also purchased the Nikkor 70-300mm f4-f5.6 G lens
from Ritz Camera.

I am most interested in shooting pictues at my sons hockey games. I have
tried in sports mode with marginal results.

Does anyone have experience shooting inside a hockey rink? Fast action &
long zoom?

Maybe my needs are greater than my equipment capabilities.

Being new, I was hoping someone might give me some pointers. Shutter,
aperature, ISO, etc.

I don't know where to start.

Thanks.

"Dave White" wrote in message
. ..

I am the proud new owner of a Nikon D70s camera. It came with the kit
Nikkor 18-70mm zoom. I also purchased the Nikkor 70-300mm f4-f5.6 G lens
from Ritz Camera.

I am most interested in shooting pictues at my sons hockey games. I have
tried in sports mode with marginal results.

Does anyone have experience shooting inside a hockey rink? Fast action &
long zoom?

Maybe my needs are greater than my equipment capabilities.

Being new, I was hoping someone might give me some pointers. Shutter,
aperature, ISO, etc.

I don't know where to start.

Shooting moving objects indoors at 100mm+ must be one of the most
challenging types of shooting which generally needs fast glass! Anything
slower than f2.8 will likely be hit or miss, most likely the latter so be
prepared to empty your wallet!

Cheers Adrian www.boliston.co.uk

"Dave White" wrote:

I don't know where to start.

Get close to the rink. Use the 70-300 at 70mm. ISO 1600, camera mode =
aperture priority, aperture = f/4.0.

If the images are too blurry, use manual mode, ISO 1600, aperture = f/4.0,
and various shutter speeds starting with 1/125. The faster the shutter
speed, the darker the image. You can brighten up the images in a photo
editor, but that will make the noise worse.

Nikon makes a great 50/1.8 lens which isn't all that expensive, and a
somewhat pricey, but also great, 85/1.8. Those will get you a faster shutter
speed and/or less noise in the images at the cost of not being able to zoom.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Realize that the Sports Illustrated type pictures you probably have in mind
are made under conditions to which you likely do not have access. Also
massive numbers of images are combed through to find the keepers. That
particular mindset is key.
If the arena is reasonably bright and you are able to use a monopod or
support the camera some other way then f4 at the highest ISO you can
tolerate, in terms of image noise, will probably work out. F5.6 at the long
end of the zoom may not if the arena lighting is marginal. You may want to
investigate getting a used Nikon 80-200 f2.8, which is a fairly massive
piece of glass and will give you an insight into what professional sports
photographers carry (much bigger and heavier).
I recommend you take test images at varying high ISOs to get a feel for what
noise looks like and what is acceptable to you under those lighting
conditions. If the light is a bit dim the D70 can get very noisy at ISO 800
and above, but to some degree that can be modified in software.
Shoot raw if you want the best results under those circumstances. That means
you have to learn to process raw images if you want to get the best results.
If you can move around the rink identify the places where you would want to
shoot from.
A key skill in getting action pictures is anticipating the moment and being
in the right place at the right time. Set the camera for continuous firing,
get a fast compact flash card, and fire away just before you think the thing
will happen you want to capture. You will have to get a lot of not so good
shots to get the keepers. Fortunately with digital this does not involve the
expense of wasted film.

Now that I got my rant out of the way by expressing it to my wife, rather
than you, I'll give a piece of advice. Go back to Ritz, and buy a book on
basic photography. Asking for advice on the internet is fine, but a hard
copy book gives you the ability to reference back on a constant basis. And
it can come along with you, so you can look things up as you come to them.
Another piece of advice; get the heck out of the dummy modes and use what
Canon calls "Creative Mode." Use aperture priority, set your aperture at
its widest, and hope that there's enough light for the shutter speed the
camera chooses. Your lens is rather slow, especially at the long end. I
wouldn't attempt it with less than an f2.8 lens, which is exponentially more
expensive than the one you have.

--
Skip Middleton
www.shadowcatcherimagery.com
www.pbase.com/skipm

Forgot to mention, as David didn't, set that ISO as high as you can get.

--
Skip Middleton
www.shadowcatcherimagery.com
www.pbase.com/skipm

Thanks for the input.

I will get a book on basic photography and I will experiment with settings.
I plan to take many pictures at various settings and then review them. I
understand that it will be a learning process. Fortunately, with digital I
can take as many pictures as I want, and the price is the same

I am overall very pleased with the camera.

I am not looking for someone to solve my problems. I am simply looking for
a couple tips to start my learning.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post a response.

Dave White
Sterling Heights, Michigan

"Dave White" wrote in message
. ..

Thanks for the input.

I will get a book on basic photography and I will experiment with
settings. I plan to take many pictures at various settings and then
review them. I understand that it will be a learning process.
Fortunately, with digital I can take as many pictures as I want, and
the price is the same

I am overall very pleased with the camera.

I am not looking for someone to solve my problems. I am simply
looking for a couple tips to start my learning.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post a response.

Dave White
Sterling Heights, Michigan

OK, couple of things (I also have the D70s that I use for my
kids soccer games - dark and cloudy = yuk). The first
problem I found with "sports mode" is it sets the camera to
the "closest object" using the 5 focus zones - it ALWAYS
picked a different subject from me :-). You have two
options - switch to either shutter or aperture priority and
set it to continuous focus, center focus or if you want to
use the sports mode, switch to the sports mode, then go
into the menu and set it to single zone and select the
center zone - that way YOU are responsible for what it
focuses on (I hate being helped). Go for the high ISO
I work on the theory I would rather have pictures with
some noise than everything blurry from motion.

Check out Ken Rockwell's site - he has some additional
information on the D70 and D70s and how to set it
up.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70/d70-settings.htm
(lots of other good stuff there too).

Also check out Thom Hogan's e-book on the D70 - it
is around 600 pages of real good information.
http://www.bythom.com/d70guide.htm

Plan on shooting LOTS to get some keepers - the
darker it is, the lower the percentage of keepers.
Such is life -- look at the bright side (ha ha) - far
cheaper than shooting that many pix in film !!!

mikey

"Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 08:07:28 -0800, in rec.photo.digital "Skip"
wrote:

Now that I got my rant out of the way by expressing it to my wife, rather
than you, I'll give a piece of advice. Go back to Ritz, and buy a book
on
basic photography. Asking for advice on the internet is fine, but a hard
copy book gives you the ability to reference back on a constant basis.
And
it can come along with you, so you can look things up as you come to them.
Another piece of advice; get the heck out of the dummy modes and use what
Canon calls "Creative Mode." Use aperture priority, set your aperture at
its widest, and hope that there's enough light for the shutter speed the
camera chooses. Your lens is rather slow, especially at the long end. I
wouldn't attempt it with less than an f2.8 lens, which is exponentially
more
expensive than the one you have.

Um calm down Skip. The OP has a NIKON, not a Canon. The general advise to
get out of the dummy modes is universal. However using "Creative Mode" is
darned impossible.
--
Ed Ruf )

That's why I said, "what Canon calls 'Creative Mode.'" I don't know what
Nikon calls it, but it's the best I could do. ;-)

--
Skip Middleton
www.shadowcatcherimagery.com
www.pbase.com/skipm

"Rita Ä Berkowitz" ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote in message
...
Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!) wrote:

Um calm down Skip. The OP has a NIKON, not a Canon. The general
advise to get out of the dummy modes is universal. However using
"Creative Mode" is darned impossible.

LOL! Do they make an ON/OFF switch for that?






Rita

Sometimes, I think my switch is broken... ;-)

--
Skip Middleton
www.shadowcatcherimagery.com
www.pbase.com/skipm