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Indoor Wrestling with my D200 - Request for advice

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smithrs

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Hi,

Advice sort please. I plan to use my D200 to take shots of a wrestling tournement coming up.

Frankly my 18-200 VR just doesn't cut it indoors under the sports hall lighting. I have tried using the built in flash from matside but the results are dissappointing. If I leave it to the camera with no flash then my auto ISO wants to use 1600 which gives too grainy a picture. If I drop down to ISO 400 and a speed of 1/250 or so then the photo's are terribly under exposed.

Do I need to invest in a flash (will it really help) or a faster lens. If a faster lens then what would you recommend by way of a suitable lens (I can't mortgage my house on this)?

Can I drop down shutter speed to 1/125 or so... Would this help?

Many thanks
 
Hi, the best advice I can give you regarding flash is to check out strobist.com. He has a lot of advice on lighting for indoor sports.

As far as your lens, yes you probably would benefit from a faster lens. Bringing your shutter speed down to 1/125th would help the exposure but might introduce lens shake at the longer zoom settings.

If you wanted to invest in some lighting equipment you could get away with buying a couple of vivitar 283 or 285hv, some ebay radio remotes to fire them and a couple of cheapie stands. If you search around you could probably get all that for under $200. BTW I wouldn't put one of the older strobes directly onto your camera without a safe sync. Some vivitars are ok, some aren't.
--
Harry
 
There is an issue with a faster lens though -- an aperture wider than f4 may not get you enough depth of field if you're shooting around 150mm (although a faster lens will AF better). Maybe a flash is a better investment.
 
Food for thought. You say you're at mat side, so perhaps the 50 f/1.8 would work for your needs, perhaps giving you a couple of stops of light for higher shutter speeds, depending on the apertures you're getting with the zoom. It costs around $100 IIRC.

The sb800 would be good. It costs over $300 but it would also be useful for any other flash needs you may have. The sb600 is less powerful than the sb800, but certainly better than the built-in flash. Dunno what it costs.

--
my gallery of so-so photos
http://www.pbase.com/kerrypierce/root
 
smithrs said:
Hi,

Advice sort please. I plan to use my D200 to take shots of a
wrestling tournement coming up.

Frankly my 18-200 VR just doesn't cut it indoors under the sports
hall lighting. I have tried using the built in flash from matside
but the results are dissappointing. If I leave it to the camera with
no flash then my auto ISO wants to use 1600 which gives too grainy a
picture. If I drop down to ISO 400 and a speed of 1/250 or so then
the photo's are terribly under exposed.

Do I need to invest in a flash (will it really help) or a faster
lens. If a faster lens then what would you recommend by way of a
suitable lens (I can't mortgage my house on this)?

Can I drop down shutter speed to 1/125 or so... Would this help?

Many thanks
Click to expand...
There are a lot of good suggestions in the posts above me. If the search is working, search wrestling. I've seen some nice stuff online here.

The toy flash atop your camera won't work for wrestling. A 285 or something like that can work fairly well. When I shot wrestling ages ago, I opted for a Sunpak 622 on 1/4 power and ASA 400 film in an FM2 with a 1/250 flash sync. I was still able to take multiple shots and usually used a 300 or 180 stopped down to 5.6. The guide number on the 622 was (is, if they still make it) 160.

With that in mind, you could still use your 18-200 and any decent four battery flash (SB600 or 800) and should be able to get decent exposures.

You can go the other way too and pick up either a 70-200 2.8 or a fast prime and go available light. The exposures you're getting now at 5.6 and ISO 1600 would be on par with a 2.8 wide open at 400. A possible bargain way to split the baby is find an old MF 200 F4 and follow focus with that. You'd be shooting at ISO 800, benefit from reduced noise and avoid the strain on the pocketbook. But you'd have to be willing to give up AF.

--
'Nice pen, bet you write good stories with it.'
 
I usually sit close to matside and use my 50mm 1.4. I can usually fit both wrestlers and the ref in my frame, it's long enough to get any action on the far side of the mat, but close up I only get face and torsos in the frame. I'd been shooting at 1600, 1/160-1/200 at F3.2; I've recently started using my SB-800, though. When the match ends, I turn to Portrait orientation for the raised arm victory shot.

I'll see if I can post some of my images later.
--
http://flickr.com/photos/8396406@N03/sets/



All the Best,

JMJ
 
Flattop, those are some great shots. If you don't mind, what ISO, etc? I know a lot depends on the lighting, but your shots seem better than what I've been getting.
--
http://flickr.com/photos/8396406@N03/sets/



All the Best,

JMJ
 
Here's another option using FP High-Speed Sync and a SB800 that works for me. Other equipment: D200 with 80-200 2.8D zoom lens. Typically I sat in the stands 30 - 40 ft away with a monopod. Yes I know, High Speed sync isn't supposed to reach out very far! You can judge for yourself. Get closer and you can do better. All images were shot using JPG fine and post processed with CS2. EXIF data is above each photo.
1/400 sec - iso 560 - 135mm



1/400 sec - iso 640 - 200mm



1/400 sec - iso 640 - 200mm



1/500 sec - iso 640 - 200mm



1/400 sec - iso 800 - 185mm



--



http://www.netfenster.com/
 
JMJ,

If you do give it a try, I'd be interested in your thoughts because use of high speed sync at that distance for action sort of flies in the face of accepted technique. I gave it a try because I moved from a D70 to D200 and sync dropped from 1/500 (adequate) to 1/250 (not quite fast enough). If I'd gone only by what I'd read, I'd never have tried it! It does appear IMO that 30 - 40 ft is the outer limit with a wide open 2.8 lens if you want to keep the shutter speed up and iso reasonably low. I currently have a D300 which works equally well.

Bruce
--



http://www.netfenster.com/
 
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