Hockey is tough because there really isn’t very much light in the typical arenas used by youth hockey leagues. Low light means you’ve got to shoot wide open, and as slow a shutter speed as you can get away with. But you can’t get too slow if you’re using a long zoom, and you can’t get too slow if you don’t want the players to look blurred due to their fast motion. I don’t think you’d be able to get anywhere near 1/8000 for hockey shots. I don’t have the EXIF in front of me on these shots, but I recall it was in the range of 1/300th – 1/500th second at F/2.8, and the only way that was possible was to set the ISO to 1600. Images from the D30 hold up pretty well even at ISO 1600, and I think that’s the key to having these photos look as good as they do. You should go through the camera reviews at www.dpreview.com, and maybe post some messages in the camera specific forums. I’m no expert on the E20, so I really can’t comment on how it does with hockey shots, but most of the good hockey shots I’ve seen have been taken with the Canon D30 or Nikon D1. Don’t sell the 2100uz short, either. It’s 2.1mp, and I’ve seen some great 8x10’s coming out of it. The D30 has recently become a lot more affordable too, with the introduction of the D60, you might be able to pick up a used D30 for less than $1500. Finally, read the “Counting Megapixels” article athttp://www.luminous-landscape.com/counting1.htm. It may convince you that the megapixel rating of camera is more marketing hype than anything else.
Sorry for rambling, but I hope this helps. BTW, how did you happen to come across this gallery?
Guest
20-Mar-2002 04:11
Alan:
I must say the images of the hockey players are stunning, nice job. I am very much a novice even though ive had a few digital cams. I have not yet been able to successfully take a indoor hockey game picture of my son Dylan. I am currently looking into the oyl e20 (i'm always upgrading) will i be able to shoot pictures like you have? I know there is an option to have the shutter speed at 1/18000 thats pretty good i must say. Will that help along with other tweaking in the manuel mode to successfully take hockey shots, or will i still have "blurry" pics due to the speed setting or whatever else? Excuse me for sounding kinda like a novice, i understand i am. Any help repsonding would be great, and if theres a better camera you suggest let me know. I am into the big megapixel thing so the oly 2100z with the 1.2 mp isnt what i'm into i don't think. Thanks Chris
