PBase

Hey,
I have a question to ask you guys. I got this new fujifilm for my birthday and i am taking loads of pic's of sports. However, i am having some trouble getting some clear pictures. I take pictures of Basketball in an indoor gym and i am getting really blurry or scracthy photo's.

I have tried raising the ISO on the camera but it just get's fuzzier. the lens is clean and there are no scratches. I have these settings available to me.
"P, S, A, M, Mountain, (figure of a head), N, (shaking person).

Does anyone know what settigns i should use to get the best action shots????

any help is appreciated,
Bametje

What's the shutter speed? The shutter speed has to at least equal the focal lenght...and that is just a general guide. You sure your camera is the 5600? I don't see a Fuji 5600, but I do see a 6500. If you are shooting fast action shoots at max telephoto, you will ned at least 1/500 to get clear shots. I have a hard time getting sharp pictures at that shutter speed for ice skating...except when they have slowed down to almost a stop.

Scratchy pictures are something else. You sure they are scratches and not noise? Try shooting at max ISO 200 38mm and then cropping the resultrs.

yes it is an s5600 ,

see one of my problems is i am shooting in a gym. The lighting is ok, but not excellent.

So i should use a shutter speed of 500 with ISO of 200? i'll give it a shot.
Thxs,
Bam

If it's like my S5000, your not going to have much luck in a gym. bump the iso up as high as you can, se it to "a" (that should be appature priority) and set to the lowest number (ie f9). Then try it. With my old s5000 couldn't get good shots in a gym

This model is an updated version of several other 10X zoom P&S models Fugi made, I believe. You can find a review which will help you understand the settings better here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms5100/

They also show the 5600 (look in the smaller print beside the models), but it doesn't include a specific review, although it should be pretty much the same.

snowphoto wrote:

If it's like my S5000, your not going to have much luck in a gym. bump the iso up as high as you can, se it to "a" (that should be appature priority) and set to the lowest number (ie f9). Then try it. With my old s5000 couldn't get good shots in a gym

I'd agree it would be impossible to get clean shots with these settings. Two things you'll need to consider are listed below.

1: (as pointed out) Noise can be a problem with small sensor P&S cameras. 200 or below will give you your cleanest detail, and I'd suggest using a noise reduction program if shooting ISO 200. A good free one can be found here: http://www.neatimage.com There's details on what it does, and it's use on the download site.

2: You'll need to open the lens up, not stop it down! Shooting at f/9 will demand more light, making you need even higher ISO & longer shutter speeds. Try your lowest setting of 2.8, or whatever this model has.

I'd suggest using Shutter Priority. If shooting the long end of your zoom, you will indeed need to keep it up. Since the lens is equiv. to around 350mm, this means a minimum shutter speed of around 1/700th of a second at full zoom. If you can shoot with less zoom, demand becomes easier. So try using it around mid way, and as suggested, crop some of the excess from your shots. This will allow you to shoot around 1/400th instead. But motion blur might still be a problem, so you'll have to try different things.

Try getting as close to the action as possible, then wait to click when the players are close. It might be best if you can get the action as it moves toward you, instead of to the side. This should help minimize some of the players movement.

What you're learning are the basics, and the reason Professionals use DSLR's due to faster lenses, and more usable high ISO settings. About the best you can do, is learn to get the best from what you have, and upgrade when possible. If it were as simple as point & click, everyone would be a pro. Guess that's why they get the big bucks.

Have fun, and happy shooting.