[windjammer]

I just received my K5 yesterday and I'm digging into the manual to learn all the controls.

My daughter plays lacrosse here in Georgia and the lights at the stadium are not the greatest.

I'm looking for some basic settings as a starting point for taking the shots.

I know this is a broad and wide open question.

BTW, I tried to search on sport photos for previous giuidance and failed...

[sergysergy]

Does not the k5 have a sports mode? This would be the easiest way to start.
Anyways it will also depend on the lenses you have...

[dexmus]

I would say, set it to Auto ISO, set the aperture to max, and set the shutter speed to 1/250. If 1/250 is giving some motion blur, set it to 1/500.

[psychdoc]

There is no sure-fire 'setting' for this sort of thing. Basically you can start somewhere and then change settings.

Try shutter priority mode with 1/500 and ISO -3200. You can raise the iso to even 6400 with the K5 if needed:




P.S: I tried to add an image but it is not showing for some reason...but it seems to work if you click on the x sign that shows.

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Last edited by psychdoc; 03-08-2011 at 07:36 PM. Reason: image not showing

[hcc]

I just received my K5 yesterday and I'm digging into the manual to learn all the controls.

My daughter plays lacrosse here in Georgia and the lights at the stadium are not the greatest.

I'm looking for some basic settings as a starting point for taking the shots.

I know this is a broad and wide open question.

BTW, I tried to search on sport photos for previous giuidance and failed...

The simplest, in my opinion, for a beginner is:

- set the mode dial to P

- in 'Program line' (Menu Rec), set 'Hi-speed priority' for program automatic exposure to priority high shutter speeds.

This is the equivalent of the Sport mode in the P&S.

Hope that the comment will help.

[andre-mz5]

If you are a newbie in the DLSR world the comments and settings from hcc are a good starting point. Another important thing when you want to shoot fast action sports will be the choice and availability of the lens to be used. There is no idication which lens or lenses you have so any more info would help us to give you advise.
If you are more experiended with DSLR the TAv mode is one of my favorite choices when I have to shoot sports. Use shutterspeed something like 1/500-1/750, aperture F3.5-F5.6 and set the auto ISO from 200-6400. Your K5 will deliver great pictures on this kind of high ISO.
Good luck and show some results.

[windjammer]

The lens I ordered is a "DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED". I also ordered the "DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 AL IF (DC) WR" for a walking around and rainy day lens.

So it looks like I need to keep the aperture as open as possible, the shutter speed as high as possible and the ISO set to get the best result with the least amount of noise.

I appreciate all the input.

I'm looking forward to learning how best to use this. My K10 was left primarily in Green Mode and did great in the daylight.

[RyanW]

The lens I ordered is a "DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED". I also ordered the "DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 AL IF (DC) WR" for a walking around and rainy day lens.

Those are not great low light sport lenses. They are nice for reach, but the aperture is too small for good low light performance. Thankfully the K5 lets you crank up the ISO and get fairly clean images because you are going to have to shoot at 3200 or 6400 most probably to be able to get any sort of shutter speed necessary for sports.

You really need a 2.8 or larger aperture lense. The 50-135 2.8 would be good, or other similar third party, or even a prime some where in the 70mm to 135mm range with a large aperture would be way more suited than the lenses you have.

Your lenses are great walking around in broad daylight lenses, but just not cut out for night time sport shooting.

Also, not sure if you understand on the lenses you do have the aperture is variable. At the long end of the zooms it's the larger number so you only get the F4 and F3.5 if you don't zoom very much at all. As soon as you start zooming, you lose aperature size until you reach the end of the zoom range and hit F5.8 and F5.6.

[user440]

Agreed, some of the earlier comments don't sound quite right. There is no way ISO 200 is going to work given the above. Crank the ISO, open the aperture as much as possible given the reach, and you'll have to dial down the speed until you get to that right spot of brightness / no blur. Anything faster than 1/500 sounds optimistic with those lens' unless that ISO is cranked way up. The ability to handle high ISO is the beauty of the K-5, it will be your friend in these cases.

[LeeRunge]

I just received my K5 yesterday and I'm digging into the manual to learn all the controls.

My daughter plays lacrosse here in Georgia and the lights at the stadium are not the greatest.

I'm looking for some basic settings as a starting point for taking the shots.

I know this is a broad and wide open question.

BTW, I tried to search on sport photos for previous giuidance and failed...

Try either Shutter Priority or Program (with speed program line).


Set shutter to 1/250/1/500 to start and ISO to 3200/6400 to start and see if that is freezing motion well for you. If your lens is slow to Autofocus try pre-focus on something nearby to cut the time down. You can push up to 12800 if you want and see if the noise is acceptable to you. In the menu's you can adjust noise reduction to taste.

[RonHendriks1966]

you can also set the iso-range to 160-3200 with dynamic range expansion on. Set Iso to Fast so it take up iso faster using faster shutterspeeds. This with the P-mode should bring you something.