Question about IS lens and football pics

[mikamah]

I just got the canon 28-135 IS lens last night, and was very impressed with the IS taking pics last night inside. I am going to my nephew's football game today, and going to practice, but am wondering if I should leave the IS off when it's a moving subject. When you have the IS in a lens, do you keep the IS on most of the time, or only when you are zooming in and in low light?
Also, when you are shooting sports, do you tend to use the sports mode or shutter priority and set a high shutter speed?
Any advice is much appreciated. I'm still learning and tend to us aperture priority or program mode the most.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It depends on the IS. With the Canon 28-135, there is only one IS mode. It attempts to stabilize all movement. You should turn it off in any situation where you won't be holding the camera still for each shot.

Newer versions of Canon's IS have two modes. One is just like on the 28-135. The other tracks how the lens is moving. If you are moving side to side but not up and down, it stabilizes against up and down shake and does nothing about side to side movement. If you are moving up and down but not side to side, it stabilizes against side to side shake and does nothing about up and down movement. If you're moving all over the place, it shuts off.

Another cautionary note about IS is that it shouldn't be used on a tripod unless it is an IS system designed to work with a tripod. The older Canon IS systems such as on the 28-135 can actually introduce a bit of shake when used on a tripod because the start to correct for movement that isn't really there. On newer Canon IS systems, if movement isn't there, the IS system shuts down by itself.

I'm not really sure how these restrictions apply to other brands, so if you are using something other than a Canon, check your manual or ask someone here. I know that Nikon has VR lenses with panning modes.

 

[Master Mason]

If your looking for stop actions shots, you need to make sure that the shutter is moving fast enough to freeze the action. If you have that, your IS really isn't going to make any difference regardless.

You didn't say what type of lighting condiitions your going to be in.

If this is a day time game, pretty much whatever you want to do is going to be fine as long as your shutter speeds are over 1/250.

If it is low light/under the lights I shoot AV mode watching the shutter speed and increaseing ISO as needed to keep the shutter speed up.

 

[ukcatfan]

For something like football, you are almost always going to need a shutter speed fast enough that the IS will not even come into play with a 135mm lens. In that case, I do not think it would even matter if it is on or not. It will not hurt turning it off for the reasons that Mark stated though. Depending on how close to the action you are, I would use shutter priority and keep it at 1/250 or faster. If you are close enough, 1/500 or faster might be needed. You typically do not need to maximize your DOF for football, so I would not worry about the aperture so much. If your exposure is still too low at the widest aperture, then up your ISO.

Kevin

 

[ukcatfan]

If your looking for stop actions shots, you need to make sure that the shutter is moving fast enough to freeze the action. If you have that, your IS really isn't going to make any difference regardless.

You didn't say what type of lighting condiitions your going to be in.

If this is a day time game, pretty much whatever you want to do is going to be fine as long as your shutter speeds are over 1/250.

If it is low light/under the lights I shoot AV mode watching the shutter speed and increaseing ISO as needed to keep the shutter speed up.

Great minds think alike

 

[mikamah]

Thanks for all the advice. The game today was in bright sun, so I set my iso to 100 or 200, and used shutter priority at 1/500, for most pics, and program mode for some. Here's a few pics. I only cropped and resized them. My nephew is #74.

I like the action in the last one best. Any suggestions are welcome.
His next game is friday night, so I'll take your advice for low light, Master Mason.