What do you think ? (D40)

[deltacsar665]

Hey all,
Last week i went out on a shooting spree at a local boxing tournament. As you know, these events won't give so much in the form of lighting, so i popped the ISO to 800 and set EV to negative 1.0. What i got was depressing, there was noise all over the place. Tried to do some recovery in PS, but to no avail. It gets me thinking, sholud i upgrade on a new body, no that the D40 is not a good DSLR or anything, i just need a more capable body with better low-light capabilities. Well, what do you think is it my camera or me ?

Well i guess it's me

[dcclark]

Higher ISO is not the answer. Don't get a new body -- get a faster lens.

The best thing you could do would be to get either a constant aperture f/2.8 zoom lens, or better yet, a nice fast f/1.8 or f/1.4 prime lens. You'll be able to gather TONS more light.

For example: a f/1.4 lens can capture 8 TIMES more light than your 18-55 can, even at its best (and 16 times more than it can at the 55mm end)!

[deltacsar665]

Originally Posted by dcclark

Higher ISO is not the answer. Don't get a new body -- get a faster lens.

The best thing you could do would be to get either a constant aperture f/2.8 zoom lens, or better yet, a nice fast f/1.8 or f/1.4 prime lens. You'll be able to gather TONS more light.

For example: a f/1.4 lens can capture 8 TIMES more light than your 18-55 can, even at its best (and 16 times more than it can at the 55mm end)!

A prime won't get me the reach i so dearly want , and what kinds of shutter speeds can i hope to acheive with a prime ?

[dcclark]

Originally Posted by deltacsar665

A prime won't get me the reach i so dearly want , and what kinds of shutter speeds can i hope to acheive with a prime ?

You mean a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR isn't long enough for you? :P

That lens will collect 2x as much light as your 70-300 will at its 70mm end, and 4x as much as at its long end. So, your shutter speeds will be 1/2 or 1/4 as long.

For example: if you can get a shot with your 70-300 at 300mm, f/5.6, and 1/50 sec. shutter speed, then the 300mm prime would get you 300mm, f/2.8, and 1/200 sec. shutter speed (at the same ISO).

[deltacsar665]

oops, sorry i thought the 50mm prime :P. Anyways looks like i have to start scraping every dollar i get from now on. Thanks for the calrifications

[dcclark]

You could probably get a constant f/2.8 70-300 for cheaper than that. Just pointing out what's available.