Low-light arena shot

[mateoc15]

In about a week I'll be attending the last basketball game at a historic arena. I will be near the top of a 19,000 seat arena with a great angle of the court. My concern is that the lighting at my seat will be pretty dark. The court will be very well lit but as you get higher in the seats the light dims and is almost dark at the top. I have a 50mm f/1.8 and a 18mm f/2.8. I want to get as wide of an angle as possible but would rather have good lighting. This is a basketball game of course, so fast shutter speed is preferred also.

Here's the arena lighting. I'll be near the top in the corner. Not great seats, but a shot of the whole arena will be nice

So between ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc what do you suggest?

Also, I'm considering renting a 10.5mm f/2.8. Will I be wasting my time? Will that aperture get me anything worthwhile in this kind of setting? And in this kind of setting from a wide angle how much difference is there in a 10.5 and the 18 that I already have?

Thanks!

[GadgetRick]

Well I think you'll be too far away to get anything decent (of the action) with the 50mm. You really need a longer lens with a wide aperture (f2.8). The lighting at your seat doesn't matter unless you're shooting pics of people in the seats by you.

[mateoc15]

Ok, that makes sense. The 18mm I speak of is actually an 18-105mm f/3.5 - f/5.6 (not 2.8 like I mentioned before). Not sure if that changes your opinion. Do you think I will just have to "play" with ISO, etc? I really want to go as low as I can on ISO obviously to reduce grain. Do you have a baseline where I should start? Sorry if I'm a little vague. I've never shot in a setting like this and never used a fisheye either, but I am determined to do so for this event.

[Jim Bryant]

The best shot might be at the end of the game when fans storm the court, Shoot with a low shutter speed to get the blur motion of fans. In venues such as that I shoot 1600 ISO, 500 sec at f2.8, but I'm on the floor shooting game action. try putting your camera on manuel and just taking test shots. Set fstop at 3.5 and keep adjusting the shutter speed.

[chrean]

When I was at Madison and had to shoot a bunch of Knicks' games I had to bring up ISO 'til 800 (1600 was useless with my previous DSLR). Had a 300mm equivalent (240mm circa on an APS-C) f6.3 and it was way too dark. And my seat was something like 60ft from the court.
I'm afraid you will only get great shots of the full arena, but about the game, well...