Nikon SLR Cameras

Nikon D7000 Kit 18-105 VR lens High speed shots?

Shaney
Shaney

I just Bought a Nikon D7000 18-105 VR Kit. Well I really want to take Sport action shots(wrestling, football, track, ext) but they have been coming out blurry and I have no idea what I have done wrong. Right now I do not have the means to buy a new lens cause I saved up for a while to get this one. So what can I do to take the pictures I want so they will not come out blurry and won't be unusable?
(I have been taking pictures for awhile this is the first Nikon i have ever had. So please give me a bit of a break)

Adam
Adam

This likely has little to do with your lens but how you are using your camera. The lens you are using is a f/3.5 - 5.6, meaning the widest you can open the aperture on your camera is f/3.5 and when zooming all the way to 105mm, it's f/5.6. For anything indoor where lighting is poor, this is not very good. Still though, it's quite usable on a D7000 which does have pretty good low light capabilities.

So this is telling me that your ISO (sensitivity to light) is set too low or on automatic. If the camera is not getting a lot of light and the ISO is not sensitive enough, the camera is going to force the shutter speed to open and shut slower, hence a blurry photo.

What I would suggest is that for sports, you set the camera to Shutter Priority mode (usually an "S" on the wheel) and turn up the shutter speed to around 1/250 second or faster. This will allow the camera to freeze the action but also adjust all the other settings for you. Bear in mind that when using a fast shutter speed you may not be able to use your flash as it won't sync at higher speeds.

The bottom line is that your shutter speed is set too slow.

Kelly
Kelly

What settings are you using? I have shot football with a D90 and the same lens and the pictures came aperture mode, and a fairly low ISO, if it bright out. You can look at the exif information of the pictures to see what the camera chose to give you the results, then try experimenting with Manual mode. Indoor sports will prove to be a greater challenge, without a fast lens. You can try aperture mode again, just up the ISO to around 1600 to 3200.

Try experimenting with aperture mode with moving vehicles in the next few days, and see if that does not make a difference.

Best wishes.