What lens can I use to take indoor Basketball pictures?

[priority]

I am a new user of the D70 and I want to take some photos of my son playing basketball (indoor). I have used the standard lens that came with the camera (18-70) and I have cheated and used auto everything, used the "s" for increased shutter speed. But the flash pops up and everything close is bright. I also get a lot of red eye. Is there a lens that is faster, so I don't have to use the flash? Any other suggestions?

thanks

[gMaster]

Hi Priority
Interesting I just took some basketball shots last weekend. I use the kit lense, but agian its not a real game, so i was on the court. So I don't really need the zoom factor.

http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=7354&highlight=

The kit lense does an ok job, but it is a bit slow, i have to jack up the ISO all the way to 1600 to get a decent lighting and shutter speed. To prevent the flash popup just use M, and increase your ISO till you get a good exposure.

[digitor]

Am I right in assuming you are a new user of any SLR?

For indoor existing (low) light shots, with the kit lens, which may also involve some subject movement, means that you will need to set a high ISO so you can get a reasonably high shutter speed, if you want to avoid using flash.

Try using manual, ISO 800, with your lens wide open (small f number) and vary your shutter speed until you get a result. We'll deal with the white balance issues later

There are plenty of faster lenses, an affordable one is the Nikkor 50mm f1.4. Longer focal length fast lenses get exponentially more expensive, and bigger!

Cheers

[birddog114]

50/1.4 is one of the lens can cope with this shooting, otherwise 85/1.8 or a legend 85/1.4, though a Nikkor 70-200VR is another glass, you should also evaluate the lighting source inside the hall/ stadium and using above ISO 400.