Never been to Doak Stadium, nor shot college football, but....

First, the obvious concern: Not all stadiums are happy with spectators bringing in humongous cameras. However, according tohttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3778635.

Which is quite recent, FSU does not seem to mind so long as you aren't interfering with other spectators. I might suspect that this would bar tripods, as they might be an obstacle, but that thread contains contact information should you wish to check..

Http://www.pbase.com/cgreek/fsu_football.

May be of interest; that guy seems to be an associate professor there shot with an SD10..

Some bits that may matter:.

Distance. If you're a spectator high up, there's going to be a fair distance between you and the action more so if you're towards one end and the action's at the other (which, incidentally, you'd also see a wider range of distances). If you want detail, you'd need a long focal length / narrower FOV (which magnifies camera shake... see the previous note that tripods may be prohibited), and resolution (to permit cropping)..

If you want a -range- of distances in a very short time (ex. QB before a long pass, then the receiver) this gets tricky. Either you need to be able to physically zoom fast (which argues in favor of mechanically-linked zooms all current SLR zoom lenses that I'm aware of, but very few fixed-lens cameras), or you need -very- fast zoom motor, or you shoot at the wider angle and then crop massively..

DOF is shallow at long ranges, but this is probably what you want, anyway..

Lighting. Evening games. But Doak presumably has some artificial lighting... which I can't estimate from here, without referring to samples. But darkness tends to hurt you in three ways autofocus accuracy, autofocus speed, and exposure. If you want to stop action, you need fast shuter speeds (1/400s -may- freeze people running, although faster would be better; not going to freeze a speeding football).

SLRs also tend to have faster AF phase-detection versus contrast-detection off the sensor..

EVF cameras may also hurt your response time somewhat, as the frame rate is definitely not infinite... anticipate more..

Since I haven't been to Doak, I'm taking a look athttp://www.pbase.com/cgreek/image/36611246(gallery linked to from http://www.lenaphotography.com/ ).

Some comments on this.

This must have been taken from fairly close/low to the field note that we're not looking down upon the players. It is not entirely impossible that it was in fact shot from the sidelines. If so, this is almost certainly a privileged position so you should figure on being significantly further away..

The EXIF reads1/200s f/2.8 at 120.0mm iso400 full exif.

And there's fairly significant motion blur. If you wanted to freeze that... 1/400s would be safer, but unless one had a long f/2 lens, that'd mean ISO 800, which isn't pretty on small-sensor cameras. Not to say that 1/200s won't ever work (see http://www.pbase.com/cgreek/image/36611231 in the same gallery... and note the 300mm focal length, as well as the perspective; again, strongly suggestive of a shooting spot on the sidelines)..

Judging from these, you'll likely have a pretty difficult time shooting close-ups of the action with a small-sensor camera; if you are shooting slightly more stationary scenes (kicker pausing before a kick, for instance) or so forth with a stabilized lens, you may be able to get results with a longer shutter speed and not so brutal an ISO value. If you went SLR, you'd want a long fast telephoto, and $ might get ugly...

I am picking up a Canon Rebel XT today..

I am not looking to get the best shots in the world, just decent shots that I can keep for my memories at the games..

Thanks for your post, I will read over it carefully before my next response..

-Ryan..

But any stadium sport is going to have overwhelming distances unless you get sideline access - something the typical freshman doesn't have. The advice to check on camera restrictions is important, I'd expect they can be as strict or stricter on cameras than they are alcohol. And they are better (or can be) at checking than they were 30 years ago!.

Daygames shold be fine for light, night games, just go enjoy the games!.

The photo restrictions should tell you what size lenses may or may not be allowed - given the popularity of big time college sports, the camera situation could easily get out of hand (although I'd rather deal with big lenses than horns and drunks)..

Choices begin to come down to what they allow. The "faster" the lens (larger maximum apertures), the easier it is to keep shutter speeds up. The longer the focal length the closer you will get, but you won't get SI shots but if reasonably close 300mm will do OK for action in front of you. A 70-300 zoom would likely be the biggest you can deal with...

Ok, I can get Canon Rebel [non XT, XTi] , 1gb card, 512mb card, tripod, bag and the stock lens for $350. Is this a good deal ?

So I'd suggest two places as sanity checks for buying gear..

Http://www.bhphotovideo.com/.

For prices for new gear and they have some used as well..

Http://www.keh.com/OnLineStore/home.aspx.

For used gear but they have reliable "new" prices as well..

If the "new" retail prices vary too much below these places, and a few others, then be aware of shady bait and switch practices, heavy shipping fees, outrageous accessory prices, etc. If you are buying from a trusted source, a friend, etc, then lower prices may be fine. With the discontinued Rebel, I'd hate to guess at reasonable prices..

Not sure which lens, which card, etc...

Canon kit lens tends to be 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ? .

~1.6x sensor; if memory serves, the SD10 has the same aspect ratio in a ~1.7x. And the gallery I linked to earlier is strongly suggestive of much better position than you'll have for actual games..

So if you were twice as far away (perhaps an underestimate), and you were comparing the Canon kit lens at the long end, to the shot taken at 300mm.

(300mm * 2 * 1.7) / (1.6 * 55mm) =~ 11.6.

That is, your FOV would be 11.6x as wide and 11.6x as tall. Or, conversely, from twice as far away and with those sensor ratios, you'd need an (300 * 2 * 1.7 / 1.6) ~ 637mm lens for the same framing. At 55mm, that image taken at 300mm would be less than one percent of the area you'd be capturing. Not good. Even comparing with the shot at 120mm... 4.63x each dimension, or ~4.9% of your frame, or 255mm to match..

I say 'for actual games', because if you're really lucky, maybe it's easier to get close during training or so forth. Don't know policy however...