What is the best setting to take night football pictures with a Nikon D200?

What should the settings be on a Nikon D200 Digital camera with a 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D lense to take good night football photos?

I would think that you would know that already before you purchased such a camera ...

Chip the camera's WB to incandescent and set the camera to ISO Auto and set the ISO maximum and slowest shutter speed before you shoot (Custom Setting Menu - b Metering/Exposure b1- ISO Auto)

Go into the Menu for "White Balance" or check "Settings".an evening with the owners manual and the camera in your lap is very informative.I had the hardest time at the "Blue Angels" airshows at the Beach.blurry or too bright,or both.Spent an evening on my bed with a Coffee,the manual and the camera.The results are at Kodakgallery and Military.com,Acceptable,but not yet great.Keep plugging away,by the way,go to Nikons web site,there is info for digital cameras there you may not have known.The address is on the back page of your manual....................

It depends on the light condition - how powerful is the night light of the stadium? If it's powerful enough so you can take pics at 1/200 secs then you can get a lot of freedom of taking the picture however you want.

Take a tripod or a monopod to stabilize your cameras. It'll be very handy.

If the light is not bright enough for fast shutter speed, slow it a little bit down (not too slow, something like 1/60 can even be too slow), open the aperture. f2.8 is a fast lens so you'll be fine.

At this point, I think a shutter priority program would do the job very well.

Good luck!

Follow the above recommendations for WB, as lighting at any football stadium can vary.

I'd push my ISO up to the maximum and set my shutter speed to at least 1/200 to stop the action. Unfortunately, you'd probably have to shoot wide open, but your 2.8 lens should be great for this type of photography.

Your most important "setting" for shooting at night is going to be setting the camera on a tripod.

Otherwise, as a D200 owner you surely know that you'll need high ISO and wide apertures to allow enough light in to stop the motion.