Recommendations for len for Canon S5?

[Cinder & Smoke]

I've taken pictures of a football game before and come to think of it,
it does zoom in far enough, but the pictures were fuzzy.

I think that means I need to make changes to speed up my shutter?

NOW we're getting somewhere!

"Action Shots" where you want to stop or "freeze" the action require you to either
"pan" the camera (move it in the direction the subject is moving) OR
to use a FAST shutter speed.
FAST shutter speeds also help reduce blurring caused by movement of the camera
(caused by *shaky* photographers).

The S5 has "Image Stabilization" - a feature that also reduces the effects of
"the *shaky* photographer". Be sure this "feature" is turned on or active
when you're
shooting highly 'Zoomed' shots - High Zoom (bringing the subject in REAL close from far away)
accentuates ANY amount of camera shake! Ashley's advisory to use a TRIPOD (or
even a mono-pod stick) is good advice! (Or ask the guy seated if front if he minds
you resting your camera on his shoulder.)

Read up on How To use the pre-programmed settings ... Canon has "Sports" settings where
the camera forces a fast shutter speed while it opens the aperture (iris) to compensate
by letting more light in. It's still an "automatic" setting, where the camera tries to
make all the set-up decisions, but you're also telling the camera that you want it
to favor the Fastest Shutter Speed possible with a good exposure. Good for Dawg Shots, too.

PS:
No shame in reading the camera book - I keep "the book" for my lil Canon in the Bus glove box ...
No Way can I remember all that stuff!
(Last 4th - I'm trying to *read da book* by the glow of the cell phone display to
set up for fireworks shots.) (Plan ahead)

[Husky_mom]

one thing to kkep in mind if you full zoom... you´ll get noise in your pics... the meter that shows how much you´ve zoomed either12x 15x or full 48x will change color in the bar part once it´s past the blue part and turns yellow then the noise will became greater.......

if you use the sports settign on the camera... you´ll also get noise becuase the ISO set for that is too high...also the flash doesn´t goes off in sports mode you may wanna try the M mode and set the shutter speed over the 250 mark but a 1000 would be even better for rapid sports (or whatever you see works for you)... panning is also a good idea and works wonders as the background gets blurry and the subjets is in focus thus a neat outcome...

the aperture should be a small number to allow more light in (this also use what works for you best due to the day conditions)...

just play around a lil and see which one comes better and shoot with it..

[pitc9]

Yup, Image Stabilization is ON.
Tri-pod sounds like a great idea!

I've used the sports setting while he was wrestling, it worked pretty good for the most part, but being an inside sport, and the flash doesn't work on that setting made for some dark pictures.

I know.... read the book....but I have the attention span of a gnat and get cranky when I don't find the answers right away.
But I WILL sit down and play around with it!
Good thing I still have a few months before I have to have this all figured out!

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP!!