Here are a couple of photos that I took in the Exeter Arena last winter. Both no flash, f2.8 ISO 1000 on one 1250 on the second. I printed the second photo 13 x 19 and framed it, our grandson loved it and I was surprised at how nice a high ISO photo prints
Gerhard

I have that same lens< And do a lot of shooting in dim music venues. After a lot of experimenting, I found the best shots for me (other than buying a new lens) was to set the camera to tv mode and set the shutter speed to a 60th of a second. Exposure compensation gets m oved around and my iso is at 1600. Its given a good balance of bightness and sharpness. Of course a better lens would be better, but at least for me that is not in the cards yet, so this has held me over.

Hi Mike,

 Working with a longer zoom lens requires more effort to get a well focused image. The rule of thumb is that the shutter speed should be at least as fast as the focal length. In other words, at 300mm you would need at least a 1/300th of a second shutter speed to have the best chance at a non blurred image. Shooting indoors also compounds the problem due to indoor lighting or generally less light then outdoors and thus resulting in a slower shutter speed (which increases the likely hood of blurring your overall image from camera shake)

Depending on the model of lens, the minimum aperature will come into play. I suspect that your minimum aperature on the 75-300 jumps to F5.6 fairly quickly when zooming the lense so your minimum aperature of F5.6 would require a slower shutter speed to get enough light into the camera. You did the right thing by upping the iso but that also introduces a bit of noise which can make the image less sharp.

The other factor is that the 75-300 lens is longer and adds a bit of weight to the camera making it physically harder to hold it steady when you click the button.

There is also the possibility that the lens and/or the camera is not focusing properly but that is not usually the case. Try taking a few shots outdoors with plenty of light and see if you get a few clear shots. If you do then you can surmize that it was in fact low lighting and minimum aperature causing lower then acceptable shutter speeds allowing for some camera shake.

Interestingly, one would consider using a tripod in low lighting but if the subject is moving then due to the lower shutter speed the subject will be blurred regardless of using a tripod or not.

A lot of people taking indoor shots in an arean or similar condition will usually end up getting a lens with a larger minimum aperature such as F2.8 or in some cases F2.0 or F1.8 etc. Of course, these lenses are also pretty expensive.

 

 

I shoot hockey games a few times a year and my first tries were very disapointing.  When shooting a hockey player coming at you and you use the standard one shot focussing the player may have moved out of focus before the photo is taken so Ai Servo is the focus mode I switch to.  Also make sure that you shoot at a high enough shutter speed, 300 mm on a crop body you should really be shooting at 1/500, if you have steady hands 1/250 might work but you will likely have less keepers, so high ISO is a must.  I have 70 200 f2.8 and it does a reasonable job but that lens is 4 times as fast as yours at maximum zoom so it is easier to keep the shutter speed up at ISO 800 you might want to shoot at 1600.  

Gerhard

I recently purchased a new Canon EF 75-300mm lens for my digital camera.  I spent the weekend taking photos inside an arena from various locations and seemed to get decent but blurry images.  I tried shooting at 400, 800 and 1600 ISO and still had similar results.