Purchase a Camera for Sports Photography
Have you ever looked at sports pictures and wanted to produce similar images, but don't know where to start? Read on for helpful hints on buying a camera for suited for sports photography.
Contents
Steps
- Decide on a budget. Most sports photography requires a more expensive single lens reflex camera (SLR). A budget less than $500 will, in general, limit you to point and shoot cameras.
- Research digital single lens reflex camera models. Sports photography is nearly impossible with point and shoot cameras due to their shutter lag and fixed lens. DSLRs have a large sensor, shutter lag measured in milliseconds, interchangeable lenses, fast auto-focus, and are able handle low light situations much better than point and shoot cameras.
- Decide what features you want. For example, internal auto-focus motor, megapixels, high ISO capability (e.g. ISO 3200), size, zoom, type of batteries, battery life, etc. The features that are most important to you depend heavily on what kind of sports you are photographing. If you plan on shooting indoor sports, you will need higher ISO capabilities.
- Realize that you may not get all the features you want with the budget you're looking for. Equipment, especially sports photography equipment, can get very expensive. Be prepared to make compromises.
- Choose a lens. you may get a great DSLR, but you won't get great sports shots with an inadequate lens. For sports photography, you usually want a telephoto zoom lens that goes to 200mm or greater. Depending on where you will be shooting, you may require a "faster" lens (i.e. one with a low f stop number, usually 2.8 or lower). This allows the camera to take in as much light as possible to get the recommended shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second to really shoot the fast action.
- Read reviews and ask for advice on forums on websites like [1].
- If you decide on a DSLR camera, make sure you really want to stick with that brand. If you invest a lot of money into lenses and accessories, changing brands can be a costly adventure.
Tips
- Don't base your decision on pixel count. Sensor size is far more important. Six megapixels is plenty for a DSLR
- Lighting in gyms and sports venues is usually poor. Open up your aperture or raise your ISO. By raising your ISO, you can obtain a high shutter speed and freeze the action. The downside is the noise that comes with it.
- If you are shooting with a shutter speed of about 1/500 of a second or higher on a lens that have Vibration Reduction (VR) capabilities, make sure VR is switched to "off".
- Shutter speeds of 1/200 or higher begin to stop motion, but 1/1000 is recommended in order to make sure all motion is stopped.
Warnings
- Many cameras advertise image stabilizers to stop camera blur. Be aware that image stabilizers don't necessarily freeze action, they just reduce camera motion. For example, if you took a picture of someone a cartwheel on grass with a slow shutter speed, the grass would be sharp but the person would be blurry.
- Don't buy the first camera you come across. Research your options and take into account the things you will be shooting.
