Action Shots

[sdesros]

I am a point and shoot type of person, but my wife has started to manually manipulate our 35mm SLR.

I want to be able to take pictures of my kids playing soccer and marching in the high school band. The kids are moving fast and can be 50 yds away. I know that I need a good optical zoom. I will also need a fast auto focus.

She wants to take the typical family pictures, vacation, birthday parties, etc.

We are looking at the Cannon S1 IS, DiMage Z3, Pan FZ3, FZ10 and FZ20, although we are open to other suggestions.


We hope to narrow the search down to 2 or 3 models, then go to the store and try them out.

[PhilR.]

Since cost is often a consideration, I thought I would mention that the Circuit City web site has the Pana. FZ3 on sale for $339, and it also comes w/a $50 rebate, bringing the cost down to $289. This is almost half the price of the FZ20, which is now going for $569 there.

You can place the order online and then pick it up at a local store if you have one - no waiting for delivery! The nice thing about doing business with them is that it is easy to return the camera if there is something wrong.

All of your choices would serve you well, but unless you can find one of the others for under $289 (not likely), I would jump on that deal.....

PhilR.

[m123456]

use it on fz3 which is great b/c while you might miss the exact shot you want at least you can get a clean non blurry image within a nanosec of orig.

btw had some 8x10 fz3 sent to me via shutterfly. I was concerned about 3mp but honestly I would think it was shot by 35slr. Great pics. For money $290 hard to imagine anything close. Though some have complained about skin tones being overly pink, I haven't seen this...yet.

good luck.

btw all digicams seem to stink at taking action and low light movement shots.

[Dave Dilks]

In a similar position a few months ago, I narrowed my choices down to the FZ3 and Canon S1, and ended up choosing the FZ3. A couple thousand pictures later, I'm very happy with the choice. It has the big advantage for long distance action photography of being able to maintain f2.8 aperture throughout its zoom range. This allows for faster shutter speeds during marginal lighting and much less motion blur.

One advice for action photography: learn how to anticipate where your next picture will be and pre-focus the camera prior to the shot. Shutter lag for the FZ3 (and most similar cameras) is pretty minimal once the camera is focused; however, it can cause you to miss a lot of shots if you wait until the precise moment of action before focusing. You don't have to know exactly where the shot will be when pre-focusing, as long as you pick a spot close to the action.