Need a camera for sport shots (inside hockey rink) as well as general use

[cjc]

Hi, my son plays hockey and we realize our Pentax Optio 330GS just doesn't do the job inside the rink.

Can someone suggest a camera (moderate to higher price) that has a good sport setting, easy to use - I'm just a point and shoot person although I can manage some settings - and offers good resolution. Our current camera doesn't seem to have settings that compensate enough for the lower light inside the rink and the glare from the ice. I've also seen photos from another parent whose camera has a sport setting and 18X zoom but the resolution still isn't that great. I can't remember the make of the camera but it was in the $600 range.

If I need to give more info/better info than this please let me know. Thanks!

[griptape]

"moderate to higher price" means absolutely nothing without either an itemized listing of your income and expenditures, or, probably easier, your actual price range in dollars.

[cjc]

price range $600 - $1000

[TheWengler]

DSLR or P&S? How far will you be from the action? How close do you expect to be able to zoom in? How's the lighting? The 18x zoom doesn't mean much. That's just a ratio of the max and min focal lengths. Do you know if this person is zooming all the way in or not? That might help to determine what kind of focal length you need.

[griptape]

For your budget, a Canon XT and 70-200 f/4L shouldn't disappoint. There are other equally capable systems, (olympus, pentax, nikon, etc.) I'm just most familiar with Canon, and that's what I would personally go with under the same circumstances.

[cjc]

Thanks griptape, I'll look into that.

Wengler, after doing a bit of research I'm definitely looking at a DSLR. I would normally be between 60 - 200ft. away from the action and would zoom in to capture an entire player on the ice. Lighting is usually terrible - dim interior artificial light with white glare off the ice. My current P&S is useless, can't capture movement or compensate for the lighting, so I don't bother and rely on others with better cameras to get shots.

I have never really used many settings on my cameras (just a few on my old 35mm film camera which was great) but am willing to learn. Given the pace of hockey games however, I would not want to be fiddling with menus. I'd rather be able to set something quickly and shoot.

[David Metsky]

Given the pace of hockey games however, I would not want to be fiddling with menus. I'd rather be able to set something quickly and shoot.
Since all the action is similar, you'd really only need to set the controls once and then just shoot the entire game.

[cjc]

I found, when trying to use my P&S, that if the shot I wanted was closer to me, in a corner of the the rink, the lighting varied from shots that I might take 100 - 150ft, away, across the ice. However, it might have been due to the fact that I had no clue how to adjust the settings on the camera (and it was not the right camera for sports action).

[griptape]

If you're shooting in auto mode with a point and shoot, it will adjust its settings every shot. If you use manual settings, you're more likely to get it right more often if you set it once and just shoot. Also, you may not want to mess with post processing too much, but one of the great advantages of an SLR is that they all have RAW ability, which gives you much greater flexibility to fix it afterwards if the shot is too dark or too bright or the white balance is off.

[raven15]

I have been recommending and Olympus E-510 with 70-300mm f4-5.6 lens to people in situations like yours. It has an aperture of f/4.5 at the same telephoto zoom as the Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens, very similar in terms of light. The difference is, the Olympus lens zooms to 600mm at f/5.6, double the telephoto capacity of the Canon lens. Plus, the Olympus has image stabilization which is useful in long telephoto pictures, whereas a tripod would be likely needed with the Cannon. Also, the E-510 is a much better camera than the Canon XT (if not the XTi), and the Olympus kit lens is better than the Canon kit lens. Conclusion: for the same price, the E-510 + kit lens + 70-300mm lens is a better camera than the XT + kit lens + 70-200mm lens, for your needs.

Image stabilization is useful in shooting action, at telephoto zooms. A shutter speed of 1/100s might acceptably "freeze" motion, but if it was at a telephoto zoom of 300mm, the shot would still be blurry. So, at a focal length of 600mm, imagine how useful IS would be. Able to take sharp pictures at 600mm (longer than any comparable point and shoot OR dSLR) , 1/150s, f/5.6, in a much smaller lens than the Canon, for under $1000!

Not arguing that the Olympus telephoto is better quality than the Canon L lens, just that it is more capable for the given situation (and, in fact, most situations), and image quality would be indistinguishable between the two to 99.9% of the population.

Sorry to parrot one brand, but that was the conclusion I reached after a month of research, so I'd like to think it was a least somewhat decent conclusion.

[cjc]

This info is great and now I know where to start my research. I've not made the effort to learn that much about different cameras or their settings/capabilities but I have more incentive now. I've been looking up the terminology to make sure I understand it.

A huge thank you for all your replies!