What's best for sports photography?

[Rod]

Hi,

I, too am a confused shopper. Many of the features are well-detailed by consumers and reviewers alike. However, not much said about the clarity of pictures and ease of use with respect to sports photography. I'm hoping to score some excellent hockey shots this winter and want a camera in the $400-600 range.

If you have some experience with fast moving action shots and have been pleased, let me know.

Thank you in advance for your reply. :)

Rod

[George Riehm]

Hi,

I, too am a confused shopper. Many of the features are well-detailed by consumers and reviewers alike. However, not much said about the clarity of pictures and ease of use with respect to sports photography. I'm hoping to score some excellent hockey shots this winter and want a camera in the $400-600 range.

If you have some experience with fast moving action shots and have been pleased, let me know.

Thank you in advance for your reply. :)

Rod

The FZ15, may well be your deliverence. I think there are some shots from the Michigan State game this weekend on the Panasonic site.

[Dave Dilks]

Hockey rinks are generally characterized by poor lighting, so features you should look for are manual control and large aperture. Minimal noise at high ISO sensitivity would be nice, but probably not an option in your price range.

I've taken several thousand hockey pictures over the years with my Nikon 950 then 4500 and, and even though they weren't paticularly well suited for this use, ended up with some lovely pictures. I also immediately deleted a large percentage of them due to camera movement-induced blur at the relatively slow shutter speeds required. I just got a Panasonic FZ3, and we'll see if it's Image Stabilzation helps in this regard. This camera also has the capacity to maintain f2.8 over the entire zoom range, which should also help. I tried the camera at a football game last week (sample pictures in Panasonic forum) and will try it a hockey game this weekend.

Gee, George, you were my favorite poster here until you confused Michigan with Michigan State. :rolleyes:

[George Riehm]

Hockey rinks are generally characterized by poor lighting, so features you should look for are manual control and large aperture. Minimal noise at high ISO sensitivity would be nice, but probably not an option in your price range.

I've taken several thousand hockey pictures over the years with my Nikon 950 then 4500 and, and even though they weren't paticularly well suited for this use, ended up with some lovely pictures. I also immediately deleted a large percentage of them due to camera movement-induced blur at the relatively slow shutter speeds required. I just got a Panasonic FZ3, and we'll see if it's Image Stabilzation helps in this regard. This camera also has the capacity to maintain f2.8 over the entire zoom range, which should also help. I tried the camera at a football game last week (sample pictures in Panasonic forum) and will try it a hockey game this weekend.

Gee, George, you were my favorite poster here until you confused Michigan with Michigan State. :rolleyes:

Yah, a common mistake with Californicans (now transplanted to Arizonia). Sorry about that. :o UC and Cal State have so many campuses that we hardly distiguish anymore.