Features like auto-focus are a great help to the action photographer.
If you're looking to do sports or any other type of action photography, choosing the right type of camera can be a confusing process. There are many different types of cameras available, and each has its own positive and negative points with regard to action photography. When searching for a good camera for taking action shots, selecting the correct type can ensure that you have all the features you need to take action shots.
Super-Zooms
Super-zooms are cameras with a large zoom range, generally over 15x zoom. Many different cameras can be classified as a super-zoom, and they are useful for taking shots at sports events. The zoom aspect makes these cameras the best option if you are taking action pictures when your subject is far away. Super-zoom cameras are larger than compact cameras, but they offer more choice in functionality than their smaller counterparts. Look for features such as auto-focus to help you in getting a good quality image of a moving target.
Advanced Digital Cameras
Action photographers ideally need a lot of options when it comes to the settings on a camera. Advanced, or "Prosumer" (pro-consumer) cameras offer a mixture of professional options for important factors such as shutter speed and generally simple operation suited to laymen as well as professionals. Again, the features that are offered by the particular model are important. "Burst" shooting, or taking multiple pictures with one extended button press, is useful for action photography because it means you can take multiple shots quickly. Look at the camera's frames-per-second rating to see if it is suitable for action photography. The best action cameras can take five or more frames per second. This gives you leeway in timing your button presses, and increases your chances of getting a perfectly timed shot.
DSLR Cameras
Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras are the best type of camera for action photography, according to Practical Photography Tips. These are the most expensive type of camera, but also give you the greatest control over the relevant functions and features. They perform well under low lighting and often have a variable shutter speed, auto-focus and a suitable frames-per-second rate. As well as this, DSLR cameras are able to store bursts of photographs in a memory buffer before having to take a moment to move the images to storage. This digital buffer memory increases the amount of burst photos you can take before having to stop. Cameras such as the Nikon D300, Sony DSLR-A700 and the Olympus E-3 have a great memory buffer. The former allows up to 100 images to be taken in a burst, and the latter two are only limited by the size of your main storage device. There are many suitable DSLR cameras, but the key factors that should influence your decision are maximum shutter speed (faster is better), ability to perform in low light (ISO performance), buffer size and auto-focus.
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