Jump to content


Help with camera choice

Recommended Posts

Hi All

Im looking to do some sports photography so need a camera with a fast shutter speed, all i have at the moment is a samsung mobile phone so pictures are to say the least blurred for the action shots.

If anyone can advise me on a cheap camera that will do the job or even a second hand one if that would be the way to go.

The sport im photographing id table tennis and action comes thick and fast.

 

Thank you to anyone that can help.

 

P.S. Around £100 ish

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, this isn't something that can be answered so easily. I think you need to do a bit of digging on your own, but I can tell you what to look for and that may help, eh?

 

If you want to take photographs of fast action like sports, you may want to look into a camera where you can control the F-Stop/Number, the ISO, and the Shutter Speed.

 

When you have access to all three of these you are able to reach the zenith of the triforce that is ISO, Shutter Speed, and F-Stop. Light is what you are trying to capture, and in order to do so in certain locations you'll need to be able to have a high enough ISO with an F-Stop open wide enough, and a shutter speed just right so that you don't get a shaky image. When I studied I had to do EVERYTHING in Manual, but there are certain modes a camera can have which I think are pretty helpful. Like Aperture (f-stop) priority, or shutter priority modes. These basically let you only worry about the one or the other along with the ISO, while the camera does the rest. It is better when you are in a fast passed situation like Table Tennis or sports in general.

 

Basically, you'll need a camera that lets you play with all of these. I would recommend something like a small nikon with a back screen, those are pretty nice and let you play around enough to get the sense of the thing, or if you want to get dirty, diving in with a digital SLR that has a decent size sensor, with a fixed lensor "prime lens", perhaps a 35mm or 50mm to start with. You can usually get a pretty open F-stop with those (1.8 at least) and that helps a lot with helping your camera operate with speed.

 

There is a lot to do with cameras, but I would recommend reading something on the subject first to really get to grips with what you are doing. There is a book I picked up for the hell of it, it is called "Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs" by Henry Carroll. For me it was a sort of brush up on stuff every photographer should know, but I can see it being very helpful for beginners. I found it recently in the upstair Museums' little shop at Central Library.

 

Well, I didn't tell you what camera to buy, but I think now you have an idea of what to look for!

 

—A camera that can reach a high ISO

—A lens which can operate at wide F-Stops would be preferable (at the very least 1.8 but can be higher or up to 25)

—A decent Sensor

—check out the battery life

—make sure you have enough space for your pictures

—have fun. The whole point is trial and error, don't be afraid to take pictures.

 

I hope this helped. Post some pics when you're there!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well, this isn't something that can be answered so easily. I think you need to do a bit of digging on your own, but I can tell you what to look for and that may help, eh?

 

If you want to take photographs of fast action like sports, you may want to look into a camera where you can control the F-Stop/Number, the ISO, and the Shutter Speed.

 

When you have access to all three of these you are able to reach the zenith of the triforce that is ISO, Shutter Speed, and F-Stop. Light is what you are trying to capture, and in order to do so in certain locations you'll need to be able to have a high enough ISO with an F-Stop open wide enough, and a shutter speed just right so that you don't get a shaky image. When I studied I had to do EVERYTHING in Manual, but there are certain modes a camera can have which I think are pretty helpful. Like Aperture (f-stop) priority, or shutter priority modes. These basically let you only worry about the one or the other along with the ISO, while the camera does the rest. It is better when you are in a fast passed situation like Table Tennis or sports in general.

 

Basically, you'll need a camera that lets you play with all of these. I would recommend something like a small nikon with a back screen, those are pretty nice and let you play around enough to get the sense of the thing, or if you want to get dirty, diving in with a digital SLR that has a decent size sensor, with a fixed lensor "prime lens", perhaps a 35mm or 50mm to start with. You can usually get a pretty open F-stop with those (1.8 at least) and that helps a lot with helping your camera operate with speed.

 

There is a lot to do with cameras, but I would recommend reading something on the subject first to really get to grips with what you are doing. There is a book I picked up for the hell of it, it is called "Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs" by Henry Carroll. For me it was a sort of brush up on stuff every photographer should know, but I can see it being very helpful for beginners. I found it recently in the upstair Museums' little shop at Central Library.

 

Well, I didn't tell you what camera to buy, but I think now you have an idea of what to look for!

 

—A camera that can reach a high ISO

—A lens which can operate at wide F-Stops would be preferable (at the very least 1.8 but can be higher or up to 25)

—A decent Sensor

—check out the battery life

—make sure you have enough space for your pictures

—have fun. The whole point is trial and error, don't be afraid to take pictures.

 

I hope this helped. Post some pics when you're there!

 

Brilliant post, thank you for taking the time to post it all.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for that. It's a shame we can't post some photos in this sections, to take a look at ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You can always share pictures on websites like https://postimage.org and then use their "thumbnails for forums" link in the post, it will show a thumbnail and also give a link to see the image larger in their own website, it is how they manage to pay for the hosting. It is best if you have your images scaled down a bit, easier to upload and for viewers on the user side to download. Oh, and just so you know, this image is using a wide F-stop with low light and a tripod. I think the ISO wasn't too high, otherwise you'd see a bit of what we call noise in the image, or a sort of texture. Anyhow, this is just an example of low light, wide f-stop (low f-stop number, probably like 3.5, 1.8 would show the background even blurrier/out of focus), and an ISO at about 800 or so. I hope this helps. Thanks for the positive comments, I'll share more if I find more interesting ones lying about.

 

DSC4407_001_DSC4407.jpg

 

---------- Post added 14-11-2016 at 22:26 ----------

 

In contrast this image is taken with a small f-stop (f 22 or so, I know, counterintuitive), the day happened to be a bit overcast, but with enough light to get everything in the picture. Granted, it has taken a bit of post editing, but just look at how the foreground seems to be almost on the same plane as the background, this is caused because the focal point is much wider than on a wide fstop (think wide f-stop short focal area and short fstop wide focal area). What happens also is that you can get to a certain point where your lens will focus everything from a certain distance on to infinity. This helps to shoot with a 1.8 fstop in darker days if you are aiming to have the whole background show up. It is all tricks of the trade, to be quite frank with you. I would almost say this image is 1.8 fstop, but the foreground is in focus as is the house in the background, usually you would have a bit of the foreground out of focus if you happen to be shooting the ground the way this shot is taken. Hope this makes sense. :huh:

 

 

DSC0646_2.jpg

Edited by juju42

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.