Follow baseball with a camera?

Question

when the video camera shows a baseball or golf ball flying in the air really fast, but up close... is that just a really good camera person or is there some technology helping out?

Answer 1

Most likely it's the result of good camera work but mostly technology. It is very difficult to track a ball of any size that close with traditional zoom. Just use a wide shot and then use digital technology to crop the video replay, with software programmed to track an object defined by the computer operator.

The computer simply tracks the baseball and crops the picture as needed. High-definition cameras make it even more feasible because you can crop tight without losing much overall resolution that's discernible to the eye. Notice that before digital cameras and digital production that such shots were never used -- they weren't possible to get with plain video tape and analog editing.

Answer 2

most likely the camera person but i am sure they have some sort of technolgy like dat

Answer 3

The good ol' zoom button.