Camera for action shots. Help please.?

Question

I am becoming increasingly interested in photography. My brother races motorcycles and i love to take pictures of him on track and off. I use my mothers camera just now and it is a Sony Cybershot DSC-H3. It is a great camera but im looking for something with a better zoom to get closer shots of my brother. I need the camera to have a more than 10x zoom, steady shot, action/sport mode. Im not bothered about the size, just so long as it takes good pictures as they will be needed for publisising. I hope someone can help me! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks.

Answer 1

Action shots call for some kind of DSLR.  

P&S cameras suffer from shutter lag and while in some cases you can reduce shutter lag, shooting action basically requires a 35 mm SLR or DSLR camera.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/shutter-...

Now for the part you may not like ... you will need a camera that shoots in the RAW mode so you or your pre-press tech can convert them to TIFF files.  Magazines and other publications prefer to make their colour separations from TIFF files.

So what to do?

At this time the Nikon D40 is the least expensive entry level DSLR and with the 18-200 mm VR lens, you should have everything going for you when you start out on your new career.

Answer 2

Also, make sure the shutter speed is up there. I'd say 1/500 sec would do to stop a motorcycle.

If you have to raise the ISO rating to acheive this, you might want to take some test pics to see how much noise it will create in the pic.

'The Rat

Answer 3

I USE A SONY DSC-H7 , IT IS 8.1 MEGA PIXELS------15X OPTICAL ZOOM ----HAS A DIAL WITH 12 DIFFERENT MODES. I LIKE IT , BUT AS WITH ALL AUTO FOCUS THERE IS A TIME LAG IF YOU DON'T PRE-FOCUS . THE BEST CAMERAS ARE THE OLD MANUAL FOCUS 35 MM SLR'S , BUT YOU CAN'T GET A ZOOM OVER 10X WITH OUT BREAKING THE BANK .