what is the best digital camera for extream sports/ action sports? and what are some good inexpancive ones?
Are you looking for a camera that you can carry with you as your ride? Or a camera that you lug around?
A camera that you take while riding will need to be small and durable. A camera that you lug around to film can be bigger and have a faster lens and be better quality.
My biggest disappointment with the standard digital cameras is the poor performance in low light. They don’t have fast lenses to begin with and digital cameras by their nature aren’t as light sensitive as a film camera with 800 ASA or 1600 ASA film.
For muni action shots you need a camera capable of taking shots in low light. Often there is not much light on the trail due to tree cover. Very challenging to shoot and get a good sharp action shot. Good action MTB and muni shots will often require several large external flash units all synced together. I stumbled upon a photo shoot on a trail. The photo there got published in a MTB magazine. They had a bunch of external flashes set up along that section of the trail and the photo was taken with a digital SLR. It was a backpack load of photo equipment. But that’s what you need to take a good action photo on a trail that has tree cover.
For trials you can shoot in more open areas and get better light.
Things to look for:
A fast lens. A larger aperture which means smaller F-stop numbers.
A camera that can fake 400 ISO or 800 ISO film speed. It will decrease the digital photo quality but that’s better than a blurry photo. A digital camera with a fast lens and the ability to fake 800 ISO film will do better for action shots.
walmart has an okay one for 100 dollars its a movie camera that can also take stills
Hobby wall: any pic’s taken with that cameria?
John childs: Thank you, Your the best> No muni for me. carry around camera would be best. only street and trials. could you please repeat what you said to look for, because im not a photographer,yet, and it was hard to understand all of it.
Go to the library and find a book on basic photography. Something that goes through and explains all about exposure, aperture (f-stops), shutter speed, film speed, and other basics. Even better if it covers topics like depth of field, flash photography, what an SLR camera is, and other topics.
I did a quick Google search for a web site that gave a good basic introduction to those topics but didn’t find anything good. Lots of sites that have photography tutorials but they all assume that you already know the basics. The best I found was Free Course: Basics of Photography but I didn’t find it to be very good and it lacks diagrams and pictures.
A digital SLR camera is going to give you better action photos. Better lens, better controls, better focusing, faster ISO speeds, and very expensive. But you did ask what the best camera would be. Figure over $1000 for the camera and a few accessories. Look at the photos of Xavier Collos. They’re taken with a digital SLR camera by someone who knows what they’re doing. The photos in his gallery look very good.
Realistically you’ll be looking at a point and shoot compact style camera. They can still take good pictures but are more clumsy to get the kind of control you can get with an SLR and focusing might not be as good as the SLRs. But a good compact camera can still take good photos. The trick is choosing the right camera that will be suited to the kind of pictures you want to take.
Something else that you might want to look for is a camera that can take lots of shots in rapid order. Like a high speed motor drive. That will make it easier to get action shots. Something that can get several frames per second.
For reviewing digital cameras check out:
Digital Photography Review
Steve’s Digicams
i loved dpreview when i was picking out my nikon a few years ago. it has a super long list of features and you select what you want and it spits back the cameras that fit your criteria, with reviews, info, and links to places to purchase. very nice.