Choosing a digital camera for sports photography may seem a daunting task. Your choice becomes much easier if you consider the right factors. This article is intended to help the serious amateur photographer consider the right factors to choose a camera that fits their budget and sports photography needs. 

Shutter Lag 

Shutter lag is the delay between pressing your finger down on the shutter, and the amount of time it takes for the actual picture to be taken. For some cameras, this can be less than 1/10th of a second, while for others it can be 2/10'ths or even 4/10th's. This assumes you have prefocused your shot, or else even longer shutter lag can be experienced. 
A few tenth's of a second doesn't seem like a lot, but it can be the difference between capturing a sports photo at it's defining moment versus capturing a shot well after the defining moment. 

Most sports photographers will agree that the least shutter lag is desirable and comes at a price. At time of writing this article, the Canon D1H, a 4 megapixel digital SLR with only 37ms (milliseconds) would be considered a sports photographer's dream camera at a street price of $2000-3000 US dollars. This camera's price and performance puts it above what most amateurs could afford. 

However, most amateurs would be best to avoid the cheaper point and shoot variety of cameras that have lots of shutter lag (greater than 2/10th's of a second, prefocused).

Shutter Speed 

Some point and shoot cameras offer a "sports scene" mode where the camera picks the shutter speed. I would not depend on a sports scene mode to take sports photographs with any regularity. I'd highly advise looking at a camera with an aperture speed priority. Most human action like running, jumping, skating or skiing can be frozen with a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. Obvously taking pictures of car racing will require a much higher shutter speed. Find out the fastest speed you will need and make sure your camera can deliver. 

Lenses 

Cameras are either fixed lense where the lense is permanently attached to the camera, or detachable in the case of a Digital SLR. Obviously the Digital SLR offers more flexibilty, because one lense could be used to take a great sports shot, while another lense might be switched to for other types of photography such as portraits or macro photography. 

My photography is close to the action. I am usually able to park myself within a few yards (or meters) of the athlete I take a picture of. If this is the case with your sport, then the wide angle of the lense is most important. A lens with a wide angle of 28mm (35mm film camera equivalent) is very preferable because it can take in a wide view at close range. Some cameras only offer 35mm as the widest angle, which is okay but not nearly as good as 28mm. 

If your taking pictures of action far away, like a soccer or football game, then the telephoto end of the lense is most important. Recommended is a 300m or even 400mm maximum telephoto to let you get really close to the action. Some fixed lense digital cameras offer 300mm (or 10x) at the the telephoto end of the zoom. This should work fairly well. 

Keep in mind the "speed" of the lense. The "speed" is defined as the maximum wide open aperture of the lense. A lense with a maximum aperture of F1.8 will let you take a picture in much lower light situations than, let's say, a lense with a maximum aperture of F2.8. "Fast" lenses, such as a 300mm telephoto zoom lens with a maximum aperture of F2.8 could set you back thousands of dollars. However, there are less expensive telephotos such as a 300mm F3.8 by Tamron or Sigma that could very well fit your price range. Keep in mind that these telephotos can only be attached to Digital SLR's, which are quite expensive in themselves before adding any lenses. Another compromise is to find a digital camera with a fixed 10x 300mm maximum telephoto lens. Luckily, my sports photography is close up, so a 28-200mm range works well for me. 

Continuous Shooting Mode 

Most digital cameras offer some sort of continuos shooting mode so that you can keep your finger pressed on the shutter and the camera just keeps clicking away. I've never been much of a fan of this technique, as I tend to compose my shots carefully. However, fast action sports lend themselves to taking as many shots as possible and sorting out the shot after the fact that captures the action best. 

Most inexpensive cameras offer on a few frames per second (fps) continuous shooting modes. Usually only a few shots are allowed to be stored in a "buffer". After the buffer is full, the camera freezes until the shots can be transferred to your storage media, which could take a few seconds. meanwhile, you could be missing some good shots.

More expensive cameras take upwards of 5 frames per second and store up to 20 consecutive shots before the "freeze" occurs where the camera must take time to save the buffer. If this feature is important to your sport or style, then be very exacting of the number of frames per second and buffer size you will need. To really do continous shooting mode justice, you would probably have to spend far more than you were planning. Maybe just be happy composing one good shot at a time. 

Megapixel Madness

On a monthly basis digital camera manufacturers are turning out cameras to entice us with more megapixels. I shoot for a local small paper. My shots are printed in the newpaper at 200 DPI (dots per inch) in black and white. At that print resolution, I could turn in photos taken by a 2 or 3 megapixel camera and get a shot printed in the newpaper that would be indescernable from a shot taken with a film camera. In fact, the publisher prefers images less than one megabyte in size so that his email doesn't get overloaded with all the pictures sent in by photographers. 

Does that mean that megapixels don't count? Oh yes, they do! And here's why. It's all about cropping...

I like to shoot my action shots "wide" with lots of frame around the action. Nothing worse than thinking you have the shot of the lifetime, only to realize after you've cut off an arm, the top of a head, or chopped the shot at the person's ankles. I like to shoot wide, then use photo software later to crop the photo. 

I use a 3 megapixel camera. I usually plan my shots so that I crop away about a third of the photo on average which leaves me with a two megapixel image. The image is just under the one megabyte size limit that the editor likes, yet has enough resolution to look good in the newpaper. 

Realistically, a 5 or 6 megapixel camera is even better. Shots can be made even wider for more safety (no cropped off arms, feet or foreheads). Photos shot wide mean more options for cropping. You can now pick a particular area of the photo that crops into a well composed image. Two thirds of a 6 megapixel image could be cropped away and still look good in a newpaper. Half a 6 megapixel image could be cropped and still look good as an 8 x 10 enlargement. 

More megapixels come at a price. A five or six megapixel camera is going to cost more than a three megapixel camera. More megapixels means needing larger media (1 gig flash cards, for instance). At time of writing this article, eight megapixel cameras are probably not worth the incremental price, as their images tend to have more "noise" (similar to "grain" found on a 35mm image). 

Pick the megapixel resolution of a camera you can afford, and fits the type of cropping you will do and how the image will be presented. Newspaper doesn't need a lot of megapixels. Photos for email use don't need a lot of megapixels. Color enlargements of 8 by 10 inches are larger need 3 megapixels or more. Keep in mind that any cropping you do using software later will reduce the resolution. 

Prioritize, Prioritize 

Sure, if we were all rich, we'd buy a Digital SLR with amazingly low shutter lag, a few several thousand dollar fast lenses, and be able to shoot 10 frames per second until our index finger gets sore. However, we are all constrained by budget and priorities driven by the types of photography we do. 

I would consider shutter lag the most important issue in a digital camera for sports photography. Try to find the camera with the least shutter lag possible. 

Secondly, I'd make sure the camera can work on shutter priority and offers the shutter speeds your looking for. 

Next priority is the lens. If your doing lots of close up photography, look for a camera with a nice 28mm wide angle lens. If your shooting at far away scenes, you'll need 300mm (10x) or better a the telephoto end. 

If flexiblity is your game, look at a Digital SLR. You can buy as many lenses as you can afford to take on any type of shooting assignment. If you're constrained by budget, look at a fixed lens camera. 

Megapixels are of least concern. Most cameras these days that have the sports photography features you're looking for will be 3 megapixel or better, capable of printing a decent 8 x 10 inch photo after cropping. If you can afford it, a 5 or 6 megapixel camera offers more cropping and better resolution. 

Finally

There's an old adage that the best camera is the one that gets used the most often. Figure out what your typical usage will be. If you're planning to shoot a couple of the kids soccer games two or three times a year, it would be hard to justify $3000 (us dollars) worth of camera gear. There should be a fixed lens digital camera that meets your shooting style and budget. 

However, if your out there every weekend in the rain, snow, sleet and hail, getting your pictures printed in the local paper with frequent requests from athletes for reprints, then by all means, go for it. Pull out all the stops and get yourself some really nice gear. You'll appreciate it long after the price is forgotten.

Terry Reiber shoots sports photography for a small local paper near Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA