Need advice on what camera to buy for sports!

[Sponge]

Hey everyone!

First of all, I'm new to these forums, so I want to say hi to everyone and introduce myself
My name is Christopher, I'm 15 years old and from Denmark. Last September I got a mobile phone with a really great camera, and it got me started on taking pictures!

I'm currently looking for a new camera tho. In my free time, I do [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjNsDJA1-Ao"]Parkour[/ame] and [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqY03NW5cNE"]Tricking[/ame], and that is also when I take most of my pictures.

And that's why I need a camera that can capture "the moment" of say, a backflip or in the middle of a jump without blur.

Another feature I would like to see is a good burst mode, that can take many pictures per second.
My former "camera," the Sony Ericsson K800i camera phone, did a great job at this. I'm not sure exactly how fast it was, but its "bestpic" feature would take 9 pics in about 3 - 4 seconds. Great for capturing the entire duration of a backflip (except it only took 9 pictures, not always enough), so you can select your favorite frame, or create pictures like this or this.

Obviously picture quality also means a lot to me, and i take many other pictures that are not sports related, that require more quality. But these features above are the main thing I need.

And I am willing to spend some money here!

Many thanks for any help!! =D
-Christopher

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

What is your budget here? The best camera would probably be the new Canon 1D MK III...it can shoot at up to 10 frames per second and probably has the best image quality of any digital camera in this format. Of course, it's several thousand dollars and you would need a good lens to go with it. :er:

 

[Sponge]

Haha, well I'm afraid I don't have that much money! My budget will be around a thousand dollars! However, if I can get it for under 600 dollars, then it I can get it for summer, where the weather will be best.

 

[sabbath999]

I have a friend who now has a MK III, and he is having real trouble with the focusing on it... it is shooting a LOT of frames out of focus. He works for newspaper, and has basically just gone back to his other equipment as his new camera is unusable (thank goodness the money didn't come out of his own pocket). Others are having this trouble as well. I think would be waiting for at least a firmware revision before I dropped $5K on a camera with spotty autofocus (I am sure this will be fixed toot-sweet).

 

[sabbath999]

For $600 (ish), you are looking at a Nikon D40 or D50, Canon , Pentax K10D, the Sony Alpha A100 or the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Then you will need at least one lens... for shooting sports, you are going to want something fairly fast... that will more than polish off your $400 remaining.

 

[Stretch Armstrong]

I have a friend who now has a MK III, and he is having real trouble with the focusing on it... it is shooting a LOT of frames out of focus. He works for newspaper, and has basically just gone back to his other equipment as his new camera is unusable (thank goodness the money didn't come out of his own pocket). Others are having this trouble as well. I think would be waiting for at least a firmware revision before I dropped $5K on a camera with spotty autofocus (I am sure this will be fixed toot-sweet).

Hey Sabbath, does your friend want to get rid of that awful camera? I could go as high as $0.50 on the dollar for what he paid for it AND I will haul it off at no extra charge.

 

[Sponge]

Thanks for the replies everyone I'll look into those cameras, Sabbath!

one question tho, just out of curiosity, why do no normal digital cameras, atleast point and shoot cameras, seem to be able to do the same as the K800i phone? it's just a phone.. but the 9 pictures were pretty fast. Is it because the RAM is faster than the cards in most cameras? Since I could only take 9 pics I would guess it was storing them in the ram...

But again, thanks for the help!

 

[ZyCzech]

Look for starter kits of the Nikon D50 or the Canon Digital Rebel XT.

They should come with everything you need, including the lens. Probably for under a grand.