Camera Advice for sports photos

[mickyjordan11]

I am looking to purchase a new camera to take pictures of my kids cross country and track and field events. I started taking photos this past year and making slide shows for their banquets. Someone suggested the Nikon D60 Any ideas or advice? Thanks!!!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

More than the camera, it's the lens that will be the important factor when shooting sports. The D60 would do great, when it's got a fantastic lens attached to it...but maybe not so good when it's got the stock 'kit' lens.

One thing to keep in mind is that the D60 does not have an internal AF motor, so if you want to keep auto focus ability, you would have to use a lens that has it's own AF motor. There are plenty of those, but many Nikon lenses do not have it.

What is your budget?

 

[Seefutlung]

Most Cross Country and Track meets are during the day, so the CCD sensor of the D60 should be fine. If an event occurs at night or indoors (under the lights), you will have to elevate the ISO (make the sensor more sensitive to light ... the more sensitive to light the less light is required to make a proper exposure).

CCD sensors do very poorly in low light, high ISO situations, delivering an image which is extremely "noisey" (noise looks like grain on a film photo).

A CMOS sensor is superior to CCD for low light/high ISO images delivering an image which has much less noise than a CCD sensor.

Nikon cameras equipped with CMOS sensors begin with the D90 and better. All Canon cameras come with CMOS sensors.

Gary

 

[jameshudson45]

What's your budget, what sports are you trying to capture? What's your "qulity" expectation? I think we need more info on your needs.