Most digital cameras can handle sports.
But when you start talking.... sports under low light conditions.....you look for a camera with the lowest f-stop when it is fully zoomed.
All lenses are rated for their brightest setting when not-zoomed. The majority of the cameras will have an f-stop of f2.8
When you zoom the lens to its fullest, the camera gets another rating for brightest setting and it is often around f4.5 to f4.8.
This means when you zoom out, your lens loses about 1 1/2 f-stops. When shooting in low light, this becomes critical.
Here is a link to f-stop information:
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=aperture
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The Panasonic FZ20 outshines the competition with a rating of f2.8-2.8 .... meaning.... it does not loose any brightness when fully zoomed.
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Shutter speed and brightness are related....because as you increase the shutter speed, you will need more light (brighter lens). You can (in effect) add more light by raising the ISO setting.
Here is a good write-up on "exposure":
http://www.pbase.com/otfchallenge/the_basics
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The point of all of this information is to let you know, that when you get into low light action shooting you will need to use the manual controls on the camera to get the best picture.
The ol' point and shoot method will not do the job.
The Panasonic FZ20 has a good set of manual controls.
It also has image stabilization.
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HELP!!! I need a camera to take good pictures of my kids sports ie, baseball, basketball, gymnastics, and football. I don't want to go with a camera that I need to change the lenses like the Canon EOS 20D. I know that I need a big zoom like a 10 or 12x. So, of all the no lense changing cameras out there, which has the fastest shutter speed ect. that would be great for sports. Thanks for any help you can give!!!

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