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General discussion

Help with action shots

by AnthonyZ_68 Feb 18, 2009 12:11PM PST

Checking out ths link shows my problem. http://picasaweb.google.com/ElkhornWrestlingClub/DeForest2009#slideshow

Any action shots are so blurry as to make the participants unrecognizeable.

I would like to take video of the matches and have the ability to take frame captures for the slideshows. The webmaster says he would post some of the video also.

I checked around and two people have mentioned the Sony DCR-SR47. Will this unit do the trick? If not, does anyone have a suggestion? Clear action pictures are most important but want video capability for general use.

Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Suggestion ?
by Papa Echo Feb 18, 2009 10:37PM PST

If you want clear and sharp stills for a slide show, use a digital SLR camera, preferably a full sensor model with shutter speed of at least1/4,000 sec. If you must capture stills from a video footage, you need a professional model video camera with a high frame rate and which shoots at a very high resolution...

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Ideas
by AnthonyZ_68 Feb 19, 2009 1:50AM PST

What would anybody recommend? This is not my area of expertise. I am trying to help the local club and will learn on the fly. Suggested models would be great!

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First, start with what you have...
by boya84 Feb 19, 2009 8:20AM PST

You did not tell us what captured those shots.

If possible, just increase the shutter speed on THAT camera first. If that works, great. If not, then go to the next step.

But we don't know if the shutter speed is adjustable on the existing equipment because you did not tell us what was used.

When you increase the shutter speed, the aperture (or iris) needs to open wider - but this can be left at auto for now. You will notice that the image in the viewfinder will start getting darker if you open the shutter too much. Pay attention to this "balance".

All camcorders in different ranges have basically the same sized lenses and imaging chips... Larger lenses and imaging chips = improved low-light performance (or faster manually set shutter speed is possible in good lighting) = more expensive.

The $ ranges are approximately:

up to $250
up to $500
up to $1,000
up to $2,000
over $3,000

The Sony DCR-SR45 falls into the "up to $500" so it likely won't resolve your issue... or will only be "marginally better" than whatever took the shots you shared with us. Presuming everything is left in "auto" mode.

Notice there were a few clear shots - that is because there was no motion for the time the shutter was open capturing the video. Default shutter speed is generally 1/60. Increasing the shutter speed reduces the shutter open time which results in a probability of no motion during the video capture... A good still camera does the same thing, but it is designed for taking stills, not video.

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