Camera for Sports

[David Ruby]

Last weekend, I made an attempt to photograph my 5 year old sons soccer game. I have a Pentax PZ70 with a 28-200 tamron zoom. I'm aware that this level of camera doesn't necessarily have the hightest quality autofocus system, and it was very evident last weekend.

My dilema is that I like the Pentax line because I'm somewhat bought into it. I have this PZ70, a couple lenses and an old ME Super. I like the fact that I can use new and old lenses on any Pentax camera, and I'm not all that excited about changing brands. I've had this camera for quite awhile, and I'm very comfortable with it.

Now, I don't plan to go into sports photography, I simply would like to be able to get some action shots of my kids as they participate in sports in the coming years. I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts on the Pentax line of cameras for this type of shooting. Back when I bought my PZ70, the PZ1P was Pentax's pro level camera. Does anyone know if the PZ1P has a better autofocus system (I like some of the other benefits of this model as well)? Or, do I need to look at a Cannon or Nikon for this? I've been watching Ebay etc. and the PZIP has come down in price significantly since I last looked at them. Thanks all!

 

[geraldatwork]

I use an Nikon N80 with a Tamron 70-300 to photography my son's football games. While the auto-focus works fairly well I usually find myself going to the manual focus. Often the auto-focus will pick something out in the background to focus on as I'm keeping up with the action. With practice I find manual focus works pretty well.