Digital Cameras Meet Sports Photography

By: Gene Wang

I’ve been taking pictures with a number of different digital cameras and digital video recorders for several years.  The great news is that now digital cameras have improved to the point that the quality of a digital picture is indistinguishable from film if printed in the right way.  However, there are a number of things you should know about digital cameras – especially if you haven’t already gone out and purchased your own and started figuring what I’m about to tell you, for yourself.  In this article, I’m going to answer five questions that many people have asked me as they evaluate moving up from a film to a digital camera. These include:

1. How does the quality of digital compare to traditional film
2. What are the technical issues to consider when looking at digital cameras
3. Which digital cameras do I personally use
4. Where is the best place to buy a digital camera
5. Which digital camera should I buy?

While answering these questions, I’d like to share some insights from experience with my personal collection of cameras, and then show off some pictures from a recent shoot at my niece’s soccer game.  Although I’m not yet the world’s greatest sports photographer, sharing these pictures was fun and easy and that’s why I do it.

1) How does the quality of digital compare to traditional film?

One of the biggest features that makes a digital camera different is that images are captured on a CCD sensor instead of on film.  And the most important factor effecting image quality is number of pixels in a camera’s CCD.  Each pixel records a point on the captured image, so the more pixels a camera’s CCD has, the more detail its pictures have.  Although I have read that matching the quality of film requires a 8.64 million pixel CCD, today’s 3.3 million pixel cameras produce prints that are virtually indistinguishable from film if printed professionally.  The fewer pixels you have in your camera, the smaller the print size that will look good.  The table below outlines some general guidelines we use at PhotoAccess.com to help determine ideal print sizes based on camera resolution.  We don’t recommend printing images below 640x480.
 
 

 2) What are the technical issues to consider when looking at digital cameras?

If the Achilles heel of a digital camera is battery life, then its calf is camera speed, its heart is sensor resolution, its eyes are the lens, and its memory is its storage device.

Battery life continues to be a major problem for digital cameras.  The biggest strength of a digital camera is that you can see the picture you just took immediately on the back of the built-in monitor.  However, the video monitor is also the biggest offender in draining the battery.  The solutions to dealing with short battery life are: 1) turning off the monitor when taking pictures and using it only for reviewing pictures, and 2) purchasing rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries and carrying spares.  Alkaline batteries don’t cut it.  Also, make sure that you buy a camera with an optical view finder, otherwise you won’t be able to frame your pictures in bright sunlight.

Camera speed is an area where digital cameras have not caught up to pro film cameras yet.  Motor drive speeds of film cameras are still faster than even the burst rates of digital cameras (those with a burst mode) because of the time it takes to write the image to memory.  If you are going to use your digital camera for sports photography, make sure that it has a manual mode where you can set the shutter speed and burst mode.  As a quick guide, use a shutter speed of 1/500 for automobile racing, 1/250 for biking, 1/125 for soccer and 1/60 for jogging. 

We’ve mentioned CCD resolution already but a related factor is how well the camera firmware processes or “color interpolates” the captured image.  In a 2 million pixel camera, the image sensor has approximately 1400 rows and 1400 columns with each pixel typically having either a red, green or blue color mask applied to its surface.   Since the human eye is most sensitive to green, image sensors frequently have twice as many green masks as red or blue masks.  So a typical 2 million pixel sensor might have around 1,000,000 green pixels, 500,000 red pixels and 500,000 blue pixels.  However, we still need to calculate the missing colors to get a complete RGB value for each pixel.  In other words, for the green pixels, we need to calculate red and blue values.  For the blue pixels, we need to calculate red and green values and so on.  This process of filling in the missing colors is called color interpolation.  The algorithms used by each camera vendor differ with some cameras such as the Nikon Coolpix producing very pleasing results and others that I won’t mention producing poor results.

When you think of sports photography, you normally think of a 35mm camera with a motor drive and a 300mm lens or better.  Typically, good digital cameras come with an optical zoom lens of 5mm to 16mm (equivalent to 35mm to 100mm in a film camera), with an additional digital zoom that can bring the action closer but loses sharpness in the process.  All of the pro digital cameras and many of the better consumer digital cameras feature interchangeable lens.  Of course, the cost of additional lens can really add up.  For example, one 80mm to 240mm lens costs $429 at cameraworld.com.  When you purchase a digital camera, be sure to get one with at least a 3x optical zoom built-in to bring you closer to the action.

In terms of memory, there are many different storage formats offered by different manufacturers.  My preferred format is the CompactFlash memory card because it has large capacity, is less expensive and is widely supported.  Other formats are SmartMedia, Sony memory stick, floppy diskette (used by the Sony Mavica) and the huge capacity but expensive IBM microdrive.  Also, a new SD memory card standard is being developed by Sandisk and others which is smaller and higher capacity.  One factor to consider is how you will connect your camera to your PC to empty your memory card.  My advice is to either get a camera with USB connectivity, or to also purchase a USB reader that you can insert your storage media in to.  Otherwise, transferring images takes way too long.

3) Which digital cameras do I personally use?

The cameras that I use personally are the Nikon Coolpix 990, the Nikon Coolpix 950, the Kodak DC260, the Kodak DC210, the Canon Powershot A5, the Sanyo SX550 and the Sony Digital Handycam DCR-PC100.  Below I summarize the features, strengths and weaknesses of each:

Nikon Coolpix 990: I think this is the best consumer digital camera available today, but it’s pricey at $999.  The resolution is a whopping 3.3 million pixels, the lens is great, and the image processing is excellent.  It also connects to the PC via USB so transferring images is fast.  The Coolpix 990 has an optical zoom of 3X and a digital zoom that can be used to further enlarge photos electronically by up to 4X.

For sports-photography, the Coolpix 990 has a cool feature called Continuous Photography. Using the Continuous menu, you can set the camera to shoot multiple photographs in sequence or even record short movies.  For example, in VGA sequence mode, the camera takes a series of 640x480 photos at approximately 2 frames per second.  In Ultra HS mode, the camera takes a series of 320 x240 photos at approximately 30 frames per second.  And in Movie mode, the camera takes a 40 second movie and stores it in QuickTime format. 

Nikon Coolpix 950:  This is the predecessor to the Coolpix 990 and is now being sold at the lower price of $769 at www.d-store.com.  It features a resolution of 2.1 million pixels and still produces excellent pictures.  Like the Coolpix 990, the zoom lens can swivel completely around so that you can actually hold the camera and take a picture of yourself.  However, the Coolpix 950 connects to the PC via a slow serial connection.  Also, the CompactFlash card is inserted in to the bottom of the 950 which means that if you have the camera on a tripod, you need to dismount it to change film.

Kodak DC260:  This camera has one of the nicest user interface designs, making its advanced features more accessible.  It is powered by the innovative Digita Operating System.  It features a resolution of 1.6 mpixels, a 3X optical zoom and 2X digital zoom.  Its weight at 1.2 lbs. makes it a bit heavy to carry around.  The DC260 has now been discontinued, replaced by the excellent DC290 2.3 mpixel camera.

Kodak DC210: This camera is so easy to use that I gave it to my mom who loves it.  It features a resolution of 1 mpixels, a 3X optical zoom and 2X digital zoom. The DC210 has now been discontinued, replaced by the fun DC240 1.3 mpixel camera.  In general, I like the Kodak user interface design as the friendliest with a well thought out menu structure.

Canon Powershot A5:  This camera features a very compact design which makes it easy to carry around.  It features a resolution of 810K.  The battery is Ni-MH and seems to last for longer than either of my Nikon cameras which run off 4 AA batteries.  However, the pictures are of noticeably lower quality than either of the Nikons.  Also, there is no zoom which is a big drawback for sports photography.

Sanyo SX550:  This camera is made by the same company who manufactures the digital for Nikon, Olympus and Epson.  It’s a little known fact that the number one digital camera manufacturer is Sanyo Electric.  The SX550 is also compact but achieves the size reduction with a bad design tradeoff.  It is powered by only 2 AA batteries which makes it run out of juice too quickly.  One trick that I mentioned earlier is to turn off the monitor in back and use the optical view finder to frame your picture.  Sanyo was one of the first to pioneer movie-mode which is a great way to make sure you catch each frame of that sports game.

Sony Digital Handycam DCR-PC100:  One of my favorite devices is the new Sony Handycam.  It’s one of the first digital video cameras featuring a 1 million pixel CCD (most of the video cameras are 640x480 or VGA resolution).  This palm-sized video camera records motion video on MiniDV digital video cassettes and also records still images on Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick.  To view the video, you simply connect the camera up to the TV and play.

The DCR-PC100 features a 120X digital zoom and connects to the PC using a very high speed Firewire connection.  We also separately purchased PhotoDV from Digital Origin.  This plug-in board and software allows you to directly control and capture still images directly from the video cassette in the DCR-PC100.  While the images taken by the DCR-PC100 are not as good as any of the digital cameras, they are adequate for viewing on the web.  The biggest drawback of the DCR-PC100 is its price – a whopping $2,000.

4) Where is the best place to buy a digital camera? 

The answer to this question depends on whether you care most about price or support.  The lowest prices and best selection that I’ve found are on the net at places like www.cnet.com, www.d-store.com, and www.bhphotovideo.com.  If you want to actually try out different cameras before you buy, then you have to go to a store with a good selection. 

There are at least four great web sites for up to date information on digital cameras: www.dpreview.com, www.imaging-resource.com, www.steves-digicams.com and www.dcresource.com.  Each of these sites has product reviews, latest technology articles and lots of pictures.  They also have bulletin boards where you can ask questions from the avid digital photographers who frequent these sites.

In Palo Alto, there is an amazing photography store called Keeble and Shuchat with a knowledgeable staff and good selection.  They have a web site at www.kspphoto.com.  They also provide follow on support and consulting advice.

5) Which digital camera should I buy?

I have just devoured my latest edition of digitalFOTO (November 2000) where they review 25 HOT digital cameras and tell you which one to buy.  I was pleased to see their conclusions agree with my own.  DigitalFOTO grouped the cameras into three price categories - $1 to $500, $501 to $1,000 and $1,001 and up. 

The winner of the under $501 category was the very nice Olympus D-460 Zoom at $309.  The D-460 features a 1.3 mpixel CCD, 3X optical zoom and longer life lithium batteries.  Unfortunately, the storage media is SmartMedia, not the more popular CompactFlash memory cards.  Some other great cameras I like in this category are the 2.1 mpixel Olympus D-490 at $499 and the Nikon Coolpix 800 at $412.  The winner of the $501 to $1,000 category was the fabulous Nikon Coolpix 990 at $999 (discussed below).  And the winner of the $1,001+ category was the powerful Nikon D1 at $5,000.  For my money, I’d buy the Nikon Coolpix 990.

The Goal of Digital Photography

I recently took some pictures of my niece’s soccer game with my Coolpix 990 in VGA burst mode and was able to stop the action pretty well.  Later that same day, I uploaded the pictures to the web and sent them to her dad and friends.  I also ordered 3x5 prints from PhotoAccess.com along with some coffee mugs with pictures of some of my neighbors from a recent block party that we had.  As a result, my neighbors love me, my niece thinks I’m cool and we’re still undefeated in soccer. 

The whole goal of photography for me is to share life’s precious moments and spread joy among friends and family.  And there is no better, faster, easier way to do that than with digital photography.  What more could anyone ask for? 

Gene Wang is the Founder and Chairman of PhotoAccess.com Corp., an online photo printing company.  Gene lives in Palo Alto with his wife Leslie, his three children, Gina, Sally and Andrew, and two very bad dogs.