I have finally found a system I like for capturing good close-up video or photos. (If you are looking at just capturing video for coaching or recording a full game you will want to use a camera pole - see my previous blog on 5/12/2015. This blog is more for just capturing close up videos or pictures - not whole games - especially for coaching.) To do this does require some investment. But I'm the type of parent that cannot just sit and watch a game. I needed a gig! After a little saving, and a whole lot of on-line searching, I came across the following elements that help an amateur capture great action clips. Below is a summary of these as well as a few pictures.
The camera: Cameras are getting better and better. It is amazing the speed and the quality of the different cameras out there. A good quality SLR camera in 1995 would cost from $20,000 - $30,000. Prices are now $400-$5000. There are a lot of cameras, but what I settled on was a Sony Alpha SLT-A77 camera. From the video standpoint - it takes full HD quality video. From the picture standpoint - the camera has 24 MP of resolution and can take a continuous shooting of 12-frames per second - that is a crazy speed and quality. It not only takes good pictures, it takes outstanding pictures and quickly. When a play is being made - I can shoot a lot of pictures and then edit through them later. There is too much happening to be able to see everything. So being able to take a large burst of pictures is very important.
The flash card: It is important that the flash card used is able to keep up with the size and speed of the camera. For the A77 I use a SanDisk Extreme Pro 16 GB card that records as 95 MB/s. This card holds a decent amount of video - but you may need to get more memory if you want to shoot a lot of HD close-up video. For pictures - the card holds plenty of pictures. I've had over 300 pictures on the card at once. Additionally I have not had trouble with it skipping some of the pictures because the flash card was recording too slowly.
Field lens: For the lens I use to capture the players - I had to shell out a little cash. I saved about 50-70% by shopping and being patient on e-bay. The lens I purchased that does a good job was the Sigma 50-500 mm 1:4-6.3 APO lens. For well-lit conditions - this lens is great. I can zoom all the way across a field and capture excellent video of a player or just a great picture. It can also zoom out to capture video or a picture on the close end of the field. I tried a couple different lenses (Sony 75-300 mm lens and a Tamron 70-300 mm lens), but neither could zoom in far enough to capture a player on the other side of the field. And they also don't provide the same contrast. This lens, unfortunately, does not work as well when the lighting is poor. Lenses with the same 50-500 mm that work well in low light are extremely expensive ($8,000 - $12,000) - a little too pricey for me.
Team pictures lens: For good quality team pictures - I just use a DT35 mm F1.8 SAM lens. But you can capture decent still photos with many cameras. It is the high speed pictures that are hard to capture - especially at a distance.