New to everything Please help!?!

[baseball mom]

Hi everybody. I want to buy a camera for baseball. My 2 boys play in the little leagues. I want to be able to catch action shots. I went to Best Buy and I was getting convinced on a Nikon d40 I believe. I just want to take good pictures of my boys swinging, diving catching. So please help.
Thank you very much

Elena
Baseball Mom

[Photo-John]

I think the D40 is a good way to get started. It's not an expensive camera as far as digital SLRs go so you're not taking a huge risk. How much of a budget do you have? For baseball you'll probably want a longer lens so you can zoom in on your boys while they're in the field. I don't shoot baseball, but I am guessing a 300mm is about right. Most of us believe in saving money on the camera body and spending more on lenses. Getting the D40 fits that strategy and if you've got a little more to spend, you can add an inexpensive 70-300mm zoom lens and you'll be set. Of course, if you get really into it, you'll want to spend more. But the D40 will get you started.

[freygr]

I have to agree with Photo-John. But you need to make sure you purchase a compatible lens. Unless you feel that you need VR don't purchase a VR lens unless your will to spend any where from a 1/3 to twice the cost of a non-VR lens. Also not you can purchase film lenses to use with the D40 with the correct AF will work just fine. But be aware that longer focal length lenses have much shallower Deep of Field (abv: DOF, area that is in focus) and must be stopped down to small apertures (f16 or greater) before you get the same DOF of the kit lens.

[baseball mom]

Sorry to answer super late, but thank you for the help. I was thinking of getting a D40 and I am already going to buy one January. Soon I will be posting pictures, I am so excited. Thanks a lot for everything.

Elena

[Photo-John]

I look forward to seeing your pictures. You should post some on the Sports Photography forum. There are some very experienced sports photographers there who will be able to give you some great advice for shooting baseball.

[rovowen]

I may be too late but would like to let you know about the 70-300mm lens range. I own a Tamron 70-300mm and was very disappointed in soft and out of focus shots. Did put it on a mono-pod and got some good shots then. But over-all was not happy with it.
But at times it did come through.

[Dstrickland]

I maybe a little too late with this response but you're getting good advice here. I made some cash taking photos of little league and I did pretty well with a manual focus camera and 80-200mm zoom lens before I bought a longer lens. Get close and shoot the lens wide open. Fill the frame with the player and you will love the effect. Anticipate movement and you will be rewarded each time.
I have a couple shots on a website I'm putting together. Take a look and you'll see what I'm trying to explain.

stricklandsports.bravehost.com

[Squidward]

Okay, I'm coming in late, too.

With telephoto lenses you have to keep in mind that it is much easier to get vibration induced blur. The general rule of thumb as far as blur is concerned is that the minimum shutter speed you should attempt to use hand-held is the inverse of the focal length. For example, if you are using a 300 mm lens then I would not try to shoot hand held below 1/300 of a second. This may not be an issue on a bright sunny day but it will be if you are taking pictures at a night game. A VR lens, while more expensive, helps stabilize the image to reduce vibration. In this case you can take pictures down to about 1/75 of a second with a 300 mm lens. This can make the difference between having pictures of the event or none (I delete all of my blurry shots).

You should get a tripod for those situations where the light is dim and vibration induced blur is a reality.