New, in many ways

[markfox]

Hi all,

Firstly, i wanted to say that this forum looks rammed with great info, im looking forward to getting through each section and learning (a lot) by the looks of things, even though other topics have touched on what im wanting to know, i thought it best to start from scratch.

Im completely new to digital photography, I have a very general non specific digital cam (fuji finepix f10), its been quite nice over the years, nothing special but i didnt need anything special until now.

My brother is a pro wrestler here in the UK, as of recent i have taken my f10 to events to take a few pics for him etc. This has spawned an interest, i have managed to gain a few great shots, and many terrible shots.
I believe from what i have been told that my angles and positioning are good, but my lack of general camera knowledge and not having a decent 'sports able' camera is holding me back, and to be honest, annoying me.

Im managing to get ok'ish pics during 'rest holds', this is a point in a wrestling match where the wrestlers will lock up in a submission move, or where they look and pose in front of the crowd (all the while, they are quite still).
Any movement and i have no joy what so ever.

*The lighting at wrestling shows is usually very low, generally dimmed or fully out around the crowd, but with bright spot lights around/above the ring.
*The wrestlers move generally quite fast, other that the mentioned 'rest holds' they are moving/running/jumping/hitting etc, it proves impossible for me to currently get ANY non blurred shots.
*They wear very colourful and intricate designs and patterns

I thought id mention the above so you have an idea of what im trying to work with.

The point of this thread - Im looking for a budget camera that will work nicely with everything mentioned. I need to know if iwant to progress before getting something too expensive, id say a budget of $350 is what i have to work with (cheaper the better obviously)

I have zero knowledge about cameras, set ups, features, what they do, why they do it, does all numbered features = the higher number the 'better' the feature?? etc etc.
Now im not expecting a tutorial from anybody on this post, im sure i can find a layman's terms thread somewhere on here. But if anyone can give me a rough idea of what kind of spec i would need and why? that would be fantastic.

If anyone can suggest any cameras at all, id be very very grateful.

I really look forward to reading some replies, thanks again!!

Mark

[markfox]

Less replies than i thought, but fair enough.

Well i wonder if anybody could answer me the following based on the above. Instead of relying on other people, i decided to do a bit of research and found a few different points of view on which functions would be useful on a camera.

I found out that a Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-H9 maybe a good first buy, can anyone confirm that this would be a good option for my needs?

thank you

[Frog]

I don't have the answers for you but I'll just bump it along in case others just missed it.

[mattyj]

I think you will struggle in low light with anything other than SLR unfortunately...im only a novice myself, however ive tried shooting basketball with a non SLR camera a few times (once with an Olympus C760UZ and once with Fuji S9000Z) and the results were less than encouraging

[dhyravy]

I've never shot wrestling but have done some MMA. I use strobes and fast lenses to get much in those venues. A DSLR would definitely give you more options and better low light capability with a fast (ie low fstop range) lens. If you can't or don't want to use flash, I would choose something like a 50mm f1.8 or 1.4 lense for maximum light gathering. Shooting action in low light is somewhat of an art and it takes some appropriate gear as well as knowledge to get consistent results.