This vexed question is tackled well in the article from DP Review, titled ‘Beginners Guide to HD video’. As the article states compact digital cameras have been capturing video for many years, albeit with mixed results. As technology moved along we started to see a blurring of the lines with cameras like the Panasonic TZ7 offering quick start HD video with zoom on a high end compact digital camera.

HD video recording is fast becoming a standard in many compact cameras, starting from the waterproof Pentax W60 and W80 series cameras, and many other compact cameras wanting to capitalise on the growing HD market.

The real interest though is in the DSLR market with its larger sensor, interchangeable lenses and manual controls. Cameras such as the Nikon D90 set the ball rolling capturing HD video, however the progression since then has been amazing with every manufacturer hopping on board.

Cameras such as the Nikon D5000 and D300s and Canon EOS 500D and the EOS 7D have really set the pace as everyone finds new ways to use these hybrid DSLR/Camcorder.

So the question has changed. Should you now consider one of the new breed digital compact cameras or Digital SLR with HD video and are they as good as they are made out to be?

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By guest contributor Geoff Porter
Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to see a couple of games of Tennis at the Australian Open in Melbourne with some work friends. Knowing that I’d need a pretty powerful zoom to get in close to the action I chose to take the Fuji S2000HD. This series of cameras have always given me good results in the past and the S2000 was no exception.

The zoom range of the S2000HD is 15x or the equivalent of 27.6mm to 414mm in the old 35mm terms. I remember having to carry around three lenses to give me less than this range when I was starting out in photography.

The seats we had were very good, about 15 to 20 rows back and as you can see from the images I took of Jelene Jankovic, Ai Sugiyama, Amer Delic and Novak Djokovic that the 15 times zoom was quite powerful enough for this type of event. I imagine that if you were on the sidelines of a football game or a polo field that you could get some great shots with this camera.

One of the great features that help’s you take better action photos with this camera is image stabilising shooting mode. The S2000 Fuji has a dual image stabilisation system, that is two different types of stabiliser working together. The first is CCD shift were the camera senses camera movement and moves the CCD sensor to minimize the effect. The second is a high sensitivity stabiliser that increases the sensitivity of the sensor in low light so the camera can shoot at higher shutter speeds. It’s a bit like loading high ISO film in your camera in the film days. So even when taking fast action with a powerful telephoto lens like the S2000s you can still get very sharp images.

Another one of the features that’s really great to use especially with sport photos is the continuous high speed shooting option. The Fuji S2000 can shoot at 6.8 frames a second at 5mp resolution and 13.5 frames a second at about 3mp resolution. Even the 3mp images look quite OK as a postcard size print.

The Fuji S2000HD will also shoot High Definition movies in 16:9 format  so now not only can you capture some great action photos but you can also film the action and play it in HD when you get home.

I really enjoyed using the Fuji S2000HD and would highly recommend it.

Geoff Porter is the product manager for the Eastmon group and is an associate of the Tamworth store

If you are interested in taking better sports and action shots, you may like to view Sports & Action from our affiliate.
Sport and Action (World’s Top Photographers Workshops)

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