Most digital cameras have a Sports of Action mode that help you to clearly capture the fast moving action of sporting events. Unlike other forms of photography, in the digital photography of sports the person using the camera has a large role to play the timing of the photos is crucial and there is only a split second to take it.

When taking pictures of a game being played on a large field there are two ways of ensuring that you are ready at the right time a seconds delay could cost you the photo you have been waiting for. Your first option is to follow the action as it moves around the field with your camera ready to take the photo the moment the action you want to capture occurs this is the best way of taking picture of sports where the action can occur anywhere, like hockey and football. The other way is better for games where you can predict where the action will occur the home plate in a baseball game or the basket in a basketball game and can keep the camera pointed in that direction so you can click when the action moves into the frame.

However, no matter how quick your reflexes are in pressing the shutter button, there will be a time lag from the time you press the button to the time the picture is taken as the camera will need to adjust its setting. This may take only a few tenths of a second, but that is enough for you to miss the exact moment you want to capture how long does a slam dunk take? You can solve this problem by keeping the shutter button pressed half way so that the camera is always in the auto focus mode and no time will be lost between the pressing of the button and the shutter action. Another option is to use the Burst (or equivalent) mode where the camera will take continuous photos as long as the button remains pressed. You will get a chain of pictures of the event and can then pick the best ones to keep.

There is one other thing that can slow you down and that is the time taken to write a photo to the memory card the camera cannot take a photo until the previous one has been stored and a card with a slow write time will slow down the camera. The faster the write speed of the memory card, the less will be the time before the next picture can be taken.