The Buyers guide to...Best cameras for beginner sports photography

Panasonic’s FZ2000 is another fantastic all-round performer, with its well-performing one-inch sensor and variety of appealing features. Compared to the other models in this group, the focal length range is a little more limited, but with a maximum reach of 480mm, it should still suit pretty much any occasion.

The articulating touch-screen is great to use, as is the large viewfinder – the body of the FZ2000 is quite large to accommodate these features, which will be good news for some, and bad news for others.

Like all other current Panasonic models, it features 4K Photo – this allows you to extract 8MP stills in-camera from 4K video, in essence meaning you can shoot at 30fps. A good back-up or travel camera, the FZ2000 is also available for a much cheaper price than the Sony RX10 IV.

Get the Panasonic FZ2000 on Amazon UK, and get the Panasonic FZ2500 on Amazon US.

Read our Panasonic FZ2000 review

Unlike most bridge cameras, the Sony RX10 IV uses a larger one-inch sensor that offers 20.1-megapixel resolution. This is combined with a 25x optical zoom (24-600mm equivalent in 35mm terms) and Sony’s powerful BIONZ X processor and front-end LSI. Mix all these together and you’ve got something which has been designed for serious performance.

Other features include a 2.35-million dot EVF, a tilting, 1.44-million dot 3.0-inch screen which now offers touch-sensitivity, 4K video recording, inbuilt Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth and both an electronic and mechanical shutter.

What’s great about the RX10 IV is that because it copes so well with a variety of different subjects, it’s perfect for beginner photographers who haven’t yet found their niche and are exploring how to shoot a different types of images.

The RX10 IV isn’t cheap, and it might be more money than you want to splash out for a beginner camera with a fixed lens, but with such an impressive number of feature, super image quality and performance and in a lightweight body, this is not only one of the best bridge cameras but one of the best cameras full stop.

Get the Sony RX10 IV on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Sony RX10 IV Review

Canon’s G3X is another camera which is a little older, but it’s still yet to be replaced. Canon’s G series cameras all feature one-inch sensors, and the G3X is no different. It produces excellent images, with the same amount of vibrancy and warmth which we usually associate with Canon cameras.

With its long focal length lens, you get plenty of flexibility, but while it has a very useful tilting touchscreen, there’s no viewfinder – something which is likely to be a big disappointment to many enthusiasts.

It’s also arguably a little awkward in use, having a small body thrown off body by the large lens. If you’re a Canon DSLR (or CSC) user, you’ll be at home with the menu systems, and many of the buttons, so it could be a good choice as a backup camera for travelling if you can get over using the screen to compose.

Of the one-inch sensor bridge cameras in our best bridge cameras list, it’s currently the cheapest proposition too.

Get the Canon G3 X on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III Review

If you have a little more room in your budget, why not buy one of the best cameras for beginner sports photography on the market? Launched earlier in 2022, the Canon EOS R10 is a mirrorless APS-C format camera that utilises Canon’s latest Digic X processing to shoot at a maximum continuous shooting rate of 23fps with the electronic shutter and 15fps with the mechanical shutter.

What’s more, the Canon EOS R10 employs Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS II AF technology and is sensitive down to -4EV. Like the R7, the EOS R10 also has Canon’s intelligent subject detection system which can be set to look for and focus on people, animals or vehicles.

Read More: Canon EOS R10 vs 90D

Read our Canon EOS R10 First Look Review

With the GoPro Hero11 Black you get a refinement of what remains the best action camera on the market. While the frame rates and resolutions stay the same as on the Hero10 Black, a new larger sensor means you can capture more detail than ever before, with better tones and colours.

Combine that with a refined HyperSmooth digital image stabilisation and a new Horizon Lock, and the GoPro Hero11 Black is the perfect tool to capture your extreme sports and POV photography.

Read our GoPro Hero11 Black Review

Read our GoPro Hero10 Black Review

The DJI OSMO Action 3 is an action camera of the purest kind. It remodels the original DJI OSMO Action with a smoother exterior, enhanced features, better stabilisation and much-improved battery life. But more than this camera just being the successor to the two previous DJI Action cameras, this camera is a direct challenger to the GoPro Hero11 Black, and that’s where things get interesting.

Inside is a 1/1.7-inch sensor, and a 155º f/2.8 12.7mm lens sits on front. The sensor enables a decent range of resolutions and frame rates, including 4K at up to 120fps and 1080p at 240fps.

Also on board is its improved RockSteady 3.0 image stabilisation, now with HorizonBalancing and HorizonSteady. Both of these push what’s possible with electronic image stabilisation.

Nikon introduced the D500, at the same time as the full-frame D5, as its flagship APS-C (DX) format DSLR. It also has the same sensor architecture and 153-point Multi-Cam 20K autofocus module as the D5, which means it’s extremely capable. The AF system particularly impresses, getting fast-moving subjects sharp (and tracking them) in very low light.

Also, thanks to the Expeed 5 processing engine, the D500 has a maximum continuous shooting rate of 10fps (frames per second), which gives it extra appeal to wildlife and sports photographers.

Another bonus for photographers who like shooting outdoors is that the D500 is weather-sealed to a high standard. There’s also an optional grip available to make it more comfortable to use with long lenses when shooting in portrait orientation.

While the D500 is capable of shooting 4K video, the screen is fixed and the Live View AF system relies on contrast detection, which means it’s not really the ideal choice of camera for shooting video.

However, the D500 produces high-quality stills with a good level of detail maintained all the up to around ISO 6400 and even images shot at ISO 12,800 look very good. This, combined with D500’s rugged build, excellent viewfinder-based AF system and fast-shooting capability, make it a popular choice for wildlife photographers.

Find the latest deals on the Nikon D500 at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Nikon D500 review

The E-M1 II is a complex and versatile camera. It takes a while to get to discover all its features and understand some of its quirks, but it’s a rewarding experience.

Its stabilisation system is incredible and allows you to rethink how you shoot, leaving the tripod behind and avoiding high ISO settings. Olympus has also packed in the clever technology that we have come to expect with Live Bulb, Live Time and Live Composite mode making long exposure photography easy and in-camera focusing stacking enabling greater depth of field than is normally possible. In addition, High Res Shot mode turns this 20Mp camera into a 50Mp device – and you can use it for normal landscape photography with no concern about a breeze blowing through the trees.

High Res Shot mode has impressed us in the past with its ability to produce larger files with greater detail by combining a sequence of images in-camera. According to Olympus the latest version of the system in the OM-D E-M1 II produces images with resolution equivalent to 50Mp shots. It can also compensate for the slight movement in landscape scenes – leaves and grass etc.

Olympus’s Image Stabiliser (IS) is widely respected, but the latest version in the E-M1 II raised a few eyebrows at the launch event because it’s capable of extending the safe hand-holdable shutter speed by up to 6.5 stops with stabilised lenses like the new Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 IS Pro. That’s an incredible figure, higher than any other camera. It could produce some interesting creative opportunities that are only normally possible with a tripod.

Further good news is that the Olympus OM-D E-M 1 Mark II is capable of recording 4K footage at up to 30p. Combining this with the claimed IS performance could mean the OM-D E-M1 Mark II prove popular with run-and-gun shooters.

Add in a high-quality viewfinder and a vari-angle touch-screen that helps you shoot from more creative angles and you have a very attractive camera.

• Read our full Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II review