I bought a Canon SX40 HD "super zoom" camera recently, as a successor
to my older SX10 IS. The SX40 is supposed to have a better sensor
(especially in low light conditions), has a larger zoom range (on
both ends), offers HD movies, and also offers slow motion video.
The slow motion video comes with some limitations. For one thing,
while regular video is 1920x1080 at 24 fps, the slow motion video
resolution is only 320x240 at 240 fps. Thus, the images are low
resolution and grainy. This puts pressure on the videographer to
zoom in as tightly as possible, to get more detail, but this also makes
framing errors more likely.
In addition, there is a long delay between
the time that you press the button to start taking a video and the
moment when the video actually starts. During this delay, the camera
focuses and sets up the exposure. After that, you cannot alter the
focus, the exposure, or the zoom. So, there is no way to follow
action if it goes away from the camera or comes towards the camera.
Since playback is at 30 fps, this slow motion is about 1/8 normal speed.
After taking some slow motion videos of humming birds, frogs, my
parrots, and chipmunks, I decided to try my hand at taking slow motion
sports movies. This turned out to be challenging, because of the
limitations described above. You have to start taking the video way
before the action you wish to record, the action has to be all at
roughly the same distance, and the framing must be perfect. Taking
these videos was frustrating: I threw about half of them away the moment
I reviewed them.
Watching the videos was instructive. Slow motion is kind to no one, and
even the most attractive player has awkward or unflattering moments. On
the other hand, I found myself fascinated watching some seemingly mundane
things, like people moving laterally to position themselves for a play.
The following compilation video is about 20 minutes long. In it you will see
a few flubs (which I usually discard as embarrassing to the player, but this
time I'm hoping will be instructive), a very tiny net violation, a mad
scramble for the ball, and quite a few good bumps, sets and spikes. I hope
you enjoy the video.