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Nikon L31 Sports Photography Score
Nikon L31 has a score of
15 for Sports Photography which makes it a
POOR candidate for this type of photography. If Sports Photography is important for you, we strongly recommend you to consider the Alternative cameras listed at the bottom of this page.
Read our detailed Nikon L31 Review
Nikon L31 Sports Photography Detailed Analysis
Average Max shutter speed: 1/2000s
Nikon L31's max shutter speed of 1/2000s is not the best in class but it will be enough to freeze the moment. A potential problem may be when you use a fast aperture at very strong light, your camera may overexpose because of slow max shutter speed
130 mm Tele Lens
130 mm reach is not going to be adequate in some sports events.
Environmental Sealings
Most outdoor sports games are held in all-weather, so your camera has to be ready for difficult conditions such as rain and snow. Exposure to dust and water splashes are also very common in sports.
Focus Points
In sports photography , you keep continuous autofocus (AFC) mode on for tracking the subject and more focus means better tracking.
Poor Battery Life: 200 shots
In most sports events, you shoot at high speed for a long time and this drains the battery pretty quick. With a battery life of only 200 shots per charge, you may need to change batteries very frequently in the middle of an event.
Not so good Ergonomics&Handling
Nikon L31\s compact body is not very ideal for sports photography as it lacks the external dials and knobs to change the camera settings fast and the ergonomics doesn't help you to have the most stable shooting position.
No Manual Exposure Mode
Even though modern digital cameras features advanced algorithms to calculate the right exposure, they still may fail some difficult conditions. Lack of manual exposure mode in these conditions means lot of shadow and highlight clipping.
No Manual Focus Mode
Compact cameras are not great at focusing moving objects especially at low light and your camera may not even fire bacause of not locking the focus, so manual focus mode is very useful at these times.
No Built-in Viewfinder
In the lack of a a viewfinder, holding the camera away from the body while using live view is not very stable, especial with heavy camera bodies and lenses. Besides, LCD screens are very hard to read under bright sunlight.
No External Flash Shoe
When shooting indoor sports or outdoor sports at low light, an external flash may become very helpful.
No Image Stabilization
Lack of Image stabilization may result in blurry photos especially at long focal lengths.
Slow Lens at Tele: f6.50
You will have hard time getting fast enough shutter speeds with a lens that is slow at tele.
No RAW shooting capability
RAW files contains much more color information compared to JPEGs, and gives you more room for post processing without significant quality loss. They provide wider dynamic range and option to recover shadow and highlight clipping to some degree.
You may also be interested in these reviews:
Nikon L31 for Portrait Photography Nikon L31 for Street Photography Nikon L31 for Carrying Everywhere Nikon L31 for Landscape Photography