Manual Exposure Mode Even though modern digital cameras features advanced algorithms to calculate the right exposure, they still may fail some difficult conditions. Manual exposure mode in these conditions helps a lot in order to achieve correct and consistent exposure.
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.
External Flash Shoe When shooting indoor sports or outdoor sports at low light, an external flash may become very helpful.
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.
Average Max shutter speed: 1/3200s Ricoh GXR A12 50mm's max shutter speed of 1/3200s 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
Average Ergonomics&Handling although not as good as a DSLR body, Ricoh GXR A12 50mm is good enough for most conditions.
Slow Continuous Shooting: 3.0fps In the world of sports photography, faster is always better.
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.
No Image Stabilization Due to the lack of sensor based Image stabilization, Ricoh GXR A12 50mm users have to rely on lenses with optical IS in order to maximize the sharpness of their sports photography photos. Currently there are native mount lenses with Image Stabilization for Ricoh GXR A12 50mm.
50 mm Tele Lens 50 mm reach will not be adequate in many sports events.