Fast Continuous Shooting: 10.0fps In the world of sports photography, faster is always better.
Wireless Connection It may not be used by everyone but pro sports photographers use Wi-fi to transfer files simultaneously without having to wait to change the memory card.
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.
Electronic Built-in Viewfinder During a sports shoot, using a viewfinder allows the photographer to stabilize the camera and reduce the camera shake since it is closer to the body. Besides, it comes handy where LCD screens are very hard to read under bright sunlight.
Image Stabilization Image stabilization reduces the effects of camera shake at long focal lengths thus ensuring sharper photos during sports photography.
720 mm Tele Lens 720 mm reach lens will be adequate in most sports events.
Average Max shutter speed: 1/2000s Sony HX80'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
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.
Not so good Ergonomics&Handling Sony HX80\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 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 External Flash Shoe When shooting indoor sports or outdoor sports at low light, an external flash may become very helpful.
Slow Lens at Tele: f6.40 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.