Effect of lower shutter speed will affect sports photography? 30 Points

Well have a low shutter speed means that the shutter closes more slowly allowing light to be received by the sensor longer. This creates a blur affect if it is a low light situation or the camera is not kept steady. If you want to get some one running and be able to "see" the motion, aka motion blur, then you want to use a low shutter speed, hopefully it won't be too bright out. Fast shutter speed will capture "quickly" meaning it needs a lot of night to work well. This way your running person will look totally still, no motion blur, but light is needed, hard to do from the stands or low light arenas. Tripod recommended. Does this answer your question?

If your question is in reference to the D80's shortest shutter speed of 1/4000 rather than the D70's 1/8000, no, it won't affect sports photography in 99.9 percent of the shots. The 1/4000 effectively stops any kind of sports action. It wasn't too long ago that film cameras had a shortest shutter speed of 1/1000, and that stopped over 99 percent of the action. So I wouldn't shy away from the D80 at all because of the 1/4000 "limitation." It's a non-issue, in my opinion.

Hi, I noticed that you haven't marked any replies as the "best answer." Are you still looking for an answer? If so, I recommend you re-submit it on http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com so it will have a better chance of being noticed. These days it looks like most questions are being answered within a few days. Good luck!

I noticed some times even with Sb800 flash photos are blurred or 'shaky'. why does that happens? I use D70.

At 1/4000 of a second, you can stop a bullet. Seriously. 1/8000 is there simply to extend the range, say, if you want to be wide open at f/2.0 on a bright sunny day. But it has no additional effect in stopping action in sports photography.

For your second question, flash photography, you need to consider two sources of light. One is ambient light, (light other than your flash in the area), and the other is the key light, which in this case would be your flash. It's true that a flash "pop" is so quick that it will effectively stop action just like a fast shutter speed would, but in these cases you must consider how much of the final light in the scene is ambient and how much is key. So, if your flash is 90% of the light in the scene, it's going to freeze action. If your flash is 50% and the ambient light is contributing 50%, then you could see blurring due to the subject moving and/or the camera movement.

There are lots of things to consider. A flash like the SB800 is probably good only to about 30 feet. After that, it's really ineffective. You also have to account for any focus issues. Sports/action photography is not simple, it takes practice. A good sports photographer is like a good hunter... they need to know what they're doing, they need to concentrate, use good technique, etc., all that adds up to the end result.

Hope that helps!