# I pit people at ballgames with flash cameras **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-at-ballgames-with-flash-cameras/399730 "2007-04-12T00:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-at-ballgames-with-flash-cameras/399730/1 "2007-04-12T00:16:14Z")
Watching Dice-K’s home debut for the Red Sox tonite, and with each pitch there’s several hundred morons shooting away with their dinky little flash cameras. First of all your developed shot will have the players appearing as tiny little ants on a big green expanse. Second of all the park’s lights will completely wash out your flash, thus a flash is useless. They showed a telling shot of a pro photographer sitting in the photo box near home plate, with his big 1000 mm lens (no flash), and there’s a lady right behind him with her little Sureshot. Just pay the guy in front of you with the big gun lens $20 and he’ll send you one of his rejects-you’ll still get a better pic than you will with that dinky el-cheapo model. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-at-ballgames-with-flash-cameras/399730/2 "2007-04-12T00:18:49Z")
You understand that with cheap cameras, the user often can’t control whether the flash goes off or not, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-at-ballgames-with-flash-cameras/399730/3 "2007-04-12T00:22:36Z")
So they use flash (probably autoflash that they don’t or can’t disengage) in a particular situation that won’t really help. It’s not adversely affecting the ball players and it’s not adversely affecting the fans. So why do you care? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-at-ballgames-with-flash-cameras/399730/4 "2007-04-12T00:33:50Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Watching Dice-K’s home debut for the Red Sox tonite, and with each pitch there’s several hundred morons shooting away with their dinky little flash cameras. First of all your developed shot will have the players appearing as tiny little ants on a big green expanse. Second of all the park’s lights will completely wash out your flash, thus a flash is useless. They showed a telling shot of a pro photographer sitting in the photo box near home plate, with his big 1000 mm lens (no flash), and there’s a lady right behind him with her little Sureshot. Just pay the guy in front of you with the big gun lens $20 and he’ll send you one of his rejects-you’ll still get a better pic than you will with that dinky el-cheapo model. [/QUOTE] a) It’s most likely a 400mm f/2.8 ens the pro is using, for the record. The other usual suspects would be a 300mm f/2.8, a 70-200mm f/2.8, or a 500mm f/4. b) Most people don’t know how to turn off the flash on the point and shoots c) It sometimes makes for really cool pictures. I seem to recall a photo during either the Sosa-McGwire homerun race or Bonds’ record season taken from the outfield, wide angle, at dusk, with our star player at the plate and a long (1 or 2 second) exposure that caught all the hundreds of flash bulbs going off in the stadium. In short, who cares? Save your outrage for the idiot on the cellphone behind home plate waving to the camera. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-at-ballgames-with-flash-cameras/399730/5 "2007-04-12T01:16:05Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Save your outrage for the idiot on the cellphone behind home plate waving to the camera. [/QUOTE] Oh, _that_ bastard…