Capturing youth sports is a great way to create a treasure trove of memories of your children’s sporting days. They are also ideal for coaches wishing to analyze matches and clubs looking to promote their teams.
However, keeping up with fast-paced youth sports is tricky. The right camera for the sport you wish to capture will deliver better results. With the advent of AI-powered tracking cameras, you can also achieve professional-quality footage without the need for someone behind the camera!
Choosing the best camera for youth sports from the numerous products available on the market can seem daunting at first. We consider the following to be five of the best cameras for youth sports. Let’s take a deeper dive into them.
Main features:
The XbotGo Chameleon is the ideal camera for youth sports. Take a back seat and let this AI-powered hands-free camera do the work for you. With access to 20GB of cloud storage, instant highlights, great editing tools, and seamless livestreaming, youth sports have never been easier to capture, store, and replay.
Whether it’s youth soccer, football, basketball, lacrosse, or ice hockey, this camera has you covered. The camera uses smart AI-technology to track the game. A 360-degree rotating base ensures you don't miss any of the action, wherever it occurs on the field of play.
The jersey number tracking feature is ideal for youth sports. It provides a tool to aid a young player’s development or to build a showreel of their talents. Parents will love it just to show off their children’s sporting prowess to friends and family.
4k video clarity adds that professional look to your footage. There is nothing complex about the setup either. The camera connects to your smartphone using Bluetooth and with an 8-hour battery life, you can film the whole match regardless of the sport without the need for annoying cables.
Main features:
This is a pocket-sized camera that delivers more than a pocket-sized punch. The large one-inch sensor not only delivers detailed quality images, it also performs well in low-light situations. This is handy for capturing indoor sports or outdoor evening youth games after school.
Capturing fast-paced youth sports can pose problems. The camera’s 3-axis gimbal stabilization delivers smoother footage, even when you’re moving around to record from different angles. This is backed up by the active tracking modes, including face-auto detect. This keeps your child in the center of the frame without the constant need to re-focus.
Like to hear all the cheers, applause, and comments? The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 employs stereo recording with a built-in 3-mic array system. This helps deliver more immersive sound and can reduce wind noise, something that is never too far away when filming outdoor youth sports events.
The camera supports livestreaming of your youth sport games. The Light Cut app uses an AI-based one-tap feature that makes editing simpler and offers a range of templates to enhance your footage.
The camera has an operating time of 166 mins on a fully-charged battery. This should cover most youth sports. However, this fast-charging camera will have the battery back to 80% in just 16 minutes.
Main features:
The Pixellot Air NXT is a fully automated camera with auto tracking. The camera is portable and can record high-quality footage of indoor and outdoor sports. This could be a useful selling point for parents with children participating in more than one sport. It is a camera you can comfortably transport from venue to venue.
The quality of footage captured is enhanced by a dual 4k wide-angle camera lens. Mounted on a tripod and set to a height for an unobstructed view, the Pixellot Air NXT provides an end-to-end video solution. Live streaming plus automatic highlights allows coaches to analyse the game at any moment.
Seamless integration with a smartphone also makes changing camera settings and editing footage easier for coaches. This is also useful for parents who want to focus the highlights package on their child.
The camera comes with a durable waterproof case to help protect against the dodgy weather you can expect during an outdoor season. The camera has a storage capacity of 128 GB, ample for saving video recordings.
Main features:
The AKASO Brave throws down the gauntlet to action cameras like GoPro. The camera offers a more affordable option for budget-conscious coaches and parents. However, a drop in price does not mean a drop in quality. With a 4k 60 fps resolution and a unique 9-layer array of lenses, this compact camera can deliver detailed, vivid youth sport footage.
The camera uses AI face metering mode to provide automatic face recognition that helps with focusing. As a parent or a coach, you may want your camera to follow one child. AI face
detection technology helps keep them in the center of the camera’s frame.
Super Smooth stabilization helps keep your footage smooth. This is always useful when capturing fast-moving youth sports. The camera does offer built-in stereo and audio technology, but one issue that arises is that it is susceptible to wind noise.
As you would expect from an action-style camera, the AKASO Brave is durable. It is also waterproof, and while we do not anticipate you chucking it into a lake, it offers handy protection against the rain. Coaches and parents have to attend matches in all weathers, so it is best to be prepared on all fronts.
Main features:
If you coach more than one sport or are a parent with children participating in multiple sports, you want a camera capable of capturing them all. The PIX4TEAM2 provides automatic filming of numerous sports. This includes football, basketball, soccer, handball, lacrosse, and hockey.
What’s more, the camera offers a dedicated AI for each sport. This delivers optimal tracking and framing for the youth sport you capture. Automatic, zoom, pan, and tilt movements ensure the camera seamlessly follows the play so you don’t miss any of the action. All hands-free, too!
The PIX4TEAM2 is compatible with Android or iOS smartphones. You can stream and record youth sport games for free without a subscription. Footage is recorded onto SD cards. This allows instant video playback, a great tool for a coach to show their players and give immediate pointers to the team.
This is a camera designed with grassroots youth sports in mind. For teams looking to heighten post-game analysis, the PIX4TEAM2 works well with major sports analysis software packages, including Dartfish and Sportcode.
The beauty of AI-powered cameras is that they can record your youth sport games and training sessions without the need for anyone behind the camera. However, you still need to consider the degree of automation and the level of tracking you require.
Fully automated cameras will happily track the whole game using a wide-angle lens to capture the full extent of the pitch. However, if your focus is more likely to be on a single player, then a camera using a smart gimbal may be the better option.
These are designed to integrate with a smartphone and offer AI tech for subject detection to track an individual while providing stabilization to the shot.
The XbotGo Chameleon camera is an AI-powered camera that can track matches and individuals using their jersey numbers. Understanding what you want from automation will help you determine the most suitable camera.
There are many youth sports! How many of them are you looking to capture? Will they be indoors or outdoors? Maybe both? Are they team sports or solo sports?
Cameras like the XbotGo Chameleon can capture numerous sports. This is possible by using wide-angle lenses and panoramic tilt to completely cover larger sports fields. This makes them the perfect choice for team sports.
Alternatively, pocket-sized action cameras like the Akaso Brave 8 could be a better option to capture solo sports. For example, skateboarding and athletics. These type of cameras require good stabilization technology to ensure smoother footage. They are particularly adept at creating footage for vlogs and personal content creation.
If your camera will be capturing images in sports halls and gyms, then you will want to consider a camera's low-light performance. The XbotGo Chameleon has specialized night shot options to counter this, while the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 offers good low-light performance.
As a parent, athlete, or coach, you want to capture great youth sport footage. Yet you don’t perhaps have much camera experience. This is where fully automated cameras like the XbotGo Chameleon come into their own. They are quick and easy to set up and will track the game hands-free.
Camera apps make life easier, too, by locking onto individual players. Ideal for coaches looking to improve a player’s game. Ideal too for parents who want the focus of the footage on their child. For example, the Akaso Brave 8 uses face metering mode to boost subject detection. The XbotGo Chameleon allows you to track players by jersey number.
As a coach, you may prefer a more advanced camera set up with instant replays and editing tools for analysis purposes. A parent or an athlete may want a simpler, more compact action-style camera. One you can easily carry to games and move around with while recording.
At some point, a camera bought to capture youth sports is going to take a knock or two. Either at the sports venue or in transit. It also needs to withstand anything the weather throws its way when capturing outdoor sports.
The XbotGo Chameleon is built with a polyester case that makes it shock-proof against those inevitable bumps along the way. It is also splash-proof. A useful accessory for outdoor filming is the XbotGo weather guard umbrella, designed to protect the camera against wind, rain, and UV rays.
A decent camera can represent a significant outlay, and therefore budget and value are key.
The Akaso Brave 8 represents a budget-conscious entry into capturing youth sports. For a fully-automated tracking camera, the XbotGo Chameleon is certainly at the right end of the price scale.
A higher price does not automatically equate to better in terms of finding the right camera for you. Budget needs to be weighed against what you want from a camera, and the sports you intend to capture, to find one that offers the best value.
Choosing the best camera for youth sports comes down to prioritizing your requirements. Does the camera tick all the boxes while still meeting your budget?
The hands-free XbotGo Chameleon ticks all the boxes for many camera buyers. This is thanks to its intuitive auto-tracking, 4k video clarity, seamless streaming, and overall value.
We compiled this list to help you compare five of the best cameras for capturing youth sports. We want you to buy the most suitable camera. One which provides endless hours of fun footage and memorable images for parents, and analytical gold for coaches and players.
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