Camera Recommendations for Private Pickleball Court

[bsmith]

I am finishing out a brightly lit (12 3000 wat LED UFO Fixtures) indoor pickleball court with 4-6 IP cameras to monitor ball in/out calls and 2-3 IP cameras for analysis and review of games. Looking at this thread here High speed swing analysis camera setup - Golf Simulator Forum I saw that cameras like these

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832831173789.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

could work for the review of ball in/out calls in a pickleball game. In one of the latest televised PPA events, the commentators announced that they had upgraded to 120 fps cameras to better review in/out calls. This seems consistent with what the guy used in the golf swing analysis to minimize blur while being fast enough to catch the contact of a club with a golf ball. However, a big difference I have is that my line call cameras will cover more distance as a pickleball court is a 44' x 20' rectangle with a 19' ceiling. There is 5' clearance to walls on each long side and 10' clearance on each end. I can mount cameras in any configuration deemed optimal. Since this is not a security application, the cameras can be indoor only and do not have to be low light capable. I will use a computer to network the cameras. I might even use one for the in/out calls and another for the high resolution cameras.

I want 4k capability with fairly high speed (30 fps minimum) for the 2-3 cameras that record general play. For the line call cameras, I am not sure what resolution is ideal for them but I know they need at least 120 fps. If willing to spend $500 plus for the general play cameras and $100 plus for the line call cameras, what cameras do your recommend for this application?

 

[wittaj]

I would tend to agree while that camera may be good for a golf club hitting a ball at close range, it will probably be horrible at distance a court would be.

This forum is more about surveillance cameras, and surveillance cameras are not designed for that type of capture that you are looking for. Most will cap out at 30FPS but may be glitchy and problematic running at that speed.

They would make okay cameras for general overview type things, but to make line calls, review in/out, that could prove problematic.

These types of cameras are not GoPro or Hollywood type cameras that offer slow-mo capabilities and other features. They "offer" 30FPS and 60FPS to appease the general public that thinks that is what they need, but you will not find many of us here running more than 15 FPS; and movies are shot at 24 FPS, so anything above that is a waste of storage space for what these cameras are used for. If 24 FPS works for the big screen, I think 15 FPS is more than enough for phones and tablets and most monitors LOL. Many of my cameras are running at 12FPS.

If your unique case requires that type of FPS, you will find surveillance cameras are not going to meet your needs and you need to get a camera capable of that - and spend some serious money if a gopro isn't sufficient.

We have had recently people come here after purchasing cameras in two instances where they were wanting 60FPS - one was a tennis club and another was a youth soccer club. In both cases they found that these types of cameras were not capable of what they were wanting to do. Sure the cameras could run faster FPS, but it still didn't provide them with the level of detail they were looking for. I recall the soccer club had a decent quality PTZ ($800) that is fine for a residential or retail/commercial installation to capture a thief, but to cover the action of the soccer field it wasn't capable of meeting their needs. And because of the extremely fast motion, it was creating a halo type effect around the action (which can be seen in certain lighting conditions). These cameras are good, but not good enough to catch the rotation of a ball for example.

Another came here trying to use this cameras for a race track in the pit stalls to monitor lug nuts and violations and it just couldn't do it.

 

[bsmith]

wittaj thank you for your comprehensive response. I had hoped that maybe the best surveillance cameras might be up to my tasks but as you point out, likely not. Concerning watching in/out balls along critical lines maybe one option would be to use multiple cameras spaced in the ceiling along each monitored line so that each camera covers less distance. For recording of general play on the court, I do likely need to go to a much higher quality of camera than I originally thought and I am willing to do that. Can you recommend a forum that discusses IP cameras of the quality that I need?

 

[biggen]

You are probably going to want to look for broadcast/production equipment forums. I'd say you better bring the checkbook though as good hi-speed cameras are $$$$