Can the nikon d5100 take good action shots?

I wanted to photograph some sports such as tennis. Will it have good enough detail to be able to clearly see a tennis ball flying though the air?
sorry if this sounds ridiculous i'm very new to this sort of stuff:/

If you may have not noticed, that camera can shoot at shutter speeds of 1/4000ths second, plenty fast enough to stop the flight of a tennis ball.

Just look at some of the other features of the D5100

http://www.nikonusa.com/...D5100.html

Yes, if you use it properly.

Sure, it'll do alright. There are better options if you can stretch the budget, namely the D7000 with its much better AF system and FPS.

It certainly can. At 1/2000th of a second, you will be able to see stitching on a 90mph fast ball. The d5100 is capable of 1/4000th of a second. It also has pretty high native iso up to 6400.

The obstacle you will encounter will probably auto focusing. Since it's entry level it doesn't have as good as an autofocus system as a d7000 or even d90.

You seem to have enough interest on the D5100 to buy it already. Satisfy yourself in the fact that all dSLR's are basically the same and they can all be used to shoot any kind of shot if you know exactly what you're doing. In essence, all your questions go back to you. It's all about the photographer's skill. The camera is only a tool and the D5100 is a great tool. Now go out and buy that darned camera!

It's reasonable, the AF system isn't that great, and you have to use CPU lenses which limits your options somewhat, and you will end up spending a lot on telephoto AF-S lenses.

Lets compare the D5100 to a Canon 1D mark IIn which are similarly priced cameras, the 1D2n has a 45 point AF system which uses a very clever AI system to help it ignore certain objects (as programmed by the user), and it shoots at a full speed of 8.5 FPS.

The D5100 on the other hand is limited to 11 AF points, and 4 FPS shooting, which is capable, but not a dedicated camera for action photography.

I know that I would always choose the older (but better made), professional standard 1D mark IIn. The D5100 is a DSLR, but is an entry level consumer product, and just doesn't do it for me.