I having been shooting for a semi-pro football league and I was using a carbon monopod for the last two years. During a game I was shooting from the sidelines and a play was run right by me. The players ran in my direction and I had enough time to cove up. One of the players kicked the monopod and broke off the bottom section of the unit. Since then I have switched to an all aluminum monopod. I am now using the OPTEKA M900 for shooting the games. So far so good but it really hasn't been put to the test yet, if you know what I mean?

Got to thinking about it this morning. I had my camera and posted a photo of a hawk I caught on the way to get the mail. It was a bit far away, and I just had the 28-300. When I cropped it and sharpened it a bit it looked pretty decent on the monitor -- not nearly as good posted. Well, I'm not a great bird photographer -- there are certainly great ones on this site. Macros, flowers, bugs, wildlife, etc. also great ones here. There are areas I like, and some I am fairly satisfied with, but I am more of a utility outfielder, even after a lot of decades as a photo enthusiast. I can do a bunch of stuff decently, so I try to stretch by posting Birds, or Flowers, or whatever I feel I need work on. ( I also post travel series which are my favorites) What about you?

I’m looking for a camera with a large sensor like a DSLR, but don’t want the weight and bulk of a DSLR. I’d like as many pixels as possible (24 would be nice) and would be happy with a fixed or changeable lens like a 50 to 105… or thereabouts. I’d also like to spend no more than $700.
When I search for such a camera, I’ve been unsuccessful. Either the price is over $1200 (Like the Sony or Panasonics) or the cameras lack the above requisites.

Does anyone know a camera which meets my requisites?

No... Full flash that's needed to "freeze" action in most cases doesn't typically give you the equivalent of 1/10,000 shutter speed.

Most fire "full flash" (as opposed to "fill" or reduced power) at approx. 1/720 to 1/1000.

There are special, ultra high-speed flashes and strobes available, capable of shorter durations along with high output levels.

And both studio strobes and portable flash will use shorter durations when set to reduced power settings.

For example, Nikon SB-800 specs (manual mode):

1/1050 sec. at 1/1 (full) output
1/1100 sec. at 1/2 output
1/2700 sec. at 1/4 output
1/5900 sec. at 1/8 output
1/10900 sec. at 1/16 output
1/17800 sec. at 1/32 output
1/32300 sec. at 1/64 output
1/41600 sec. at 1/128 output

Smaller, lower-powered flashes that have less "reach" tend to have shorter duration at full power.... While bigger, more powerful ones with the greatest reach often have longer duration. For example, the Nikon SB-300 (18M guide number) has 1/1650 duration, while the nearly twice as powerful SB-910 (34M GN) has 1/880 duration.

Still, 1/720 to 1/1000 is fast enough to freeze much action.... And when it's the sole light source, the flash itself acts like a shutter of sorts, so that the camera's flash sync speed is less relevant.

This may make image stabilization less necessary when using flash. But it also probably won't hurt to leave VR turned on.

If using slower shutter speeds and/or reduced power flash for fill, i.e. recording more ambient light along with the flash, it's probably a good idea to leave VR on for handheld shooting.