Digital camera for motor sport action shots
Discussion
I currently have a Cannon Ixus 300. I’ve been taking lots of photos at race meetings this year and I’m quite happy with the static photos I’ve been taking and am starting to get a bit more adventurous. One of the things that bugs me about the Ixus is that it’s useless for action photos. I put this down to two reasons:
1. The zoom lens is not powerful enough
2. All this automatic focus etc takes so long the car is out of shot by the time the photo is taken.
So I’d like to make the next step up and get something that allows me to take reasonable action shots at race meetings. I want to stay digital. My first thought was to buy a digital SLR but they are F’ing expensive. The cheapest Jessops have is over 600 notes:
see here
...and I assume the lens that comes with that will not be powerful enough to take decent action shots from the track side so I’d need to buy a better zoom lens as well. Maybe I should switch back to a 35mm SLR and buy a decent lens. Then get a digital SLR body when I feel my standard of photography can warrant the expenditure? Any recommendations?
P.S. Just out of interest how much does one of those bloody great grey dustbin lenses you see the pro’s use cost?
1. The zoom lens is not powerful enough
2. All this automatic focus etc takes so long the car is out of shot by the time the photo is taken.
So I’d like to make the next step up and get something that allows me to take reasonable action shots at race meetings. I want to stay digital. My first thought was to buy a digital SLR but they are F’ing expensive. The cheapest Jessops have is over 600 notes:
see here
...and I assume the lens that comes with that will not be powerful enough to take decent action shots from the track side so I’d need to buy a better zoom lens as well. Maybe I should switch back to a 35mm SLR and buy a decent lens. Then get a digital SLR body when I feel my standard of photography can warrant the expenditure? Any recommendations?
P.S. Just out of interest how much does one of those bloody great grey dustbin lenses you see the pro’s use cost?
The lens is currently £7500 (plus or minus). Have one on my Christmas list.
Actually £6,195 + VAT
[url]www.graysofwestminster.co.uk/products/new.html
Of course you could buy what I use... 70 - 300 (£275 notes).
Buy a D70... you won't regret it
Steve
www.SadGit.net
>> Edited by GetCarter on Tuesday 11th May 16:52
Actually £6,195 + VAT
[url]www.graysofwestminster.co.uk/products/new.html
Of course you could buy what I use... 70 - 300 (£275 notes).
Buy a D70... you won't regret it
Steve
www.SadGit.net
>> Edited by GetCarter on Tuesday 11th May 16:52
Talk about redundancy of information on that Jessop's page:
So I'm confused. How does it capture the red, green & blue information again?
>> Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 11th May 16:58
Jessops said:
The breakthrough Sigma SD9 camera with a Foveon X3 image sensor is the world’s first image-sensor that features three layers of photodetectors (most digital cameras only feature one).
The layers are embedded in silicon to take advantage of the fact that red, green and blue light penetrate silicon to different depths, allowing full-colour to be measured at every pixel. The layers are positioned to take advantage of the fact that silicon absorbs different colours of light at different depths, so one layer records red, another layer records green and the other layer records blue. This means that for every pixel on a Foveon X3 image sensor, there's actually a stack of three photodetectors, forming the first and only full-colour capture system.
The SD9, powered by Foveon X3 image sensors captures red, green and blue light at each and every pixel. All other image sensors feature just one layer of photodetectors, with just one photodetector per pixel. To capture colour, pixels are organized in a grid, or mosaic, resembling a three-color checkerboard. Each pixel capture just one colour-red, green or blue. The filters let only one wavelength of light (red, green or blue) pass through to any given pixel, allowing it to record only one colour. As a result, mosaic sensors capture only 25% of the red and blue light, and just 50% of the green.
So I'm confused. How does it capture the red, green & blue information again?
>> Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 11th May 16:58
t1grm said:
I currently have a Cannon Ixus 300. I’ve been taking lots of photos at race meetings this year and I’m quite happy with the static photos I’ve been taking and am starting to get a bit more adventurous. One of the things that bugs me about the Ixus is that it’s useless for action photos. I put this down to two reasons:
1. The zoom lens is not powerful enough
2. All this automatic focus etc takes so long the car is out of shot by the time the photo is taken.
So I’d like to make the next step up and get something that allows me to take reasonable action shots at race meetings. I want to stay digital. My first thought was to buy a digital SLR but they are F’ing expensive. The cheapest Jessops have is over 600 notes:
see here
...and I assume the lens that comes with that will not be powerful enough to take decent action shots from the track side so I’d need to buy a better zoom lens as well. Maybe I should switch back to a 35mm SLR and buy a decent lens. Then get a digital SLR body when I feel my standard of photography can warrant the expenditure? Any recommendations?
P.S. Just out of interest how much does one of those bloody great grey dustbin lenses you see the pro’s use cost?
Snap, just been through the same issue. My old Ixus was fantastic but the only pictures I seem to take are motorsports, hence need a decent zoom and better control over parameters. In the end I went for the Canon EOS300D with a Tamron 28-300mm lens which is about right (it's never enough!), this cost me around £1100 notes, but I consider it to be good starting point.
Carefull though, it's a slippery slope, I'm already pricing out those huge telephoto lenses and they cost about the same as the camera!! maybe next year..
That said, the high-end Minolta Dimage and Canon Pro Shot are also very good. I went down the dSLR route since I wanted the option of changing the lens as and when I could afford it.
Good luck.
Steve
Incorrigible said:
Post on the photo forum
I believe EOS300D comes very highly reccomended
Uncanny timing.
It is a great camera, although I keep thinking that for anoher £300 I could have gone for the 10D, but hey, I seem to spend my life saying that (if only I went for the Cerbera....)
Steve
Get a digital slr from the States. Cheap as chips with the exchange rate at the moment. Either have it delivered & cough up duty & vat (painful, but still works out cheaper than the domestic purchage) or have someone pick one up over there for you and bring it back. Canon EOS 300D (known as Digital Rebel over there) is about $900 *including* lens - i.e. about £510.
(compare that with £849 for the same camera at jessops.co.uk)
>> Edited by windandwave on Tuesday 11th May 17:30
(compare that with £849 for the same camera at jessops.co.uk)
>> Edited by windandwave on Tuesday 11th May 17:30
All depends on how much you want to spend. The DSLRs are expensive but you get what you pay for generally speaking. They were out of my price range so I went for the Fuji S5000 which has one of the bigger zooms for its price (10x optical and 22x with digital) if thats something that you are looking for, and so far I have been very impressed although it is not an SLR. It does have a lot of manual features as well as automatic modes so was perfect for me just starting out and experimenting. Its a lot cheaper than the SLRs and I know that they are used by amatuer photographers out there for motorsport quite a bit... myself included.
ricardo g said:
All depends on how much you want to spend. The DSLRs are expensive but you get what you pay for generally speaking. They were out of my price range so I went for the Fuji S5000 which has one of the bigger zooms for its price (10x optical and 22x with digital) if thats something that you are looking for, and so far I have been very impressed although it is not an SLR. It does have a lot of manual features as well as automatic modes so was perfect for me just starting out and experimenting. Its a lot cheaper than the SLRs and I know that they are used by amatuer photographers out there for motorsport quite a bit... myself included.
Ive got one of these too, got fustrated with my a201 focusing on the wrong things, The s5000 has fully automatic mode as well as manual focus, shutter and aperture priority. Again i'm just starting out and didn't want to spend thousands. (Twas 250 quid by the way)
I use a Canon A70, it's £210 when I bought it (dropped to ~£170 now), you have full control over focus/shutter speed (1/2000 - 15secs)/aperture (2.8-8) but only has 3x optical zoom (the only bad point imo).
here are some pictures my dad took (first time he used the camera)
here are some shots I took at the rally (first time with this camera although I've been using it for a while now).
It's really good, and I'm considering getting a 2x zoom lens for it (£80 is a bit pricey imo but there are always other ways).
When I was purchasing I saw a Fuji (already mentioned above) which was virtually an SLR without a removal lens, that was going for £250/300 and had pretty much everything you wanted... I didn't get it as I wanted a compact.
>> Edited by docevi1 on Tuesday 11th May 18:20
here are some pictures my dad took (first time he used the camera)
here are some shots I took at the rally (first time with this camera although I've been using it for a while now).
It's really good, and I'm considering getting a 2x zoom lens for it (£80 is a bit pricey imo but there are always other ways).
When I was purchasing I saw a Fuji (already mentioned above) which was virtually an SLR without a removal lens, that was going for £250/300 and had pretty much everything you wanted... I didn't get it as I wanted a compact.
>> Edited by docevi1 on Tuesday 11th May 18:20
Depends what your budget is. If it's not up to a digital SLR (and neither is mine) you could go for one of those SLR-lookalikes that have fixed but very respectable zoom lenses. About £600. If that's still too much, a couple of compacts have 10x zooms - can't think of the models but one is Olympus. Probably <£300.
IMO for motorsport you need a zoom telephoto, control of shutterspeed and reasonable max aperture.
IMO for motorsport you need a zoom telephoto, control of shutterspeed and reasonable max aperture.
For motorsport, you really want more than 300mm, and a large aperture (e.g. f2.8) so you can get fast shutter speeds, however this does come at a price!
I've got one of the "bloody great grey dustbin" lenses, (although mine's the baby of the gang at 300mm f2.8), and I normally need to use a 2 x converter to get the cars close enough. This gives me a 600mm f5.6 lens (and sore arms!), but the converter does mean you lose a bit of sharpness.
The Canon 300mm f2.8 costs about £3500, but you can get a Sigma version for £1500 if you shop around.
You can get a Canon 400mm lens for £900, but it will have a max aperture of f5.6. The f4 version of the lens will cost around £4k and the f2.8 will set you back around £5.5k. Going for a f4 500mm or 600mm lens will cost you even more - £4.7k and £6.2k
Coming back to the real world though, you could go for a much cheaper zoom (e.g, Canon 75-300 with Image Stabiliser - £370), but compared to more expensive lenses, you'll be limited to a max aperture of f5.6 which will get even smaller if you use a converter. This will limit you on shutter speeds and prevent autofocus (although this can be frigged with a bit of tape).
Personally, I'd go for a film SLR and some decent lenses, then you can always swap the body for a digital SLR in the future when funds allow.
Alternatively, stick to circuits where you can get closer to the cars, or try to blag a press pass to get even closer.
Just to illustrate things, here are a couple of shots of mine. Both are uncropped, and all I've done is scan them and resized for the web.
Taken with a Canon 300mm f2.8 + 2 x converter just after the Dunlop Bridge at Le Mans
Taken with Canon 100-400mm on the outside of the entry to Gerrards bend at Mallory Park.
I've got one of the "bloody great grey dustbin" lenses, (although mine's the baby of the gang at 300mm f2.8), and I normally need to use a 2 x converter to get the cars close enough. This gives me a 600mm f5.6 lens (and sore arms!), but the converter does mean you lose a bit of sharpness.
The Canon 300mm f2.8 costs about £3500, but you can get a Sigma version for £1500 if you shop around.
You can get a Canon 400mm lens for £900, but it will have a max aperture of f5.6. The f4 version of the lens will cost around £4k and the f2.8 will set you back around £5.5k. Going for a f4 500mm or 600mm lens will cost you even more - £4.7k and £6.2k
Coming back to the real world though, you could go for a much cheaper zoom (e.g, Canon 75-300 with Image Stabiliser - £370), but compared to more expensive lenses, you'll be limited to a max aperture of f5.6 which will get even smaller if you use a converter. This will limit you on shutter speeds and prevent autofocus (although this can be frigged with a bit of tape).
Personally, I'd go for a film SLR and some decent lenses, then you can always swap the body for a digital SLR in the future when funds allow.
Alternatively, stick to circuits where you can get closer to the cars, or try to blag a press pass to get even closer.
Just to illustrate things, here are a couple of shots of mine. Both are uncropped, and all I've done is scan them and resized for the web.
Taken with a Canon 300mm f2.8 + 2 x converter just after the Dunlop Bridge at Le Mans
Taken with Canon 100-400mm on the outside of the entry to Gerrards bend at Mallory Park.
simpo two said:Well, he did ask how much they were!
All very true Ed, but if he's not got the loot for a digital SLR he's hardly going to be buying a 400mm f2.8 lens is he!!
I don't know what his budget is, but the Sigma 170-500 is a (relatively) cheap way to get a long lens, or as I also suggested, a 100-300 zoom (with the limitations I mentioned).
To be honest, I reckon the best way to get good motor racing shots is to get closer to the action yourself, rather than relying on an expensive bit of glass to do it for you!
Have a look at the Konica Minolta DIMAGE Z2.
Decided to go for this over the Fuji Finepix S7000 because it has a 40X Zoom and continous rapid autofocus.
It doesn't match the Fuji on no. of pixels but I think 4M pixels is plenty.
Only had it a week - I'll report back after Le Mans as to whether it is any good at action photos!!
Best price I found was at pixmania.com - £280
Decided to go for this over the Fuji Finepix S7000 because it has a 40X Zoom and continous rapid autofocus.
It doesn't match the Fuji on no. of pixels but I think 4M pixels is plenty.
Only had it a week - I'll report back after Le Mans as to whether it is any good at action photos!!
Best price I found was at pixmania.com - £280
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