6D for Motorsport

TheNissanMan

TheNissanMan

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Ryan
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Not sure if it's a stupid question but thought I should ask anyhow...

I love my 7D when there is reasonable light but am really struggling when the light goes and shoot in the lowest of circuit lighting so wanted to consider full frame. My lens line up at current bar the 50mm 1.8 are all f4 lenses and don't have the budget for the 2.8's I would love.

Does anybody have any experience of shooting Motorsport (predominantly drifting) in low light conditions with a 6D as although I would love a 5D3 with a wedding to pay for in May my budget just won't allow...
 
The 6D does not have the most sophisticated focus system but I have successfully shot red kite in flight and had great results. I've never shot driving but would suspect the cars are not going that fast when actually drifting so I wouldn't see any reason why a 6D wouldn't keep up.

However, the 6D is full frame so you will loose a fair amount of range so you need to bear that in mind.

Have you considered the 7Dmkii. It's performs much better in low light than the original 7D and you keep the focus system and range of the crop sensor.
 
Thanks for your repsonse, the 7dii was the other consideration but trying to keep costs down which is my dilemma. In terms of focus sing the cars are moving at a rate of knots with the top boys but in a steady plane so the focus sing I would imagine shouldn't have to work to hard if my panning is ok. The range isn't to much of an issue as am trackside and generally close, if anything it would help as the 17-40 is generally ok albeit short on occasion, the 100-400 often just a tad to long, losing some of that range would actually help.

Having shot BOP previously shooting drifting is considerably easier so that may have inadvertently answered the question :)

I guess the other downside to the mk2 does everything where light permits, it's only when it doesn't I get stuck...

I'm really in two minds so suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
The other option would be a 1d3 but don't know what they're like in low light?
 
6d will be fine for Motorsport.
 
Not quite motorsport I know, but the principle is the same...........I stumbled across a local moto x meeting when all I had with me was my 6D fitted with (gulp!) a manual focus only Voigtländer 90mm. Not the least bit ideal for the job, or so I thought, but I had nothing to lose but try and capture some action anyway. I actually found slow burst rate to be up to the job provided you got your timing right. Out of over 30 images, the 'keeper ratio' was surprisingly high in the end. So, for a camera being used for something it really wasn't designed for, I thought it performed pretty well.

IMG_2297 by Colin Frankland, on Flickr

IMG_2308 by Colin Frankland, on Flickr

The Power of Flight by Colin Frankland, on Flickr

I can fly! by Colin Frankland, on Flickr
 
ps - I forgot to mention that the weather on the day was variable, ranging from sunny to overcast dull cloud. Didn't seem to make a difference to be honest, probably because if the 6D is renowned for anything it is its low-light capabilities. Also interesting to read the op's comments about existing lenses - the Voigtländer 90mm is, like I said, MF only and a modest f/3.5 - not exactly a 'fast' lens! :-)
 
Thanks for the feedback, may start looking again, now to decide between the 6d and 1d3
 
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