Motorsport lens advice, please.

Magpie70

Magpie70

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Mark
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Hi,
I'm considering branching out my photography and getting into motorsport (I mainly do wildlife work 90% of the time).
I want to get into rallying and touring cars mainly. I will be getting the canon 70-200LIS in a week or so, i also have a 500mmf4 and a sigma 50-500mm.
I'm really interested in knowing what you use for motorsports and whether you would recommend another top quality lens that I could use in addition to what I have. What do the pro's generally use?
Also, could someone point me in the right direction to motorsport events in the near future around north of england, or are there websites with details of this?
Sorry for all the questions. I would appreciate any advice,
Cheers, Mark.
 
Cheers Matt, I live 9 miles away from Newcastle. I'm willing to travel around 3 hours to watch motorsport.
 
plenty of club level rallies in the North.

Croft is your local circuit near Darlington, Knockhill a bit further, and Oulton Park / Donington Park being a 3 hour drive away.

Lenses - 500f4 is a good one but many use a fast 100-300 range eg Sigma 120-300 f2.8 with optional t/c's
 
Thanks Andrew and Matt. I'm not sure whether to use the 500mm lens, so I will look for an alternative.
 
A lot of circuits keep the spectators well away from the action so you need reach. The 500mm f4 will do the job admirably.

The bigma will be OK in the best light but too slow otherwise.

Touring Cars - gets very crowded which restricts you somewhat. Plenty of club level motorsport which is a lot cheaper to get into and virtually no crowds to speak of. Sometimes you're best of staying at home and watching the telly.
 
theres plenty of rallying up north as well, theres the pirelli international which heads to keilder.

i use a 70-200 f4 for rally stuff, or a wide angle zoom where i can get close to the action, although i often find the 70-200 a bit short for circuit work


motorsport is a fairly vague envelope, what is it you want to photograph? circuit racing, rallying, autocross, speedway, grasstrack, hillclimbs, motocross, even lawn mower racing, if you narrow it down people might be able to pinpoint events and gear a bit better
 
Well, I'd go with a ultrawide for pit/paddock, a 70-200, a 300 prime and some TC's - 1.4x if you have F4 glass and add the 2x if you have the dosh for F2.8 gear.
 
Club motorsport is the way forward, I have been at Oulton today and just jumped in the van if I wanted to get around the circuit, Outside of Lodge, round to Old HAll, down to the Avenue - back to the garage for a brew and then out to the other side by Foulstones, back to the infield at Lodge and at the end of the day round to Druids on the infield - you would NEVER be able to do that at a British meet !

Had the 100-400L and the 70-200 2.8 with me today and think I did OK, as always though more reach would have been good at some places 500 should be pretty good though !
 
Teesside in Middlesborough is excellent for shooting , lots of exciting drift events there too!

As for lenses , I use a 70-300mm
 
No use with the lens choice, but can i point you in the direction of this site...

http://www.racedates.net/

Im in north shields & quite like watching rally events & rallycross, this site has been excellent in finding events from autocross to touring cars.
 
You sound as if you're pretty well covered. Maybe a 300mm F2.8 or like andrewc says, the sigma 120-300 F2.8, it seems to produce superb results in the right hands :)
 
The Sigma 120-300 is an excellent lens. Here's a recent one taken with it - this one hand-held at 1/100th.

For motorsport though I find the 2.8 aperture itself is not so useful. Mainly I want lower shutter speeds, which means quite a small aperture. No point having the bulk of a 2.8 when you're shooting at f/22 (the shot below was at f/22). The smaller aperture helps get the focus bang-on, and background blur doesn't matter when panning :) The main benefit I find of the 120-300 is the focus-speed and the zoom allowing good framing for whatever is happening in front of me on the track.

2426017202_5b73094cf8.jpg
 
^ Yup, there are loads of Pro motorsport photo togs using the Sigma 120-300. Versatile, sharp and a fast aperture :)
 
I might be missing the obvious ,so i've prepped myself to be shot at dawn :LOL:. 120-300 and f22 for motorsport :shrug:.Again ,i must be missing summit .I'm very keen to find out about this (y)
 
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