Digital Camera For Motorsport Esp F1

GuyverF1

Hello all i am new here and this is my 1st post.

This year we have finally saved enough money to fulfill our dream of going to Silverstone for the F1GP so we have sorted most things except the camera.

First we were looking at a Fuji Bridge camera but were told it would not be quick enough.

So now looking into a DSLR and we are divided between 2 options either getting one from a pay monthly catalog or getting a 2nd hand one from eBay.

We have also been told that the standard 18 - 55mm lens that come with most cameras will not do so we need a 70 - 300mm lens which i will get from eBay as this is cheaper.

So really looking for some advice on what to do or any suggestions please.

Thankyou

Lee

googler

Even a 300mm may fall short of the mark, I'd suggest, depending on where you end up viewing from. You may well end up with lots of pictures of track and crowd, with some small cars in the centre of the frame.....

Tempted to suggest you enjoy the race, use the camera to snap around the crowd, friends and family, and leave the photos of the race to the professionals.

Take a look on Flickr for photos taken at last year's or previous year's races, pick the ones you like, and see if there's indications of what the photographers used there, and see if what they've used is within your budget.

GuyverF1

Hi i have just seen some shots taken with a 300mm lens and they look pretty cool.

So what would you suggest about the camera

agrinnall

I echo Googler's advice to leave the photos to the professionals, it is very difficult to take decent photos of high speed action, even more so when you're trying to do it from a spectator position which is unlikely to be very close to the track (it's 30 years since I was last at Silverstone, and even though you could get pretty close then my photos were never great - the best ones I managed were at Donington with Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts wheel to wheel through the Craner Curves). The pros will have cameras costing thousands with lenses a lot longer than 300mm, probably costing even more than the cameras.

Mr_Toad

GuyverF1 wrote: »

Hi i have just seen some shots taken with a 300mm lens and they look pretty cool.

So what would you suggest about the camera

What kind of 300mm lens?

They come in many and varied forms and are not all created equal.

I have a sigma 28-300mm lens that I keep on the camera as an all purpose lens that cost less than £500 but I bet the pictures you've seen were taken with a 300mm lens costing upwards of £1500.

I've tried motorsport pictures with mine and the best that can be said is that they're OK or good snaps to remember the day by. You need a really fast lens and that means expensive for good motorsport pictures.

I have a friend who takes motorsport pictures and his lenses each cost more than many people spend on a car! :eek:

[Deleted User]

Why not just hire a camera and lens?
e.g.
http://www.hirental.co.uk/camera_hire/
http://www.lenspimp.com/

'Proper' photography is a very expensive hobby. Personally i use my £28 300mm 1970s manual focus lens on my Panasonic L10 dSLR (so with crop factor, its a 600mm lens). Not very fast but cheap as chips