Digital camera for motorsport photos

CraigS1974

I regularly go to Silverstone and Rockingham race circuits to watch such as British Touring Cars and other racing events.

I've been wanting to buy a camera for such events with around 18x zoom and in range of £100 to £120 - anyone got any good offers or advice for me please?

[Deleted User]

Advice? Increase your budget and hope for sunny weather

patman99

You'll need to up your budget a bit. Pocket cameras just do not cut the mustard. You need to aim for a bridge camera with a fast (1/200th sec or quicker) shutter speed.

googler

Forget any pocket cameras. You'll need either a bridge or full-size SLR with a honkin' big lens.

Basis for this; I used a 35mm SLR and 200mm lens at Knockhill, a small circuit in Scotland where you can get MUCH closer to the action than Silverstone. All I came back with were disappointingly small cars in the centres of frames, and uninteresting photos. Yes, I could have cropped them, but you're far better getting the shot right in the first place.

ajuk

You don't get long zooms without loss of light, loss of light means longer exposures, so you'll need good weather or high ISOs, a monopod maybe a good investment.

bribrian

You could consider this wee bridge camera, excellent camera & a decent price...;)
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5596007/Trail/searchtext%3ENIKON.htm

[Deleted User]

You could just buy some Binoculars and just enjoy the day?

Or wait for the things to be stationary and take the pictures then like I do:
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/67801 (Managed to acquire a press-pass )

Dave_C_2

CraigS1974 wrote: »

I regularly go to Silverstone and Rockingham race circuits to watch such as British Touring Cars and other racing events.

I've been wanting to buy a camera for such events with around 18x zoom and in range of £100 to £120 - anyone got any good offers or advice for me please?

You will never get a good enough camera for that price. If you look at all of the pro photographers at the event they all have DSLRs with enormous lenses on the front. Assuming a cheap DSLR body at a few hundred quid you then have to buy something like a 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens. Which will set you back £3500 from Nikon or £1500 from Sigma.

Dave

yangptangkipperbang

Dave_C wrote: »

Assuming a cheap DSLR body at a few hundred quid you then have to buy something like a 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens. Which will set you back £3500 from Nikon or £1500 from Sigma.

Dave

150-500mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM - excellent lens ! With a reasonable DSLR you can wind up the ISO a couple of stops to counteract what you lose in the lens.

£700 - 800.

[Deleted User]

I have a 600mm prime lens (manual focus) on my Panny L10 dSLR, cost me 30 quid!

Have you considered hiring kit instead of buying