Advice on lens for motorsport pictures at Silverstone.

Kneller

Kneller

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Right, I'm off to Silverstone on Sunday for Trax car show, and I'm hoping to get some decent pictures of the cars on track.

I got some pictures at Ford Fair (also at Silverstone), but I was simply using my 18-55, so couldn't get very close to the action.

I'm currently in the process of buying a telephoto lens, but I'm not sure what will be the best for the pictures I want. Would 200mm be enough, or do I want to go bigger?

I'm looking to rent a lens first so that I can get a feel for it before forking out a lot of money.

Camera is a Canon 550D.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Josh
 
I know little to nothing about Canon's however: I feel you may struggle to get the action shots you are after with a 200mm :shrug: I would suggest at least a 300mm + a TC if funds allow

Les :thumbs:
 
Kneller said:
Right, I'm off to Silverstone on Sunday for Trax car show, and I'm hoping to get some decent pictures of the cars on track.

I got some pictures at Ford Fair (also at Silverstone), but I was simply using my 18-55, so couldn't get very close to the action.

I'm currently in the process of buying a telephoto lens, but I'm not sure what will be the best for the pictures I want. Would 200mm be enough, or do I want to go bigger?

I'm looking to rent a lens first so that I can get a feel for it before forking out a lot of money.

Camera is a Canon 550D.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Josh
Click to expand...

I would recommend a 100-400 for silverstone, for most other circuits you can get away with a 70-200 but Silverstone your shooting through fences and at places you are quite abit away from the track.
To give you an idea on what you can get at silverstone with a 100-40

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1210519@N20/pool/tags/silverstone/
 
it all depends on what you call alot of money, you could get the 300mm f2.8 with a tc which will cost you a lot or hire 100-400 as you can get one second hand for around £750.

There is also the sigma 50-500 to consider or other options from them.

as les said the 200 might be a bit short for most tracks as the fences and places to stand are getting further and further away.
 
Right, I'll have to have a look around then, as I won't be able to afford to buy the lens by the weekend unfortunately.

I'll have a look at renting one of those advised, but if not, I'll have to give it a miss for now..
 
I went to Silverstone for the MotoGP this weekend. I had a 70-200mm + 1.4x extender.

For some parts of the track it's ok, but for other's you're cropping a lot.

From looking at the Trax website it looks like they're using the National circuit so your places to shoot are inside Copse, from the Woodcote & Luffield spectator areas and from the inside of Brooklands.

All of the shots below are taken with a lens combo that maxes out at 280mm in those areas.

Copse:



Braking at end of Wellington Straight, into Brooklands:



Brooklands mid-corner:



Luffield Exit:



Luffield Mid-Corner:



Personally I'd hire either the 70-300 L (mega sharp apparently) or the 100-400L for reach.

Hope that helps
 
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It's worth bearing in mind they use the National circuit for the on track action. This can sort of limit your options. They probably won't open up any grand stands either (other than maybe the BRDC stand on the inside of the circuit at Brooklands), so chances are you're going to be shooting through the fence a lot.

Places to shoot from will probably be:

1. Inside of Copse (over the fence)
2. Outside of Copse (through the fence)
3. Outside of Maggots (through the fence)
4. Inside of Maggots where they cross back onto the Wellington straight
5. Bridge over Wellington Straight (over the fence, still not a great spot though)
6. Outside of Brooklands, Luffield, Woodcote complex
7. BRDC grandstand if it's open (over the fence)

You'll want a longer lens for shooting down the pit straight from the outside of Copse. But other than that you can get away with 200mm and a tiny bit of cropping.

Drifting tends to happen around the Luffield complex and you can get pretty close there so length isn't really needed too much.
 
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