Motorsport lens question.

wippers

wippers

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Gareth
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Hi All - I had a go at my first motorsport photography last weekend at Oulton Park. As we got a great spot really close to the track, I found my 24-105 Canon L lens was superb, but further away obviously not so good. My other lens is a Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 which i found gave mixed results. It seemed a little slow to focus and could well be better suited to wildlife? :thinking:
My question is this: Would I be better selling the Sigma lens and buying maybe a Canon 70-200 IS F4 L series? As I'm pretty new to photography, I don't know how much I'll lose going from 500mm to 200mm?:thinking:
Help!:help:

Thanks for reading.
:)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4468052784_8bc3682aca_b.jpg
 
Not a bad first go either... Fantastic colours and top quality motion blur too.


I'm not really sure on the lens question.... what sort of things other than motorsports do you shoot?
 
Fantastic shot, can certainly see the quality of the L lens :)

Although ive never used one myself, I would imagine that the Canon would be better quality than the Sigma.

When using the Sigma were you zooming closer than 200mm because this will answer your question
 
If thats from your first go, you can be pretty chuffed with the results.

From the spectator side of a fence, something around 300mm would be fine. Canon do a 70-200 which I would thing is a little short for most circuits, OK for some, and a 100-400 which lots of people use. Sigma do a 100-300 f4 EX which I find to be pretty good which is worth considering.
 
I use the Sigma 150-500 OS and the focus is plenty fast enough. It does like good light or drop iso if required. its best at F8 up. sharper at 450 than 500mm. The focus speed is not an issue with mine and it is faster than my nikon 70-300VR. It also holds focus well. HOWEVER I believe there were some incompatibility issues with early versions of this lens for Canon so you may need a software / firmware upgrade. Lots of people will tell you that other lenses are better than this. Often derived info from tests in magazines or on the net, dont believe it , within the parameters above it does produce quality results. Ask other users.

one from mine
4473842776_d7948a644e.jpg
 
I use a Bigma at the moment for my motorsports stuff. In good light it's pretty ok for focusing IMO. You just need to learn it's foibles.

Personally I wouldn't worry about a lens having IS or not. Especially with motorsport stuff you can negate by having a half decent techinque and unless it's got a panning mode it can be better to turn it off in some cases. I manage perfectly well with mine at 500mm taking shots at around 1/100.
 
Big_Ham said:
I use a Bigma at the moment for my motorsports stuff. In good light it's pretty ok for focusing IMO. You just need to learn it's foibles.

Personally I wouldn't worry about a lens having IS or not. Especially with motorsport stuff you can negate by having a half decent techinque and unless it's got a panning mode it can be better to turn it off in some cases. I manage perfectly well with mine at 500mm taking shots at around 1/100.
Click to expand...

Lucky you
Perhaps I just dont have the technique ;)
However I am getting on a bit and not the strongest person in the world. I find that OS VR or whatever is essential for me unless I am above 1/focal length shutter speed and with motor sport you need to be slower to give that sensation of speed. With the OS off my keeper rate drops a lot.
Perhaps more water with it may help:shrug:
 
Chrisbie said:
Lucky you
Perhaps I just dont have the technique ;)
However I am getting on a bit and not the strongest person in the world. I find that OS VR or whatever is essential for me unless I am above 1/focal length shutter speed and with motor sport you need to be slower to give that sensation of speed. With the OS off my keeper rate drops a lot.
Perhaps more water with it may help:shrug:
Click to expand...

:lol:

That post did sound a little smug which wasn't the intention. Tried using a monopod.

The point I was trying to make was IS isn't vital for motorsport, so why not save the money, or go for an f/2.8 instead??
 
I think I may have to hire a couple of lenses perhaps and see which one suits me best. The options look like:

Canon 70-200mm F4 IS
£850 ish

Canon 70-200mm F2.8 non IS (budget won't push to the IS version)
£?

Canon 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 (although not sure this will prove much different to my Sigma 150-500mm?)
£1300 ish

The first one looks favourable. Can only afford 2nd hand so is Flebay the best place to look?
 
wippers said:
I think I may have to hire a couple of lenses perhaps and see which one suits me best. The options look like:

Canon 70-200mm F4 IS
£850 ish

Canon 70-200mm F2.8 non IS (budget won't push to the IS version)
£?

Canon 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 (although not sure this will prove much different to my Sigma 150-500mm?)
£1300 ish

The first one looks favourable. Can only afford 2nd hand so is Flebay the best place to look?
Click to expand...

Check Kerso's price too..

What body tou use?

I say, buy a 70-200 2.8 IS( not latest model)... ;)
 
There is always the Sigma 120-400mm f4.5-5.6 OS lens to consider. I use it for my motorsport work and it's a great lens. They are going for around £600 at the moment I think
 
Theres always the for sale / wanted section on this forum. and the advertisers like MPB
 
wippers said:
I think I may have to hire a couple of lenses perhaps and see which one suits me best. The options look like:

Canon 70-200mm F4 IS
£850 ish

Canon 70-200mm F2.8 non IS (budget won't push to the IS version)
£?

Canon 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 (although not sure this will prove much different to my Sigma 150-500mm?)
£1300 ish

The first one looks favourable. Can only afford 2nd hand so is Flebay the best place to look?
Click to expand...

100-400 is a really versatile lens - great starter kit and way better than your sigma IMO. Obviously its going to struggle a bit in low light ***'

F4 version of the 70-200 I've not used, but the F2.8 is one you'll never, ever regret spending money on, even non IS! The Sigma equivalent isn't bad either.

Also consider the canon 300mm F4 L

N
 
I'm a Nikon man, but I've used my mates 70-200 f4 (non-IS), and found it to be a brilliant lens. On his 50d it's very well balanced and it takes some lovely pictures.

I have a 70-300VR, and find that I hardly ever use the VR function, particularly when I'm at a motorsports event. Most of the time I find that it gets in the way, and I feel like it's only suited for slow shutter panning. Even then it has to be level panning.

IMO, whether you get an IS lens or not depends on what other photography you do.

If you're buying second-hand then why not take a look in the Classifieds forum? You're still buying from a stranger, but I'd trust people on here more than on Ebay. There's also a number of well known and respected retailers that sell second-hand equipment.

Cheers,
Mark
 
The must-have motor sport lens is a 70-200 f2.8 (or an 80-200 2.8) IS/VR isn't that important for this kind of work IMO.
 
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