Advice for a pleb please

[JimVVC]

I'm off to Oulton Park to take some photos of friends competing in the Time Attack series and could do with some advice on the best settings for some good action shots and some nice close ups in the pits.

I have the following equipment:

Canon 350D
Canon 400D

Canon 18-55mm
Sigma DG 70-300mm
Sigma DC 10-20mm

Embarrassingly I've never really fiddled with the settings and have only used sport mode for action shots and then messed around with the images in Photoshop.

I had a quick look through the lens wiki at the settings others have used but I'm unsure if I'm meant to be in P mode or M mode - Maybe I should RTFM

[itsnotarace]

TV mode, whatever centre weighted metering on Canon's is, minimum of 1/125th for panning, 1/500th to freeze action, ISO dependant on available light on the day

[JimVVC]

Thanks for the advice itsnotarace, I popped outside and tried the 1/250th with ISO 100 & 200, asked the wife to drive past the house at 60 a couple of times - are these any good?

Edited by JimVVC on Friday 23 April 18:55

[rottie102]

JimVVC said:

I popped outside and asked the wife to drive past the house at 60 a couple of times

Now that made my day

[Simpo Two]

The bit that impressed me is how your camera converted a VW to a Mini

[Furyous]

Good action shots need a blurred background and sharp car to make them stand out.
Ideally, for panning, you need to be at 90 degrees to the action, unlike your test shots.

Id take the 70-300, shoot with Canon equiv of AFC and around 1/125.

[JimVVC]

OK so slow it sown and take the shot side-on? Car on track: ====[ ]==========

Me: *


Cheers for the advice guys

[itsnotarace]

To avoid camera shake, you need at least a shutter speed equal to the focal length. i.e 1/30th at 30mm, 1/125th for 125mm etc

If you shoot 1/125th at 300mm, expect to be binning a lot of shots until you've got a good amount of practice

[JimVVC]

Ah right, I didn't think to change it depending on focal length, told you I was a pleb

[JimVVC]

Simpo Two said:

The bit that impressed me is how your camera converted a VW to a Mini

Shame it converted it to a filthy abused Mini

[JimVVC]

rottie102 said:

JimVVC said:

I popped outside and asked the wife to drive past the house at 60 a couple of times

Now that made my day

It made hers too!

[RobDickinson]

itsnotarace said:

To avoid camera shake, you need at least a shutter speed equal to the focal length. i.e 1/30th at 30mm, 1/125th for 125mm etc

If you shoot 1/125th at 300mm, expect to be binning a lot of shots until you've got a good amount of practice

True but the keepers will be real keepers. I shot an airshow last month and got 10-20 keepers out of 2600 for that reason..

The key I think is start at 1/focal length and work down as you get some good shots, try aiming for 1/60th or something eventualy.

The 350/400d arnt that good at tracking af (AI SERVO) if your in a fixed spot may be better to prefocus on a corner or position on a straight then pan the car and shoot when the car gets to the right spot.