Digital Photography and Cars

[getcarter]

IMHO - Go the SLR route or you'll regret it!

all these: www.stevecarter.com/sadgallerypix/index.htm

were taken with a digi SLR - possible with a compact but MUCH easier with an SLR

Steve

[ehasler]

Some nice pics there Steve! What DSLR do you use?

Also, I've never actually used a DSLR myself, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the view you get through the viewfinder (not LCD screen) is exactly the same as you'd get on a film SLR, so there should be no difference in your ability to check whether a shot is in focus or not?

[beano500]

Seconded - they are more than acceptable for the size. Good ones, Steve

As well as asking what kit, can you tell us how easy colour balance is?

[getcarter]

Camera is a Nikon D1X - but I know several who use the D100 and they also get very good pics.

Through the lens is indeed what you get (as in a film camera)... why the SLR is so much better...

No shutter lag
Speed/Apature priority (a must for fast cars or big landscapes)
Interchangeable lenses (see above)
up to 17 mb per pic (will print to A3 without pixelating)
5 pics per second

etc etc

Unfortunately they are blimmin pricey. (and the size of Dover)

..edited to mention that The Nikon has auto color balance which does for most, but there are tons of others for cloudy, fluresant etc. There are about 50 programmable 'options' as well, so I sharpen, add contrast as I shoot etc.

For the terminally bored, loads more car pics on www.SadGit.net and Landscapes on www.SteveCarter.com


>> Edited by getcarter on Friday 5th December 10:03

[beano500]

getcarter said:

Camera is a Nikon D1X Unfortunately they are blimmin pricey.

Will be waiting for secondhand market to get going, methinks!?

Apparently, the D100 has been Nikon's fastest selling piece of kit in the UK (according to their sales guy in Gray's - so I suppose salt (one pinch of) is needed ) - if that's true, whenever a new model comes out it could be good news on prices new and used.

[whittaker52]

i went with getting a canon powershot g3, it seems to do pretty much everything i want it to do, and much more. Ive just got a new telephoto lens for christmas, this should be great for the races next season, should be able to get some really nice shots. fuji recently released a digital slr type camera which is 3.1mp but has a 6.1mp mode, but the best feature seems to be the 10x optical zoom, and all for about £300-350 the other option is a minolta dimage z1 has the same basic set up as the fuji, apart from the 6.1mp mode, but is £270 at comet at the moment here

you can see some of my photos from my G3 at here full resolution versions are here

hope this helps,
Oliver

[Alien]

Surprised no one has mentioned the Minolta Z-1 yet. It isn't pocketable, but it does have a 35-350mm equivalent lens on it, focuses very fast, and has very little shutter lag. A guy I work with has one. If you only need 3MP, it would be a good choice. The only real flaw I could find with it was a certain amount of chromatic aberration in macro shots. So if you do a lot of closeups stay away, otherwise highly recommended.

[simpo two]

Nice pix Steve. What digital SLR do you use?

[Esprit]

whittaker52 said:

i went with getting a canon powershot g3, it seems to do pretty much everything i want it to do, and much more. Ive just got a new telephoto lens for christmas, this should be great for the races next season, should be able to get some really nice shots. fuji recently released a digital slr type camera which is 3.1mp but has a 6.1mp mode, but the best feature seems to be the 10x optical zoom, and all for about £300-350 the other option is a minolta dimage z1 has the same basic set up as the fuji, apart from the 6.1mp mode, but is £270 at comet at the moment here you can see some of my photos from my G3 at here full resolution versions are here hope this helps, Oliver

That's The Fujifilm S5000 Zoom...and apart fromt he 10x zoom it's fantastic. Along with the more upmarket S7000 Zoom (which oddly only has 6x optical zoom, but is a 6/12MP CCD instead of 3.2/6) The new generation sensors on these cameras aren't as good as the previous really and they produce a ather "Noisy" image. I looked into getting one and figured that the camera that these 2 have replaced (the 602) was the best option of the bunch (especially considering that they were in new condition on the S/H market for next to nothing!
Here's a photo I took at the Rally NZ earlier in the year of Francois Duval in the focus. The cars were going past us at about 160km/h, less than 3m away (we were on a bank above the road) so the photos were very time-critical. We were getting about a 90% hit rate on the day of perfect photos to ones where we slightly missed the cars.... and that was using only single shot mode. There's a couple of very handy burst-fire modes that are prerfect for such a situation but we didn't know how to use it then as we didn't have the instruction manual

www.freewebz.com/tr7/images/stuff/focus.JPG

The camera is a perfect mix... it's downfrom a DSLR, its VERY quick on the A/F and it's much bigger/better/easy to use for snapping fast things with 4-wheels than a compact.... and a BARGAIN secondhand

Go the S602

[scw]

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Here are pics that I shot with 3 year old 1.5 megapixel Olympus E100RS.

What makes it so good for motorsports is the 10X optically stabilized zoom, the equivalent of 380mm on a 35.

With only 1.5 megapixels it's getting a little long in the tooth though, and I'm considering the new 4 megapixel Panasonic FZ10 with a 12X stabilized "Leica" lens.

This might be the ideal 'affordable' (MSRP $600) camera for racing.

Best regards,

Steven

( first post )




>> Edited by scw on Thursday 11th December 09:07

[hansgerd]

The E100RS is excellent for motor sport photography. I especially like the rapid shot functionality which allows you to make up to 7.5 pictures per second.