Equipment query

[ScottWilkesPhotography]

Argh! Left it too long...
Boiled it down to either -
Nikon AF-S 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED VR DX or
Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro

I'm leaning more towards the Nikon tbh...
What would you do?

[D4Dphotos]

The Nikon seems like a nice lense and has 'VR' aswell. Although i started off with a sigma 70 - 300 years ago and got some really nice shots with it. A good secondhand lense could also save you some money and allow you to aim a little higher in lense quality too..........

[ScottWilkesPhotography]

Forgot to tell you all, I went for the Sigma 70-300 APO. Got some nice shots, but they're all on my site and I'll probably get blasted if I post the link..

Many thanks for all your input

[atky]

Originally Posted by nycuk

Personal choice I guess, but I prefer MF with cars. AF does a pretty good job as you say, but it's not 100% consistent.

Ge you must be good to outperform modern Auto Focus

[MikeHoyer]

There are times when manual focusing works betting, if you get it right!

[bella]

define modern. the af on my less than a decade old nikon lens is rubbish. anything to do with motorsport head-on at speeds faster than walking pace has to be done on manual focus.

[Hubble]

Originally Posted by bella

define modern. the af on my less than a decade old nikon lens is rubbish. anything to do with motorsport head-on at speeds faster than walking pace has to be done on manual focus.

Maybe you could try pre-focussing so the lens has less to do...? Realistically unless you've got a wide maximum aperture with superfast ultrasonic motors for the focussing it's going to struggle with motorsports.....

[bella]

yeah i try that, but regardless of the amount of practice i find it difficult to get the car in the right spot etc because they go a bit quick in the stuff i go and see i try and find the slowest point on the circuit, so most of my stuff is in the pits and on the grid now

[atky]

Hum shot with a lens designed a long time ago not ten years old but the design would be close to that

[bella]

oh i know i'm a crap photographer, this is why i don't try and pretend i want to be a pro. i can show you some of the evidence that it's terrible if you want, but that would only serve to make me look bad. and i can do that without the aid of photos

[grantp]

One of the problems with most digital cameras has been that the old 35mm focus assessment aids - like the split prism fresnel screen - just don't exist and a Mk1 eyeball has too little information to work with.

However you can compensate so some extent by taking time to pre-focus on a point that offers some useful visual separation from its surrounding. Like kerbing. Especially kerbing on an apex. And especially kerbing on an apex that the drivers will actually hit most of the time.

I find this can work well in 'pro' races where the lines taken are usually consistent unless there is a passing maneouvre underway. For other races where the lines are somewhat less well adhered to the concept needs to be amended somewhat.

Use a highish shutter speed if you can set up so the cars (or bikes) are heading more or less at you at that point. You are not looking for motion blur - just freeze the shot. fStop would be up to you but the larger the number the greater the depth of field, relatively speaking, and to the greater the chance of things looking acceptably sharp with some tolerance of the precise fraction of a second at which you hit the shutter release.

It's a starting point for developing further expertise but will produce some great shots if you choose the location well.

It also means that you can use some old, long telephoto manual lenses that can be bought for very little money.