Motor Sport Photography - Road Racing - Page 4 - Equipment

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Equipment:

  • You... You may be shooting for 7-8 hours straight - for drag racing that may be 14-15 hours
  • .... Dress for the climate. (I live in a hot climate)
  • .... Protection from the sun. Hat, long sleve shirt etc.
  • ..... Water - food (food at most tracks can be pretty awfull)
  • ..... Wet weather gear.
  • ..... Know how to operate your camera without even thinking about it.
  • Camera gear .....
  • ...... A responsive camera - I use two DSLRs (1.6 Crop factor)
  • ...... In the pits a normal telephoto and a flash with a difuser will be fine (off camera flash is also helpfull) as is a very wide angle lens.
  • ...... Trackside.
  • ...................... Long lenses are almost a necessity. A 70-300 zoom is adequate, a 100-400 zoom is even better and probably a necessity for smaller vehicles motor bikes? I use a Tokina 80-400 on a Canon 350D or 40D
  • ...................... I have found 200mm maximum focal length to be very restrictive.
  • ...................... Fast, quick focussing long lenses are even better. I don't have one.
  • ...................... A monopod for camera stability and to take the load off your arms on long shooting days.
  • Protection for the camera in case it rains.
  • Lots of memory cards. I always shoot RAW and tend to shoot 600-800 pics/day.
  • Spare batteries or a battery grip - A battery grip realy makes smaller cameras a lot easier to handle with longer lenses.
  • If I am not near the car I use a Lowepro Rover AWII (with additional water bottle holders attached) - backpack with the monopd attached by a caribineer. It allows me to carry my camera gear along with wet weather gear/water bottles etc.

 

Some Examples:

Notice the wet weather gear and monopods. Heavy Rain.

Notice the long lenses and monopods. The pro has an extra camera at his feet... just in case.

400mm will get you this, anything less may get you the same but without as many pixels (cropping).

This is the closest to the track you can get at Eastern Creek Australia (turn 2).