Motorsport photography

[BAR Babe]

oh and they are not usually bad for second hand older lenses like the manual focus and smaller lenses etc.
ps i don't work for them. - wish i did.... imagine that staff discount!!!! hmmm!

[Les]

must admit I get all my stuff from there as well - well it's the only place that holds stuff my old beastie.

[bella]

no! jessops is expensive!

try kp photography in cambridge (www.kpprof.com i think). remember to add vat to the prices, but they work out better than jessops.

[woodyracing]

I'm also after my first SLR, is there any other new SLRs to consider other than the Canon EOS 300 (in that price range) ?

[BAR Babe]

first i'm going to ask if you are going to drop it or be a bit brutal with your camera like Bella is !

I ask because you find that Nikons you can drop on your foot and although you end up breaking your foot because of the weight of the camera, the camera itself doesn't NORMALLY (please please god) break. On the other hand i know many cannon users who are crying because they have now a rather large bill for camera repair but no sore foot.

[woodyracing]

oh i think i would be very carefull with a camera

i was looking around £400 including a 300mm zoom, any suggestions ? I read that the Nikon F80 has good image quality. Ive not really read about other brands yet.

[BAR Babe]

I'm going to point out a difference between the cannon and the Nikon that you might or might not realise.
It is to do with the Auto Focus mechanism and where it is held.
Cannon has the funtion in the lenses. Therefore if the thing has beggered up in some way you can take just the lens in for repair, not have to lose the camera itself.

On the other side of the coin, Nikon have the mechanism in the Body of the Camera.

Now I know this probably sounds as if i'm shouting Go for Cannon but NO!
Wouldn't swap my Nikon for anything at the minute. .... well, unless anyones offering a nice TVR Cerbera!
and then that would be a crow bar jobby.
No I lie. I wouldn't be parted from them.

Anyway its a thought to bear in mind.

That's why the lenses are never inter-changeable.

[djb]

Anyone interested in the D100, the site www.dpreview.com has just put out some more pre-production D100 shots to go along with their preview of the new Nikon body soon to come out. The shots were taken in London, so if you look carefully, you may be able to spot Craig or TimD lurking around.

[woodyracing]

anyone have any suggestions for removing blue ink from photos ??

i found that where i had wrote on the back of some, the ink has transfered onto the pictures

(i do have the negatives as a last resort,,,)

cheerz

[djb]

The product that works the best is called PEC-12, a photographic emulsion cleaner that is also archival, so it will not hurt negs, slides or prints. Made by Photographic Solutions and comes in a small 4ounce bottle. May be a bit pricey, but it generally gets any sort of ink or stains off any of the forementioned items.

good luck

[woodyracing]

cheers i might ask a photographic shop about it.

or do any common household chemicals work ?
bleach maybe ???

[bella]

nail varnish remover doesn't work either...

[woodyracing]

s'ok i dont have any of that :P

[djb]

we hope, but then we wouldn't hold it against you, we're a pretty much open-minded bunch here, and besides, I live in Montreal and am used to that sort of thing

if you can't find this stuff anywhere,or if it's frightfully expensive (as the British market is wont to screwing all of you royally compared to over 'ere) I'm sure that if you went into any professional lab that prints colour, and asked nicely enough, they would get it off for you.

[brickkicker]

I have been taking photos at racing for a year or so now, when I started I had a EOS 5 which I still use and cant fault it, I now work on an EOS D30 which is great. When you are considering spending money think LENSES these are the most important part. I love to use the canon 70-200 F2.8L i know these are not cheap but the quality is the best you will find (they do it in a F4 version which is half the price) I have found sigma lenses to be a bit slow and the standard canon lenses seem to hunt when in auto focus mode.
I will say this again get good lenses first dont buy rubbish you will regret it in the long run because they will be a bit disapointing, I started with a 75-300 canon F4-5.6 and in the end saved up a bit a got better lenses.
Canon IS is great but the sometimes take a bit longer to focus as they are stabilising.
happy snapping

[woodyracing]

I was looking at the 75-300 canon F4-5.6 lens too.

can someone explain what the F thing is all about, it is also used in astronomy but i was never sure what it was.

[brickkicker]

The F is your F-stop. This is your apature size the lower the number the better, as this lets more light in allowing you to take pictures under lower light. The 75-300 F4-5.6 is ok in good weather. If it is cloudy you will have trouble and will have to go for a faster film. The 70-200 F2.8 is very good under most conditions but it comes at a cost (around 4X the 70-300 but you get what you pay for)

[bella]

they don't do nicely priced lenses below f3.something or other, and at 300mm can't get anything better than f5.3. it's thoroughly annoying. i need a 300mm lens that's got a better focal length than my 50-500mm, which is f4-5.3, or something like that. it's impossible, without spending about £5k. you need better than my 50-500 in late autumn/winter conditions at racetracks. ie renault winter series conditions.

swines.

[Jay]

Looking over this thread, lots of good advice. Like many I'm looking for an intro-level (read: cheap) SLR camera. I've been getting by borrowing a friend's Pentax MZ-7, which I actually quite liked, but others have said is a **** camera. Anyway, now that I have a new job I can probably afford one soon!

Also, you'd be surprised how well you can do with just a compact 35 mm camera at some tracks, like Toronto where you can get really close to the cars in the turns...you don't need a lense any larger than 80mm to get some nice close ups. Still, need SLR for just about any other track, and non-racing photography.

bella...just looking at your sig... expecting a PM from someone?

[brickkicker]

I am asuming that you mean F6.3 on the 50-500mm as 5.3 doesnt exsist.I know that the 70-200mm F2.8 or F4 isnt cheap but they are a good quality lens. I know sigma stuff is ok (asume that you 50-500 is sigma) but when you go for the canon L-seires that is just top quality gear. And if you go for a digital then your 200mm turns into somthing like 305mm so you get a bit extra

[bella]

Originally posted by Jay
bella...just looking at your sig... expecting a PM from someone?

jus' droppin' a subtle hint

brickkicker, i do have mostly sigma stuff, and am going digital by the end of june (damn exams, damn nikon). after spending what will in the end be damn close to £3k on digital camera and associated paraphenalia, i can't really justify that sort of money on a middle range lens. the next thing on my spends list has to be a decent 500mm lens. got any idea which are available for a nikon autofocus mount? admittedly, it's bankloan/small car sacrificing territory. which is why i guess i'm stuck with my beloved sigma monstrosity. thank god for the lens lengthening effect that digital has, it'll save me coughing up for a converter that won't work... does digital increase the minimum f number?

[brickkicker]

No your F numbers stop the same. But i have found that most work on a track can be done with 70-200 an even in the pits its a usefull tool. Sorry but not realy up on nikon have only ever had canon stuff. I dont know about you but when i looked at the sigma 50-500 i thought it was a bit bloody heavy.Which digital body was it you were looking at? I know that the nikon bodys are slightly heavy (but then again most are when you add all the batterys. are you going to be having nikkor lenses or going to stick with the sigma stuff.

[bella]

it's a nikon d100 i'm getting (6.1 megapixels, i think), and i'll have to keep my sigma lens. i don't like the nikkor version of the 300mm lens that sigma do, it's far too plasticky and naff. i couldn't get the d1x because my hands are too small to hold the thing, and i can't reach the button either... the d100 is much lighter than even the f100.

the 50-500 is really heavy, it breaks my back at the end of a 2 day meeting. the fact i've got a naff little camera (f65) on the end of it because i couldn't strech to a few more hundred pounds for a decent one is even worse.

[brickkicker]

Do you use a monopod or do you just carry it i now that nikkor stuff is plasticy but they are light durable but bloody expensive

[bella]

i've got a monopod, but i can't find the bracket for the lens, and it'd snap the mounting point off if i used it on the camera....

they gave me a little nikkor lens with the camera, and it's just cr*p, i definitely prefer sigma.