Anyone know about slr cameras?? RE: F1
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Hi, I’m looking to buy an entry level slr camera, spending somewhere between £300-£400. My main use will be photographing motor sports and in particular F1 so was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on what to look for?
Will I be pretty safe with whatever I buy or do I need to consider fps etc?
There is a sports photographer who may be able to help you: Jamey Price. He wrote a great article on this site a few months ago taking photos at the Italian GP, and afterwards I sent him a few emails asking about how to get into photography and he was very helpful.
I recommend you check his website for details or to get in touch, I’m sure he’ll be happy to help. There are some great photo’s on there from Monaco 2008 with a Nikon D80, but that’s a prosumer camera so maybe it’s too advanced?
I’m no expert, but taking a good picture has more to do with knowing how to setup the Fstop, aperture, etc. as opposed to using Auto settings(I took a semester of Digital Photog. in college, but i’ve forgotten most of it by now.) Almost any camera you can tweak and get decent pictures. I would suggest getting your camera and buying a used photography book or looking around the net for tutorials and such. I plan on getting a camera of my own myself before I go to this years Petit LeMans and next years AustinGP!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54191157@N03/ Pictures I took at 2010 Petit LeMans. Just used Auto, and they turned out good enough for me.
Pretty much any dSLR will get you seriously nice quality pictures these days. Entry level Nikons or Canons are both great. For some reason, you see pretty much all of the professional photographers using Canon SLRs, but at on a casual level, a Nikon will do just as well.
If you are photographing specifically sports, you would want to get a camera body with a decent ISO (at least 1600) with not too much image noise. Don’t worry too much about resolution. Anything above 10 megapixels gets pretty excessive. For photographing sports, I wouldn’t suggest a full frame camera.
I would suggest investing more in a fast lens. A good lens will make a huge difference sometimes. Find one with a low f-stop of around f/1.8 or f/2. Those will get you sharp, crisp pictures. For taking pictures of racing, I would suggest a longer lens, probably at least 100 mm focal length. Unfortunately, long lenses with low f-stops get expensive, especially zoom lenses, but fixed lenses are a little cheaper. Zoom lenses of similar price will be a little slower, but will do perfectly well in nice sunlight but will struggle in dimmer light.
Finally, the most important aspect of taking pictures is thought. I think that the more thought you put into a picture, the better it will turn out. Think about your composition, think about your subject. Move around and look at it from different angles and perspectives. Putting in some thought will compensate most shortcomings in equipment. Be ready for moments of drama or beauty. Also try to snoop around and be a little daring.
A couple of my favorite F1 photographers are James Moy and Darren Heath.
I started with a Canon 1000d and for the purpose of my annual pilgrimage to Silverstone bought a Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 DG macro zoom lense. Now you’ll pick the camera up, with an 18-55mm lense for about £350-£400 and the Sigma lense for about £130.00 (amazon). The results are varied, its not a fast lense, but providing there is good light (and a monopod is a MUST) you will get some good pictures on the bends. Getting them on the straights is a little more difficult but does come with practice.
You will struggle to buy brand new for under £400.00 for the type of pictures I think you will be wanting to take. I’ve just upgraded to a 50d, and am planning on hiring a 4-500mm lense up for this years trip.
You could always look at second hand, but I would avoid E-bay, try Jessops or park Cameras for their reconditioned cameras. Its also worth while buying a camera magazine, as at the back they have a multitude of reputable suppliers of new/SH cameras.
Good luck!
Thanks Guys! This is all good advice. I don’t mind paying more than £400 if its going to be worthwhile, just needed to be sure what to look for and whether or not I’d be fine with a lower end camera. This has all helped a lot though! Thanks!
….The Canon 1000d was one of the camera’s I was looking at buying actually but had no idea if this would give me good enough results for photographing F1 and other motor sports.
I have some pictures but dont know how to upload them on here…
Found a 1000d and 2 lense set…follow link below:
http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/brand/view/18/2/
Below is the link to my picasa page where you will see pictures from 2 years ago taken with the equipment i had mentioned in my last post.
Should have said as well, I don’t simply want to take hundreds of clear, sharp photos of Formula 1 cars showing little action or motion, I would like to try and be a bit creative and imaginative with my shots so whatever would best help me achieve this other than sheer talent would be good.
I shoot film mostly, but I have a Nikon D40 dSLR, which was replaced by the D3000/D5000 and again by the recent D3100. I love it. It’s light, inexpensive and does more than I need it to. Spend you money on lenses. It has a lot to do with 1) your knowledge of the manual settings, and 2) your lenses. these things are far more important than megapixels.
This guy Ken Rockwell has great product breakdowns and reviews/recommendations. He knows what’s up! Here is his 2011 Recommended cameras: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm
Here is his comment on the D3100.
“The D3100 is a great camera. I’d get a D3100 instead of other bigger, heavier and more expensive cameras unless you have a very clear, stated reason that the D3100 won’t work for you.”
In your posts you talk about F1 and motorsports shots. You need to things 1) a fast shutter speed, 1/3000, 1/4000, etc. the D3100 has 1/4000 (that means the shutter fires in four thousands of a second!) so a car going 200mph is clear and easy to see and 2) a decent zoom lens (300 or 400mm) to get the shot of a car that is far away without it looking far away….
Again, you can get a new, basic body that will do everything you want and spend a bit more on a great lens!
As far as the creativity goes, I say avoid photoshop until you’re an expert. what you need to do is learn the basic functions of a camera and learn how to shoot normal photos in any light setting (mastering light and how to control and manipulate it is mastering photography) using the manual settings. Then you can get creative by manipulating the settings for what you want.
Does anyone know what the Pentax K-X is like? It has 1/6000th maximum shutter speed and 4.7 frames per second continuous shooting (for 17 frames). Not sure what lenses are like.
Pentax makes good cameras and lenses, but I’ve never heard of the KX. I personally like Canon and Nikon because they have more lens options and they’re easier to find, but I don’t know that it’s really a big issue.
You can use older lenses from film cameras too, which makes for cool effects. I have a Nikon lens from the late 70s (it doesn’t auto focus) but it produces great quality and cool effects. I have no idea how long pentax has been making SLRs, but it might be something to take into consideration.
Also, with the cheaper Nikons, the focus motor is not in the camera (it is on more expensive models), so what this means is you get a cheaper and lighter body, but if you want the lens to auto focus, you have to by DX lenses that have the motor in the lens, so you are a little bit more limited. You can use any Nikon SLR lens on the cheaper Nikon cameras (film, DX, non-DX), but only the DX will auto focus.
Choose your SLR body based on what lenses you want and how much you want to spend and how much versatility you want…..
I might just go for the Canon 1000D since it’s cheap, at least I know I’ll be safe when it comes to buying lenses and longevity etc when it comes to upgrading. As morleyfanatic pointed out there’s a good deal on purelygadgets.co.uk – Canon EOS 1000D Twin Lens Kit (18-55 + 75-300mm) for £400 but unfortunately its not in stock at the moment. :-(
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