Motor Racing Shooters... Lens Advice?

[megan]

Hi ya'll - I'm looking to shoot some more dirt track this summer. Last year, I shot with a 12-60, which is my all-purpose lens. I've been saving up for a longer lens, and before I get one, I'm just wondering what your favorite lens(es) to shoot racing is and why. (The dirt track that I shoot is at night.) Thanks!

Megan

[Chris350]

Simply put it needs to be long enough to grab the action and fast enough to stop it. You neglect to mention your camera make nor how close to the action you can get, so this is generic.. You're looking at 200mm minimum I suspect and f2.8. I shoot Nikon so that puts us in the realm of 2000-4000usd exotic lenses, that come form factories that were damaged by the earthquake, so they're very very limited in availability. I've shot 200-300mm f4 on road courses and was only barely able to pull the image in close enough. That only worked under full daylight at ISO 400.

[cozmocha]

If you are shooting dirt track the place has might no usable light so I would look into getting a good flash set up. Do you think the lighting at the track is good enough?

[megan]

Ah! You are right. I shoot with an Olympus E3. The track is regional dirt track, 1/2 mile banked track - so not very large. They race Pure Stock, Pro Stock, Modifieds, Sportsman, Budget Sportsman. Thanks!

[megan]

No, the lighting isn't good enough - when I shot without my current flash, I couldn't get clear shots of the cars. When I used the flash with the crappy kit lens, I got clear shots - but the lens was still too short (it's a 40-150, and I should be working with better glass, of course.)

Thanks!

[Jimmy B]

Shooting at short tracks can be a lot of fun. I don't know if Olympus makes something in like a 70-200 F2.8? That should give you the reach you need. I don't know how close you can get safely?
This some advise for anyone shooting at races"Please don't turn your back to the on coming race action". In the pits walk the opposite direction of the traffic flow so you are all ways walking towards the oncoming traffic.
Happy shooting, I hope to find some time to get some short track shooting in this year.
Jimmy B

[megan]

Excellent, thanks! Olympus has a 50-200 F2.8-3.5 that I am considering. I wanted to see what others shoot before committing money to it to make sure that I'm getting something I can use. Thanks for the race advice, as well. I've got an uncle that's the mayor of the pit, but it's good to get advice from a fellow shooter.

[Chris350]

I second the 70-200 2.8 suggestion (or the Olympus equivalent) since you're able to work close to the action. Basically the faster the better.

[phlipoutphoto]

A fixed aperature is a must I think. Otherwise every time you zoom out, you're back to bad exposures due to the aperature changing and letting less light in. Usually what I do is pick a good spot and shoot my fill then move to a different spot so large batches of photos are all generally about the same focal length which has let me to consider getting a fixed lens even with a very large aperature. Hopefully you're not going to stand in one spot all night and shoot all across the track...At least I wouldn't - I like to move around. There's probably a camera shop that you can rent lenses from - I have rented some really nice lenses for $20-$40 for 3 days so that's a good way to figure out what you really want to get.