Capturing Action -- car racing

[anomie]

Hi again,

Next Sunday I am attending a co-workers demolition derby car racing event. I'll, of course, be bringing along my G3. I'm sitting in the pits so I'll be pretty close to the cars (don't have a telephoto lens as of yet anyway).
The event will take place around 5pm and hopefully it will be a nice sunny day.

Please advise on proper settings. I know I'll have to use Tv setting, but wondering on shutter speed to 1) capture freeze frame shots and 2) motion blurring type of shots. Do I take shots with the flash? As of yet I have not purchased an external flash (eventually when I have more of that green stuff called money). But I'd like to take some great shots and am still learning how to use the camera.

Thank you again. This is a wonderfully supportive forum. I'd be lost with it.

Diane

[CowboyPoetWannabe]

Hello Diane,
The first "setting" I would recommend is to "set" a lens adapter with UV filter on the camera to protect the precious Canon G3 lens. In the States, you can probably get a Canon adapter locally or by mail by next Sunday. If you want a Canon adapter and can't find one locally, I recommend HobbyMonster on eBay. I don't know how long LensMate takes to ship, but theirs is probably a better quality adapter than the Canon. See:
http://www.lensmateonline.com/g3.html
They have adapters and filters. Consider a 52mm if you go LensMate, and try to get a sunshade for it if you will be shooting somewhat toward the sun. Find out what the layout of the pits are, so you can guestimate before you go.

As for exposures, Tv should work for you and you want to go to 1/1000 sec if you can, and you should be able to, even at ISO 200. That's for stop action. If you want the blurred effect, set to 1/60 sec and follow the car as it moves. Squeeze off the shot and the background will be blurred with the car pretty focused. But above all...experiment. The absoultely great thing about the G3 is you can easily view the effect right after you take the shot. Practice early in the event so you can get familiar with what you want to do before it's all over.

If you cannot go as slow as 1/60 sec (overexposed) cut your ISO to 50 and try again. If that STILL is overexposed, kick in the Neutral Density filter or put on a Polarizer (linear will work).

Don't worry about flash. It won't have much effect at all over about 20 feet. Now if you are up close with a bright sky behind your subject, use the flash to fill in with. Click the flash button until a solid lightning bold shows, and the flash should always fire.

If your CF card is 256MB or so, go with Superfine Large. Otherwise, I wouldn't go below Superfine M1. And disable the digital zoom. It does nothing for you except cause you to lose resolution.*

By the way, try doing some movie modes as well!!

*There may be an exception to the no digital zoom "rule". If the subject is still so small at full optical zoom that the low-resolution LCD doesn't show it clearly, you may wish to kick in Digital Zoom --- but only if you are looking for the subject to be doing something special. This may aid you in seeing the action you're looking for, say, a bird in the act of feeding its chick. This is pure Aristotilian thinking on my part, since I've never tried this.

-CPW

[anomie]

Thanks! I actually do have a Lensmate with a 52mm PL filter. I was planning on using that for sure. I will follow your advice. I only now pray for a sunny day!

Thanks again!
Diane

CowboyPoetWannabe wrote:
As for exposures, Tv should work for you and you want to go to 1/1000 sec if you can, and you should be able to, even at ISO 200. That's for stop action. If you want the blurred effect, set to 1/60 sec and follow the car as it moves. Squeeze off the shot and the background will be blurred with the car pretty focused. But above all...experiment. The absoultely great thing about the G3 is you can easily view the effect right after you take the shot. Practice early in the event so you can get familiar with what you want to do before it's all over.

If you cannot go as slow as 1/60 sec (overexposed) cut your ISO to 50 and try again. If that STILL is overexposed, kick in the Neutral Density filter or put on a Polarizer (linear will work).

Don't worry about flash. It won't have much effect at all over about 20 feet. Now if you are up close with a bright sky behind your subject, use the flash to fill in with. Click the flash button until a solid lightning bold shows, and the flash should always fire.
-CPW

[Dana]

anomie wrote:
Thanks! I actually do have a Lensmate with a 52mm PL filter. I was planning on using that for sure. I will follow your advice. I only now pray for a sunny day!

Thanks again!
Diane

A Hoya rep at a local camera store told me this weekend that adding PL filter on top of the Canon lens wasn't a good idea. He said the Canon lens comes w/built in polarizing that is the same as that provided by the PL filter, and that combining the two would either (can't remember exactly what he said) provide no additional benefit, or they might even cancel each other out to a certain extent. He said that adding a circular polarizer was the way to go...

Interested if anyone can confirm or refute his comments....

Dana

[anomie]

Interesting... but I'll bet he said that in order to sell you the more expensive circular filter... as far as I know the G3 has a built-in ND filter.

dana wrote:
anomie wrote:
Thanks! I actually do have a Lensmate with a 52mm PL filter. I was planning on using that for sure. I will follow your advice. I only now pray for a sunny day!

Thanks again!
Diane

A Hoya rep at a local camera store told me this weekend that adding PL filter on top of the Canon lens wasn't a good idea. He said the Canon lens comes w/built in polarizing that is the same as that provided by the PL filter, and that combining the two would either (can't remember exactly what he said) provide no additional benefit, or they might even cancel each other out to a certain extent. He said that adding a circular polarizer was the way to go...

Interested if anyone can confirm or refute his comments....

Dana

[satnitefever]

Is the ND filter used as a polarizer filter?

[Dana]

Yeah - there is a softare ND filter in the G3.

Dana

[CowboyPoetWannabe]

satnitefever wrote:
Is the ND filter used as a polarizer filter?


dana wrote:
Yeah - there is a softare ND filter in the G3.

Dana

Woah, stop. Backup there. I don't know if you were saying what I think I read, Dana, but a neutral density filter is NOT the same as a polarizer, although polarizers are often used as ND filters - but not the other way around. A neutral density filter does not affect the polarization of the light, it only decreases the intensity of the light. Say you are shooting (film) at ISO 400 on a bright sunny day it's possible to overexpose even with the fastest shutter speed and smallest aperture. That's when you add an ND filter to decrease the light entering the lens. For us G3ers, you can use the built-in ND filter to decrease the light so you can open up the lens for depth of field effects.

A polarizer, on the other hand, is kind of like a venitian blind (I probably slaughtered that spelling). It only lets in light waves that are "lined up with" the slits in the blinds. This has the effect of cutting down on glare when the polarizer is rotated the correct way.

Other threads talk about the differences between linear and circular polarizers (use "search" above to find some), but basically I would be EXTREMELY surprised if the G3 includes ANY polarization to the lens. It would be uncontrollable if it did, and that is a very unwanted thing.

-CPW


Added later:
After rereading Dana's last post, I realize he may not have been responding to satnitefever, but to anomie. Sorry if I misinterpreted.

It's my guess that the Hoya rep was, indeed, referring to the ND filter. If so, he needs to get some more book larnin'.