New 100-400 works out well!

[defordphoto]

We went to these Sprint Boat races kind of as a practice for the ChampCar race next weekend in Portland. WOW! Great fun!!!

http://racefamily.racinglines.com/Galleries/SprintBoats/June2003/TheRace/img_2197_std.jpg

More from the race at: http://racefamily.racinglines.com/Galleries/SprintBoats/June2003/TheRace/index.htm

And a crash sequence at: http://racefamily.racinglines.com/Galleries/SprintBoats/June2003/TheWreck/index.htm

By the way: Both the driver and his wife were unhurt. Pretty scary moment though.

[FramerPDX]

Those are some very nice pics can't wait till I can get that good with my camera..


-FramerPDX

[defordphoto]

Practice, practice, practice. I shot over 1100 photos on Saturday. I'm covering the ChampCar race at PIR this next weekend. I expect to shoot, between me and my wife, upwards of 3000-5000 shots over the four days of racing, interviews, etc.

[FramerPDX]

Do you think I would be able to join you this weekend for some practice shooting and some advice... thanks ...

FramerPDX

[henkbos]

Very well done. With a quantity like that you must be careful not to develop something like SSS (shutter strain syndrome).

[FramerPDX]

http://www.sportbikes.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17406


cut and paste that and you can see some shots that I have taken I hope...


not sure if it will work...

don't know how to add a pic to the post here yet...

FramerPDX

[defordphoto]

henkbos wrote:
Very well done. With a quantity like that you must be careful not to develop something like SSS (shutter strain syndrome).

;) Yup. Both me and my wife are feeling the pain. Not too bad though. Handheld through the entire day. I will take the old monopod over the ChampCar race weekend though. I'll be shooting for 4 days with interviews and everything else we have going on.

[defordphoto]

FramerPDX wrote:
http://www.sportbikes.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17406


cut and paste that and you can see some shots that I have taken I hope...


not sure if it will work...

don't know how to add a pic to the post here yet...

FramerPDX

Can't see ths pics if you're not registered on that motorcycle site. Need to post linkage to the pics.

[RichardtheSane]

RFMSports, some fantastic shots there. Let us know how the weekend goes - I am going to Donnington Park in the UK with my 100-400 to photograph a days races and I could probably do with a few pointers ;) :D

[defordphoto]

The 100-400 operates so smooth on AI. You can follow your target and it stays totally in focus. The only thing that threw the focus off at all was during some of the larger wakes they threw. The camera/lens would focus on that. But, not all the times. It was awesome! I am so, so happy with this lens. I have always had to settle for less expensive lenses and getting this L lens is like having a new camera all over again. I feel like a kid with a new Christmas toy!

With these boats I just shot in sports mode as I didn't want the water blurring. With the racecars I will shoot in TV or P, depending on conditions and if I'm shooting moving cars or not.

Another thing with these shots is that I did not use the panning IS at all as I was shooting so fast. This weekend however, the IS will be in full use.

[henkbos]

Would be interested to know more about your workflow, from flash card to backups. I already have difficulty with 200 shots per week!!

[defordphoto]

henkbos wrote:
Would be interested to know more about your workflow, from flash card to backups. I already have difficulty with 200 shots per week!!

Well, I have to admit, to ease the pain these were ALL shot large/fine JPEG. No RAW at all. And after seeing the results here, I am going with that plan for the ChampCar weekend as it worked out so well. Though I am considering shooting some RAW. I know this may sound odd from a RAW advocate, but this camera just does one freaking nice job right out of the box!

The shots are straight out of the camera and the ONLY processing done was to run them through BreezeBrowser for the HTML.

During this shoot I also did not use the X's Drive at all. I will be using it over this weekend between sessions, however.

I will post here some time over the weekend. Depends on how busy we really get. I have someone else arranging interviews, so I'm not sure what kind of a load I have for the weekend quite yet.

Thanks all for the comments!!!

[NILOLIGIST]

RFMSports,

Outstanding shots, I showed your gallery to friends at work and they were blown away.

Those shots are just great. One friend told me, he has to buy that camera.

Thanks for sharing, I can't wait to see the photos you will be taking this weekend.

NiL

[codeglue]

Great shots.

What software did you use to create the gallery pages?

Lee

[mjordan]

Jim, great pictures. Were you using all focus points active?

I normally shoot with just the center focus point active in my D30 and set my 10D the same way. I've not had it long enough to shoot a lot of action stuff yet. I shoot a lot of fast action dog agility, herding, kiteboarding and wind surfers. I did ok with the D30 although I know the 10D will do a lot better job of it.

It looks like your 100-400 at t he 400 end was actually to close. Nice tight shots, but sometimes it seemed too close. Since you were not shooting through a fence, did you have a pass to shoot where you were or could anyone be there?

I know we got a lot of rain off and on this weekend in the Portland area (I live in Hillsboro) so I hope you were able to get some good shots without getting totally soaked.

I would love to get the 100-400, but I just ordered the 24-70 2.8L and will be getting the 70-200 2.8L IS to replace my 70-200 4.0L lens. I don't think I'd be able to afford the 100-400L for awhile yet. But I'd sure like to give it a try.

Again, great pictures.

Mike

[defordphoto]

Thanks again for the comments and sorry I have not responded as I was at the ChampCar race all weekend.

niloligist: Thanks for the comments. I'll post a separate thread for the ChampCar shots. So far I only have a Friday Gallery finished.

codeglue : BreezeBrowser. Awesome software!

mjordan : No. Not too much ran. Just a bit. Made for a few cool rain shots when is slowed enough not to drench the camera. Trashbags become your best friend in the wet.

I was using center focus point only active and that's usually what I shoot with. Sometimes I adjust to upper or lower for race stuff depending on what the background is, etc., but 99% of the time it's center point.

They don't have media passes. They're still pretty small time. A professional business card and attitude got us inside the fence.

In that gallery is most of my tight shots as that was what I was going for. I have a lot more shots that are not near as tight as these. It wasn't that I shot them all tight, it's just that I gallery'd mostly tight shots.

This was a practice for the ChampCar race this past weekend. To get acclimated to the lens, and more acclimated with the camera and the settings I needed to use. I'm really still kinda green at sports shooting and still learning. But, I guess we're always learning eh?

I'll be shooting an SCCA ProRally race the second weekend of July and then back to the SprintBoats the 26th of July.

Thanks for the comments! They are appreciated.

[mjordan]

Thanks for the info, Jim. Having a friendly attitude has helped me a lot of times. Even with sheep herding where they don't let people get near the fence (sheep go to humans to protect them from the dogs and it might cause them to try and bunch at the fence) I've had pretty good luck in being able to get close.

Those are pretty neat little boats. It looks like they are running on peat bogs. Where in Washington do they run these? If it's not too far North of me, I will have to put those on my list to visit. Have you been over to Hood River to shoot the kiteboarders? I got hooked on photographing them last year but haven't been able to get over there yet to take some more pictures.

Thanks again.

Mike

[togoble]

These are awesome shots! I just received my 100-400 and tried to use it without support. Were these pics handheld or with support. If you did use support what was it? Handeld is very unstable for me due to the weight of the lens.

Any tips for a new 100-400 user?

[Tom W]

Very good photos! Just plain brilliant detail. I liked the clarity of all the shots that I observed. I also liked the way the DOF worked out in these. I am starting to get the idea that my Elan II's days are numbered. :)

BTW, the crash series really told a story. I hope that the co-pilot of the boat is OK. Also, I noticed that the trailer looked like it had been in the crash as well - the tire was off the rim!

[defordphoto]

Thanks again, as this post makes it once again back to the top. ;)

mjordan: They run in Woodland. 25 miles north of Vancouver. They will also be racing there July 26th and August 17th. I plan to be at both events. The Woodland website is: http://www.wildsideenterprises.com/index3.htm

There are also directions to the track. The site ain't that great, but it's better than nothing. You can also email me at jim@rfmsports.com

togoble: I handheld everything. For the ChampCar race this past weekend I tried the monopod on the second day. That lasted about 5 minutes. It was way too constrictive. I would not shoot with it. The only advice I have is to just practice when shooting something like this. Practice panning and adjusting the shutter speed to 400-800 to adjust background blur. On the Friday photos I shot a lot in sports mode. The problem with that, for racing type stuff is that the shutter speed is too fast for most shots and the background become frozen and the car looks parked. Fortunately, the ChampCars are fast enough to where the tire letters still blur out at 1/1000 or so and even a little at 1/2000. It is a heavy lens and the weight becomes amplified after 4 days of shooting. The pain was worth every second though. See the ChmapCar thread also in this forum.

Tom: Yes, the driver and navigator were okay. Had they been seriously injured, I would not have published the photos until I knew they were okay and then only with their permission. It's a respect thing.

If you want to see a fun comparison of photos, go to this page:

http://www.rfmsports.com/CART/Photos/CARTphotos.html
and look at the 2002 photos that I shot with my Canon 650 and some funky branded 70-200 lens and then scanned with the HP S20; and THEN look at the 2003 photos which were either a 10D/100-400L or 28-135 (both Canon), or a D60 with a Sigma 70-300.

A literal world of difference!!!