NEED ACTION shots - but can not afford much.

[ukmxer]

I am not a wanna be photographer I just want to take pictures of my son when he is racing his Moto X bike.
The pictures are usually of the bike in the air with the sky as a background. My pictures are always crap. I also need to take pictures of him when he is 300 yards away. I am using an Olympus C960 3xopt 2xdig. I would like to change to one that will enable long shots as well as fast moving close ups.
The Fuji fine pix 5000 is in my price range will this be OK.
Does the lense remove off this type of camera or do I need a SLR.

I have a sample (crap) pic but I do not know how to post it.

[Scottes]

Judging from my short experience with my wife's Fuji S7000 I don't think it could take an action pic like you describe. The shutter lag is just too long before the picture is taken. It sounds like you need something with a very short shutter lag AND a high zoom lens. My wife and I looked for the same thing with an $800 budget and got the S7000, which, as I said, probably won't handle the job and it's way over your budget.

I'd look for something with a vert short shutter lag and skip the 300-yard pictures and just take close ones. Even on a very expensive rig a human 300 yards away is a small dot to a camera.

[G3]

Judging from my short experience with my wife's Fuji S7000 I don't think it could take an action pic like you describe. The shutter lag is just too long before the picture is taken. It sounds like you need something with a very short shutter lag AND a high zoom lens. My wife and I looked for the same thing with an $800 budget and got the S7000, which, as I said, probably won't handle the job and it's way over your budget.

I'd look for something with a vert short shutter lag and skip the 300-yard pictures and just take close ones. Even on a very expensive rig a human 300 yards away is a small dot to a camera.

Yeah, you know I suspect that the distance really isn't anywhere near 300 yards. It's amazing how people misjudge distance. Normally when someone tells me that something was "300 yards away" I can safely assume that the real distance was less than 150 yards. 300 yards is a VERY long distance. Remember, a mile is 1760 yards. I have done a lot of bench-rest rifle shooting in my time. 300 yards was one of the standard range distances for long-distance bench-rest shooting. It is a long shot. I've also done some 600 yard shooting. That requires special optics. I used a 36x Leupold scope for those distances...at 600 yards a 36 inch target looks tiny even at 36x magnification.

[Scottes]

I have done a lot of bench-rest rifle shooting in my time. 300 yards was one of the standard range distances for long-distance bench-rest shooting. It is a long shot. I've also done some 600 yard shooting. That requires special optics. I used a 36x Leupold scope for those distances...at 600 yards a 36 inch target looks tiny even at 36x magnification.

Stop teasing me. I miss BR. :(

There's so many shooters on this board yapping about it and it just makes my cry. But there's no way I could afford to start shooting again. Just getting a rig decent enough to make me happy would run me $2500 minimum.


But to stop the hijack.... Ukmxer, if you want action shots like that I'd start looking at a Canon Digital Rebel. You could possibly even look at a used D60.

[G3]

I have done a lot of bench-rest rifle shooting in my time. 300 yards was one of the standard range distances for long-distance bench-rest shooting. It is a long shot. I've also done some 600 yard shooting. That requires special optics. I used a 36x Leupold scope for those distances...at 600 yards a 36 inch target looks tiny even at 36x magnification.

Stop teasing me. I miss BR. :(

There's so many shooters on this board yapping about it and it just makes my cry. But there's no way I could afford to start shooting again. Just getting a rig decent enough to make me happy would run me $2500 minimum.



But to stop the hijack.... Ukmxer, if you want action shots like that I'd start looking at a Canon Digital Rebel. You could possibly even look at a used D60.


Oh, yeah...cameras....sorry.

[IndyJeff]

ukmxer first off it would be helpful to know approximately where you are from. Maybe someone from this forum could do the shots for you at a much cheaper rate than buying the setup you would need to do it yourself.

If your hellbent on shooting yourself you could always look at a good used film slr camera. Since digital they are pretty cheap but, then you have film costs to figure out if you have it right or not.

Members........a suggestion here, maybe you can get setup doing event photography wherever ukmxer is. Setup an online photo store and sell to the participants. I'll bet the ukmxer would be happy to have his kid spread your name around the site.

[BigRed450]

I shot Moto X all last year for the local club with my Fuji S602Z and it worked out very well. Shutter lag is just something you get use to and learn to work with. It can be done. The S602 is the older model of the S7000.

You can check out a few here..
http://users.air.on.ca/cbjaps/jtphotographic/sports.htm

And on my proofs pages for Moto X here
http://users.air.on.ca/cbjaps/jtphotographic/proofs.htm

[where1]

Indyjeff has a great idea for saving money. Even a new film body isn't all that expensive, and you can use lenses that will work on a digital body, when you have a season with few repairs and can afford to direct money that direction. Most places that develop film will put the pics on a CD, check out quality of the CD transfer first, they do differ from place to place.

[ukmxer]

Thanks for your help guys. My budget has forced serious restrictions on what I can have so I have decided that the S5000 is what I can afford. I would have liked the s7000 but its tough.
We are racing tomorrow so I will let you know how I go on.

The manual looks like heavy reading so I will struggle tomorrow, but I will see how things progress as the day goes on.

Thanks for the MX pics BIGRED I am impressed.