Portland Grand Prix Gallery Online!

[defordphoto]

Shot with the new 400L f/5.6 prime. All EXIF info available on all shots. I only post-processed about a dozen shots. There are a couple of others that could have been post-processed due to the extreme, bright sun we had that day, but I left a few of them "hot" to show how extreme the sun was with slightly washed colors and overexposure. The majority of the photos have no post-processing whatsoever except for BreezeBrowser's slight USM during the creation of the HTML.

It was difficult in some cases getting the exposures proper due to the extreme bright sun. Hottest day of the weekend. Stark shadows. I almost prefer cloudy, flat light and then I can perk the photos later in post-processing. Between the heat and the bright sun itself, this was one of the more difficult racing shoots I have done.

Except for a handful of burned out photos, I am extremely pleased with color rendition and accuracy. Even on this bright day the reds (for the most part) turned out awesome. In extreme cases the reds would tend to lean just a tick to the orange side in the super-bright photos, but nothing that couldn't be touched up in post-processing. There is alot of talk about the MKII having huge problems with reds. Not in my world...

Now to the lens: Sweet! AF is super-quick and absolutely flawless. Not one hiccup the entire weekend. Clarity, contrast and color all speak for themselves. Is it sharper/better than the 100-400L? It's way too close to call. Where the 400 prime wins out is in speed. The AF is clearly quicker.

Many shots were with the 1.4x TC and using it had no effect on the operation of the lens itself. Sharpness appears equally unaffected. There are 3-4 shots with the 2x TC that I tried just for grins and they're not too bad, but sharpness drops off significantly. That sharpness, for the most part, can be recovered in post-processing. AF is lost on the MKII with the 2x TC.

I have three more galleries in the works, as you'll see when you go to the ChampCar Photo page. I should have those up a little later today. Enjoy!

See: http://www.rfmsports.com/CART/Photos/CARTphotos.html


Sample Photo: (Notice this car has "L" wheels!) ;-)

http://racefamily.racinglines.com/Galleries/2004/CCWS/Portland2004/PractQual/_l5c4219_std.jpg

[tommykjensen]

Great shots.

[Rob Larsen]

Jim, great shots as usual! :!:

I'm curious about your predictive AF experience between the 10D and Mark II. But I'll post the question in a separate thread to not take this one on a tangent.

[JZaun]

Excellent shot as usual

JZ

[c0ntr0lz]

saweeeeeeeeet
great shot
and can't wait to see what's on the site

[Malaxos1]

Jim, they look good. we still have to get together and check out the boat races. Anyway, you are not kidding about the heat and sun that day, may, my wife and I were dying out at the sprint boat races. Here is a link to some that I posted on line at the group I manage. The quality isn't the best as they cannot be more than 100K each. There is a loss of quality but you get the idea. I only posted the tightly cropped ones to avoid background mess...Dean

http://groups.msn.com/ProfessionalPhotoTalk/boatrace.msnw?albumlist=2[/img]

[eric1]

those are great Jim. so i take it your liking the 400 prime? well done.


eric

[chrisvw]

Nice shoots! I my seriously tossing up whether to get the 400 prime or the 100-400. Do you think it is worth paying the extra money to get the 100-400 with IS?

[defordphoto]

Thanks for the comments! The rest of the photos are online. There's an awesome pitstop sequence too. In addition there are now some Trans-Am photos online at:

http://www.rfmsports.com/IMSA/TransAm/Photos/TransAmphotos.html


Here's a sample:

http://racefamily.racinglines.com/Galleries/2004/TransAm/Portland/Race/_l5c5023_std.jpg

[defordphoto]

Nice shoots! I my seriously tossing up whether to get the 400 prime or the 100-400. Do you think it is worth paying the extra money to get the 100-400 with IS?

If my wife wasn't also shooting I probably would have never bought the 400L prime. I (was) am perfectly happy with the results of the 100-400L. The disadvantage of the prime is that I also had to drag around the 70-200L to get the wider shots. And I also have the IS with that lens so that was no lightweight package to haul around. Previously when out on the track the 100-400 was the only lens I carried.

The advantage of the 100-400 is that it has IS, but you do pay for it. The advantage of the 400 is that it's lighter, has faster AF and supposedly sharper optics since it has less glass inside.

Primes are always sharper than their zoom counterparts, so they say.

[KennyG]

Nice work as always Jim.

I used to follow Cart here in the UK when Montoya was driving and up until CDM left for F1. I think they have lost their way a bit now. Pity, as I really liked the series because it mixed its venues - oval, circuit and street.

Love the 'Jag' picture. We get that series over here on TV as well. I have tried to work out what the car really is since Ford took over Jaguar. Never in a million years could I imagine Jaguar making and estate car or diesel as they have done for the UK. They are becoming nothing more than re-bodied Fords these days.

I can't manage with just the prime either. I have to run two bodies, especially if there is the off-chance of an errant driver heading towards my bit of Armco barrier. You can't do much with a 300 or 400 when he is a couple of feet in front of you after showering you with gravel. Big prime users at the circuits have to be fit, and trust me, a 300 2.8IS is no featherweight.

[PacAce]

Wow, that first shot is really gerat! You can really get that sense of speed just looking at it. Well done! :D

[defordphoto]

Thanks guys. Yeah, if my wife wasn't shooting too, then I'd shoot the 10D and the MKII. But, we usually team up and have it all covered anyway. And then I don't have to carry quite as much equipment on one back. ;)