IS on, or IS off, for motorsport

[g_robins]

Most of my photography is motorsport. At xmas I brought a 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens. Now while I am pleased with the IQ I feel my IS is causing me problems with the AF Servo. Should I turn the IS off when panning or is it down to poor techneque.

When I shoot muti shot (burst) the AF does not keep up. I did not seem to have this problem with the old lens. The first photo and one of the others in a burst of 5 is ok the rest miss the AF.
http://www.grahamrobins.net/photos/albums/Dimanche%20Sprint%202008/388.JPG

[Cadwell]

Well... first statement would be "don't shoot burst". Spray and pray is rarely a recipe for a good motorsport shot.

As to your question, I always have the IS off when shooting motorsport - I find it unhelpful.

[g_robins]

Thanks Glen :)

[Zilly]

I shoot the exact opposit of glen but then we are shooting two very different subjects with diffrent styles
I prerfer shoot in high speed mode but only "open it up" when the going gets intresting i also shoot with IS in mode 1
example
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2303/1855696774_fdf79c55e3_o.jpg

I think its more down to personal taste & style experiment see what you get better results from

[neil_r]

I am also an IS off shooter (for motorsport that is)

[ryant35]

Most of my motorsport shooting is burst, and I'm not spraying & praying. I shoot entire series of trucks flying through the air and landing. I also use IS on mode 2, I also shoot as slow as 1/40 - 1/125sec, so any little bit helps.

I also find that my cameras have trouble tracking cars that are moving right at me.