6D for motorsports?

Here's my situation. I started out my path in photography shooting cars and amateur motorsports events a few years ago and now I am getting more and more interested in portrait and wedding photography as a side business. I purchased a nice used 5Dc a few months ago and haven't hardly put it down. It did great at the wedding that I photographed a few weeks ago, but I would love to have some more flexibility on the ISO when shooting indoors. I went from a Rebel XS and 7D combo to 5D/7D and while I love my 7D for motorsports, I would prefer to have another full frame camera with better noise control. My thought is to sell the 7D and 5Dc for a 6D. I understand that the AF will prob not be as good as the 7D and the fps will not be as high either. I only use center point when doing panning or manually set the AF point. So my roundabout question is, how well does the AF hold up to panning shots, etc. Is it at least as good as the Rebel XS? I know it comes down to the user too and not all about the equipment, but just trying to get a feel if this is completely offbase. I understand that there will be a compromise. I guess I could always just rent one and see for myself, but just doing some window shopping/daydreaming/s​cheming while at work. Thanks!

Also, I understand the lack of "reach" also, the plan is to eventually get a 100-400L if I end up going this route.

Heya,

It'll do fine. There's a bunch of weird "6D has bad AF" commentary floating around here, and I don't understand it. It focuses fine. It's not a 7D or 5D3 in terms of overall AF, but for a center point shooter, the 6D performs perfectly fine. It doesn't take a robust autofocus system to pan and lock on a big moving car. You will definitely appreciate the ISO performance here, shooting really high ISO noise free, and keeping fast shutter is the name of the game.

If you want an alternative, the 70D has pretty good ISO performance and great AF, and keeps some reach. Costs less.

Very best,

Thanks for the response. I don't get paid for the motorsports stuff, but I do for wedding/portrait stuff and this sounds like it is making more and more sense. I rarely use both bodies, so it would be nice to own one and rent another 6D body when I need it. But I would like to be able to get out there and do the motorsports thing too if I want to. Decisions.....

I went from a 7D to a 6D and just recently, for the first time with the 6D, I got to test out the AI-Servo. And to my surprise, it worked really well. I was panning my subjects but the subjects were coming towards me so I kept it at center point and held onto the rear focus and let the camera do the work. The only thing that I felt that was holding me back was the slow FPS.

Honestly though, I do miss the 8fps of the 7D.

As a person that shoots sports as well as portraiture/landscape I can say that in my experience I use my 70D for sports as it has a faster fps and better AF point system than the 6D I use for portraiture and landscape. The cropped sensor also allows me to get closer with the glass I have. It is the best of both worlds for me The low light capabilities of the 6D are phenomenal in my opinion and much better than the 70D. Before anyone chimes in, I did read he was asking about the 7D, but I have no experience with it.

OK, I shot a soccer game a few weeks ago for giggles with my 6D and the AF did just fine... mostly center point.

I shot my son's swim meet Saturday(I brought the 6D, again, just for giggles) and it really, really struggled with the AF. Swimming is a pretty simple scenario for photography - the swimmers are very predicable and it's mostly a matter of timing BUT... the splashing water played havoc on my AF with the 6D, whereas the 1d3 has much better results. The outer points on the 6D were nearly useless in that scenario. I almost always use the corner points when shooting from the side so that the swimmer is low and swimming into the frame as opposed to being in the middle (higher chance of cutting off arms that way). It was frustrating with the 6D. it is what it is, that's not the camera's forte and of course, the 5d3 is there if you simply must have superior AF and FF.

I would imagine that large cars would be a simple case for the 6D given that you don't have as much intervening object material and the cars are largely predictable. There's a chap over on FM who shoots motorsports frequently with his 5d. I would guess the 6D would do at least as well as that old body.

Not all sports are created equal.

Motorsports, if your vantage point is above the track level, is one of the more easy sporting events to track. If you are closer to ground level, as vehicles move past barriers, trees, people, vehicles bunched up in the turns, etc, the AF system can be taxed a bit more, but for the most part, you have large isolated objects that you would pan with in a predictable path, and then shoot. The results become more indicative of the photographer's skill in keeping the AF point on the vehicle in question, probably more than the AF system itself.

The 6D should be fine with that type of event. The higher end systems give you all kinds of settings to control how the AF should work, given obstacles, erratic movement, etc.

Have you tried shooting motorsports with your 5Dc? The 6D may be faster in some areas of focus then the 5Dc (being newer technology), but in many regards, they act similarly. They both have a pretty low number of AF points, but that can be an advantage for motorsports (where chances are you're panning and tracking one vehicle at a time).

svarley wrote in post #16992787
OK, I shot a soccer game a few weeks ago for giggles with my 6D and the AF did just fine... mostly center point.

I shot my son's swim meet Saturday(I brought the 6D, again, just for giggles) and it really, really struggled with the AF. Swimming is a pretty simple scenario for photography - the swimmers are very predicable and it's mostly a matter of timing BUT... the splashing water played havoc on my AF with the 6D, whereas the 1d3 has much better results. The outer points on the 6D were nearly useless in that scenario. I almost always use the corner points when shooting from the side so that the swimmer is low and swimming into the frame as opposed to being in the middle (higher chance of cutting off arms that way). It was frustrating with the 6D. it is what it is, that's not the camera's forte and of course, the 5d3 is there if you simply must have superior AF and FF.

I would imagine that large cars would be a simple case for the 6D given that you don't have as much intervening object material and the cars are largely predictable. There's a chap over on FM who shoots motorsports frequently with his 5d. I would guess the 6D would do at least as well as that old body.

I really tip my hat to those who shoot swimming regularly, IMO it is super challenging.

My old 60D/100 F2 combo and I struggled through a high school swim meet a few years back and I was shocked how much harder it was than any other outdoor sport. At least until I shot tennis.

The water may be too dynamic for slower (as compared to the higher end systems) AF systems to determine focus. There should be plenty of contrast, but if that contrast is constantly interrupted with water, etc, the AF system doesn't know whether its minute adjustments are working or not, and it probably keeps trying. Just a guess though, I haven't shot any water sports yet. Did/Would the expanded AF mode help any with the swim meet?

Stick to the center point and it will do just fine, the outer points can be sort of hit or miss as far as tracking goes but they do well as long as there is good light and contrast.

Heres a few from a 6D and a drift event I competed in a few weeks back.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/o6w2​xV

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/o6Pp​76

Using 6D for action is "okay," but my wife's 70D is what I use for reach and action, the AF is just wayyyy better than my 6D (which wasn't designed around action shooting).

Drift seems like any AF system should be able to track it well. As TeamSpeed says, the issue is when the cars are moving quickly at or near eye level, passing you or (worst of all) being interfered with by trees, billboards or other cars that will attract the attention of your focus point. Situations like that are murder on the photographer and AF system, and things like expanded AF points or tunable tracking parameters become a virtual necessity if you're picking out one car from a pack or following it through a wooded area.

I shoot a lot of roller derby, and the number of interfering targets, plus unpredictable acceleration of the subjects, is extremely taxing even on the 5D AF system. I'm sure most of it is just getting the parameters tuned, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

davesrose wrote in post #16993312
Have you tried shooting motorsports with your 5Dc? The 6D may be faster in some areas of focus then the 5Dc (being newer technology), but in many regards, they act similarly. They both have a pretty low number of AF points, but that can be an advantage for motorsports (where chances are you're panning and tracking one vehicle at a time).

No, I have not had the chance to use it for motorsports work just yet. I am usually at most local rallycross and drift events, but plans have gotten in the way the past few months and I am itching to get back out there in the next few weeks.