Boats??? Lens Choice? tracking? no clue here

[NFLD Stephen]

I wouldn't think that IS would be that important for this type of shot. If the boats are moving fast then you're going to need a fast shutter speed to avoid any motion blur of the boat. Fast shutter speed would pretty much make IS not an issue. A FAST appeture would be more important IMO. 2.8 would probably be good, but 2.0 would be better!


Stephen

[btaylor]

I wouldn't think that IS would be that important for this type of shot. If the boats are moving fast then you're going to need a fast shutter speed to avoid any motion blur of the boat. Fast shutter speed would pretty much make IS not an issue. A FAST appeture would be more important IMO. 2.8 would probably be good, but 2.0 would be better!

Yes and No...


IS will not stop motion blur as we all know so you're correct here. But it depends on what type of shot you are after. If you purely want to stop everything in the shot then sure you need high shutter speed.


However these shots can become a little monotonous after a while which I why I suggested a slower shutter speed and a lens with panning mode IS. This allows you to pan with the boat and give the shot a bit more of a dynamic feel by producing background motion blur while keeping the boat sharp. In this case, IS will definately be of benefit. This would work best side on to the boat.


Also, I'm assuming the boat is fairly large so you may have to stop down to get the whole thing in focus. In which case a wide aperture is unusable.


There's different ways to go about every shot and keeping things variable make for a shoot with a range of interesting images. So nobody's right or wrong I guess.

[mpphoto12]

how about not using an is lens at all? would i be able to get away with it ? thanks all the help is good

[btaylor]

how about not using an is lens at all? would i be able to get away with it ? thanks all the help is good
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Absolutely! The IS helps a lot (I use mode 2 IS on my 70-200mm f/4LIS all the time) but if you've got a steady hand or using your tripod then there's no reason why you can't get sharp shots.

[Daniel Browning]

Sorry, I don't have any advice for you about race boat photography, but I have one comment:

Can go up to 200 mph.

Whoa! I can't imaging going that fast on solid ground... let alone water. That's really neat. I'm sure your photos will come out great. Good luck.

[Sheiky]

I wouldn't think that IS would be that important for this type of shot. If the boats are moving fast then you're going to need a fast shutter speed to avoid any motion blur of the boat. Fast shutter speed would pretty much make IS not an issue. A FAST appeture would be more important IMO. 2.8 would probably be good, but 2.0 would be better!


Stephen

You're wrong here.Yes you could stop action, but think of this: the boat has to go 200mph. To get to that speed, the water level must be nearly flat I guess. So there isn't a lot going on. When the boat travels at such high speed and you manage to stop action, you're picture will be totally boring I think. There isn't much going on, because boats don't show a lot of emotion. For instance: look at motorrace pictures. That's the kind of pictures they want from him. Nice panned pictures where you can see the speed.





Now what he needs is a nice lens with or without IS. IS mode 2 is preferable because it only stabilizes for vertical movement. When you track the boat and pan your lens horizontally, the IS mode 2 will counter all the vertical movement. It isn't really necessary, but really comes in handy because you're mostly shooting at times lower then 1/200th. The max aperture of the lens is not really important.


The most important thing is...how close can you get? Remember close isn't always better with these type of photo's. When you're to close and you make such a photo, the angle between you and the boat (you move from left to right or otherwise) differs more then when you're standing further away. The higher the angle is, the less parts of the boat will be in focus.





Look at my following shot: shot at 17mm 1/100 iso 800 f18





The only thing in focus is the nissanmirror really, my centerpoint.


When you've got the chance to be further away, the distance between you and the subject isn't really changed a lot due to the angle you make. That's why further away isn't really a problem with panning.


This was shot without IS by the way, but I only used 17mm


The following shot is taken at 109mm with 1/200 iso200 F8 also without IS and you notice there is more in focus, just because of the distance to your subject. You can also notice that 1/200 maybe was a little to fast here, because you can still identify the people on the background. The less you can identify, the more speed is shown.





I hope it's all making a little bit of sense now. I forgot to mention I was like 5m away with both of these shots and I used my 70-200 F4L non-IS for it.


My recommendation is: yes get a little closer if you can, but not too close (they don't want anyone close on the water anyway probably)


And yes if you have the opportunity get a lens with IS mode 2. It really comes in handy. Especially with longer focal ranges. Else just use your tripod, that will work pretty well as well.


You could try out different settings during that day on other boats. Like different shutter-speeds, so when you need to photograph your friends boat, you're ready for it. Shutter-speed differs in various situations and with various lenses, but with panning they are mostly between 1/50 and 1/200 of a second.


Good luck! Hope you're pictures work out!

[Fred Doane]

im from jersey lol i need to get it shipped unless i can find a local place maybe somewhere in a surround state anyone know one in the tri-state area?? its mad expensive shipped like 500 dollars for a week

Hi,

I'm from south jersey and although I've never used them Calumet Camera has a store in Philadelphia that you can rent all kinds of equipment from including every lens up to the 600L. They have day and week rates andif you pick it up Friday after 3pm you can have it for the whole weekend till mondaynoon for the single day rate! [url="http://www.calumetphoto.com/rental/digitalcameras]Here[/url] is the link to the rental page. They say "call" for the daily/weekly rates for the lenses 300mm and larger but if you download there 2008 rental catalog the 400 2.8 is $100 for a day although prices might have changed slightly since then but you can always call to see the current rental price. There are some stipulations of course like...
<span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Condensed;"]<span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Condensed;"]

"A deposit for the full-replacement cost of the equipment is required unless other arrangements are made in advance.We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Optima and Discover cards. Sorry, we cannot accept Visa or Mastercard check/debit cards or overseas credit cards drawn on non-USA banks. A valid driver&rsquo;s license or, current passport is also required."

<span style="font-size: x-small;"]but I don't think thats unreasonable. Hope this helps and let me know how it works out because I've been wanting to rent from them for a while but haven't had a reason to yet.

Fred~

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

How far away and how big are your subjects? If it's first time shooting something like that it's better to get a zoom a 100-400 IS is a good choice. I would just turn off IS, it's useless in this case because the boats are going at 200 mph. Make sure you meter the boat, check your LCD and adjust accordingly. Let's just hope that you'll have lots of light

[Sheiky]

Nate...100-400 sounds like a great option yes, but why would you turn off IS? The 100-400 has IS mode 2...


To me it sounds like his friend wants the sort of photo that you make with panning. I never used IS mode 2, but it is especially made for those pictures. Then why turn it off?


Metering is correct and yes a lot of light is always pretty, but with this sort of photography you don't really need a lot of light.

[mpphoto12]

thanks everyone there is alot of very helpful info here and i think it will help alot when it comes down to shooting it im thinking about renting either the 100-400 IS or the 300 f4 or 400 5.6? anything else is too expensive and i will be using a smaller aperature anyway s fast focus i think is primary between these choices. ANy final suggestions about the lens rental choice between these? or just keep my lens ? i will be pretty far away...well.... very very far away i think...400 5.6 on tripod is looking good now lol