GAS talk

[Kchrpm]

'm still really nervous about it, though. I wish I was excited instead, but I don't know how to get myself there.

This helped a little, I found someone on flickr that has taken their RX10M3 (similar to M4 but with worse autofocus) to Le Mans and took a ton of pictures:

https://flickr.com/photos/128521861@N05/albums

Look, glowing brakes!

https://flickr.com/photos/128521861@...7648228407489/

LARBRE COMPETITON LM P2 Ligier JSP217 Moteur Gibson V8 4200cc by Studio Miglia, on Flickr

[Rikadyn]

damn that is a noisey image

[JoeW]

Well it is a P&S camera shot at high ISO. What do you expect?

[Kchrpm]

Right. In comparison, this is the best I could get from my attempts at capturing glowing brakes.



I'm only thinking about an improvement that doesn't involve me spending thousands on something so big and unwieldy that I'll only ever use it at a couple of race weekends per year. I like having something to do, a goal to focus on, while I spend all day at the track, but I also feel the same about going to a park, car show, cruise-in, etc. Hell, I'm not completely sold on the size of the RX10, but smaller 1" sensor cameras understandably have a much shorter maximum focal length.

Part of me just wants to give up on getting better shots of cars going around race tracks, and just get something better for walking around and weekend outings. It's a matter of what I actually do regularly vs what excites me when I do it. The reality, though, is I've got enough other things I'm paying for right now anyway to make the best choice to continue on with my busted stuff. Oh the difference in mood between race weekend and bill pay day...

[JoeW]

I'm not familiar with that camera but is there a manual focus mode? Usually the issue with these cameras is AF performance below certain light levels.

I would manually pre-focus on the part of the track you want to photography the cars going through. Then, choose your ISO and shutter speed ahead of time...say ISO3200 and 1/250 (just spitballing here...I have no idea what the camera is capable of). Assuming the camera has some sort of stabilization feature? Then pick up the car in frame and pan with it as smoothly as possible until it enters your "pre-focus" zone and press the shutter button. Sometimes when there isn't a good stabilization feature in camera/lens then a tripod/monopod to allow for a stable panning platform is best. Especially if your shutter speed dips below 1/400 (or lower if you are really going for a nice blurred wheel effect etc).

[Kchrpm]

There's manual focus (and basically everything other than WB). I could have picked a spot in the braking zone, figured out the focus for it, and then just panned each car and snapped when they crossed it.

Also, looking and remembering back, I think I was trying to continue using the slower shutter speeds that I did during the day to get motion blurred backgrounds instead of bumping the ISO up. Actually, I probably left a lot of the settings the same, just assuming I'd get darker versions of what I did before instead of blacked out versions. That was seemingly quite dumb.

Basically I'm an idiot whose main problem is that I'm dumb, and also the control wheel thing.

[JoeW]

Yeah I would manually focus on a spot on the track/ground where the car passes. Then leave it. And just take the picture when the car gets in that zone. But panning is important...otherwise the whole car will be a blurry mess. Just keep the car relatively stable in your viewfinder as you are following it to the photo spot.

[Kchrpm]

Best Buy started their store-wide 24-month financing promotion earlier than expected, and a nearby store had an open-box RX10M4 with $500 off the MSRP, so I picked it up today. I tried out some different shooting styles and locations just to get an idea of how it worked. It will take some getting used to working with a camera this large after using only phones and pocketable point & shoots, but it does feel good having a substantial grip. I think the results so far are pretty nice, too. The real test likely won't come until my next event at a track, which probably won't happen until spring, but the finance deal only happens in the fall so I'll just have to not beat myself up about it until then.

[Kchrpm]

The real test likely won't come until my next event at a track, which probably won't happen until spring

Unless there's a season-ending drift event nearby!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fVAocVCrexLTbRERA

[JoeW]

Sold off my 2 Canon 7D2 cameras, 1DX2 camera and am trying to unload my 1DX. Picked up a EOS R6 and an R7 and a EOS R. Moving into the mirrorless realm. Little bit of a learning curve but I'll figure it out. With the youth team/individual business I usually have two camera stations and sometimes have a third. This is why I have 3 cameras...not because snob

When the R6 came in I thought the shipping box was empty and thought I got ripped off. These things are so light...the entire box was half the weight of just the body of a 1DX. Glad to be moving to a lighter setup. Since I'm not shooting tournaments every weekend I can afford to move away from the bomb proof camera bodies finally.