Which digital camera to photograph Porsche's at the track?

[racea911]

With my current digital camera, my track pictures of Porsches in action on the track are pretty disappointing. It has a 3X optical zoom and the pic quality is less than 1 megapixel. I just can't seem to get close enough to the track physically to get a good action picture and the 3X zoom doesn't quite get me there either.

I have been told that if I get a 5-10x optical zoom, that I won't be able to hold the camera and get good pics, that it will all have to be done from a tripod.

Any advice, would be appreciated. My budget for the camera is around $700, but I will go up to about $1000 if it is the difference between decent and excellent quality photos. Any suggestions on cameras or specs I should look for.

I know this question is dangerously close to "Off-Topic", but I plan on taking and posting tons of Porsche racing pics from the local So Cal PCA, POC, HSR and VARA events. And, we all know how much everyone on this board loves Porsche racing pics.....

[turbo6bar]

I would consider the Minolta Dimage 7 series. Digital zoom is worthless, so you'll need to do it with optical zoom. You can do digital zoom with a program like Photoshop, so you don't need it in the camera. Plus, the Dimage has a pretty quick shutter speed, 1/2000 and up to 1/4000 of a second for some action shots.

I look forward to hearing other comments. I'm shopping right now, but I'm trying to stay under $450 for a used unit. This means I have to settle for last year's hot cameras, but there's more bang for my buck.

Good luck,
Jurgen

[cegerer]

For taking photos of cars on the track, you want something with a provision to set the shutter speed and/or aperature manually. Should be a few with these functions for under $1000. No tripod needed. Set the shutter for 1/125 or even 1/60 of a second! Just pan along with the car and smoothly depress the shutter and follow through. The car will be in focus and the background blurred to give a sense of speed. I'd also want something with at least 2 megapixels. Here's an example I took using a 1.7 megapixel Sony although the photo was drastically reduced in size to meet the max file size for this board:





-- Curt

[Doug Zielke]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
I would consider the Minolta Dimage 7 series.......

Right on! This camera is fantastic!
Official photographer of the SCWDP, island911, has one and it is a terrific piece. I'm sure island will chime in here and fill in the details. I know I want one!

[Harlan Chinn]

That would be the Nikon D1H with the Nikkor 300 and 400mm EDIF lenses Or if you like film, the F3 or F5 with either above lenses.

[emcon5]

I just use a 35mm SLR and pay the extra buck to get the photo CD.

I wish these guys would get their act/funding together: http://www.siliconfilm.com/

Tom

[cegerer]

If you can find a D1H for under $1000, I'll take a dozen!! -- Curt

[turbo6bar]

island911 has pics of his dog in the Off-Topic Forum. I never thought I'd drool over a camera, but droolage occurred. I plan to buy the Dimage 5, which is the generation before the Dimage 7/7i/7Hi. The Dimage 5 is about $400 used on Ebay, and it's still one heckuva camera.

Jurgen

[MotoSook]

Canon G3 or S230....I have both. I have the G1 and the S230 and love them both. The G3 is about 5-600 and the S230 I picked up for about 300. Get the extra large memory card too...

Both can do 30 second videos and have manual and auto functions. More functions than I have time to learn to use on the G1. Both are over 3 MPixels, and that is plenty. I have to always shrink the photo down for practical transfer, or crop it. For cropping, and carefree clicking, get the 3MP or large resolution. They'll have plenty of resolution to crop, shrink, enlarge.....etc,..

If you want to go pro-camera, the Nikons I drool over.

[Moses]

My Canon G1 is a workhorse. I love it.

Here's what you want:

3 megapixels
As much memory as you can afford
The strongest OPTICAL zoom you can find. (digital zoom is entirely useless)

You will NOT need a tripod for shooting cars.

There are loads of great cameras that will meet your needs within your budget!

Don't make a decision before visiting www.dpreview.com

-Moses

[Doug E]

I know I'm in the minority on this one but I continue to shoot 35mm with my telephoto and then scan them in to create cyber copies. I get the best of both worlds via an electronic and hard copy.

I know, I know, I'm frugal but what the heck are you supposed to do with your 35mm set-up if you went all digital ??????

[911pcars]

What's the shutter lag on the Canon G3 and/or Dimage 7/7hi? Unless you get into pricier SLR digitals, the time lag makes shooting action pics somewhat difficult. For static shots, these and many other dig. cameras are great. As Harlan suggested, Nikon D1H/D100, Canon EOS, Kodak DCS-Series, or equivalent, are the best ones for digital work, but these are all ~$1500+ .... or standby 35mm SLR w/300-400 mm lens.

Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars

[cegerer]

"I know, I know, I'm frugal but what the heck are you supposed to do with your 35mm set-up if you went all digital ??????"

Do like I did and buy a Fuji S1. All my 35mm Nikon lenses and speedlights are compatible!

Sherwood's got a good point with the lag issue. The Sony I was using was a DSC770 (no longer in production) and was a true SLR although with a fixed zoom lense. No lag problems. $1800 originally. That was a great little camera and I'll bet they're on eBay for well under $500 right now.

[Moses]

Originally posted by 911pcars
...the time lag makes shooting action pics somewhat difficult.
Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars

True, but I shoot lots of sports events and my G1 holds 1 Gigabyte of info. Thats 650 high resolution images. I get much better images with digital because I shoot so darn many pics. I can easily shoot 100+ images at a little league game. Would I shoot 5 rolls of film? No. My best action pics are with my digital camera. I just click away like a madman until something magical happens.

[73911guy]

I was looking for a digital camera and went in to the local camera shop. He does a lot of business doing large format repairs. I wanted a large zoom on a digital and they laughed. They suggested scanning the negatives from my 35mm setup (I have a 600 - 1200mm zoom for my Canon for shooting cars at races) onto digital format. The scanners are good enough that they look at the emulsion layer on the film. Not being one to listen, I bought a Nikon Coolpix 5700. After using it, they were right. I should have stayed with my 35mm and scanned the negatives like they suggested. There just isn't enough zoom and digital zoom stinks.

Jim

[island911]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
island911 has pics of his dog in the Off-Topic Forum. I never thought I'd drool over a camera, but droolage occurred. I plan to buy the Dimage 5, which is the generation before the Dimage 7/7i/7Hi. The Dimage 5 is about $400 used on Ebay, and it's still one heckuva camera.

Jurgen

You must be talking about this post. . .


The Minolta Dimage 7i is fast. The fact that it's fast was the big selling point. . .. fast lens, fast shutter speed(1/4000), fast between shots(7 frames/second), and fast turn-on time.

My first digi was a little Canon A50 (painfully slow). It would take an eternity to boot-up, then you had to hold a button to get it to zoom. . .bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, then press the shutter button, continue to hold the camera on the shot, wait for it to figure out the focus, and then it would take the picture. Then, once you took a picture, you had to wait for it to process before you could take another. (maddening) I missed a lot of great shots.

Here's one from the recent Rainforest Round-up II (pre-drive).
Some guy came flying up the road, in a second, I turned the camera on, got focus. . .
and actually had to wait for the guy to come in frame.



And then there is ZOOM!
5Mpixles gives you lots of post-processing digi-zoom; (zooming out. . .yellow to show were the previous frame.)




and the optical zoom. . .to show you where this was taken from (thru an airplanes window layers)

not bad, eh?

[Eric Coffey]

I’ve been using the Olympus E-20N for a couple years, and am pretty pleased with it. It’s an AF SLR (TTL metering/viewfinder) with a fast (f2!) fixed lens. Here are some of the spec’s:

-aluminum chassis.
-4x f2 ED-AF zoom lens (35-140mm equivalent in 35mm).
-5MP (2560x1920 JPEG/TIFF/RAW).
-interlaced & progressive scan modes.
-60 - 1/18,000 sec. shutter speed!
-4.5 frames-per-second burst mode.
-3 TTL metering modes & optical (SLR) viewfinder.
-viewfinder shutter.
-1.8” LCD monitor.
-4 AE modes (auto/shutter/aperture/manual).
-7 white balance settings + manual.
-high light sensitivity/low noise (down to ISO 80).
-built-in flash (red-eye, rear curtain, fill, etc.)
-A/C, video, USB, flash cable, & cable release ports + hot shoe.
-very user-friendly menu system.
-many more features that I am forgetting.
-around $1100 on eBay (watch out for gray-market stuff).


If you are considering this camera, the optional power grip/lithium battery pack is a nice option. It lets you take hundreds of pics before recharging. Plus the grip has an additional shutter release for vertical shots.

[MarkP]

Wow, Island that is amazing - so which house is yours????

I'm in the same mode of trying to decide on a new camera. I've been tempted to step up to the new Cannon 10D, but don't really want to spend all the $ for lenses, etc. AND I want something smaller to carry around.

I have it narrowed down to the Dimage 7 and the Coolpix 5700. Coolpix has a bit more optical zoom, 8x vs 7x of the Dimage. I like the design and feel of the Coolpix better.

Still researching....hmmm

Thanks for this OT post, it's helpful.

Oh yeah, both are around $1,000

[Steve Lavigne]

If you get the 5MP camera, definitely get the 1GB compact flash micro drive. I have one that I use with my Canon G1 and it pretty much solves any size considerations.

[island911]

Mark P. -- you can pick up the Dimage7i for ~$700 .. . it is a bit bigger than some of the Nikons though. (it's all about the trade-offs -- as usual)

Yeah, Eric, it was your Olympus that got me jonez'n for a real camera. Your Oly is nice.

The things I don't like about my Minolta, is the lack of an optical view-finder. (It has a nice bright LCD, and an "electronic view finder". Not terrible, but not optimal.) And, the battery life could be better. A back-up set is a must. (they are standard AA's, atleast)

Speaking of Rainforest Round-up II (pre-drive). . .
Here's a shot of Drago's (Marc Sanders) car, I took from Randy Wells' white '72


note the motion blur. . . that was all from having the ability to manually set the camera parameters to induce the blur.

. . .because, of course we were well under the speed limit at all times.