Having never photographed drift cars I don't think I really can critique. I like number 1 and 3 the best. Number 1 really captures the motion and sideways movement of the car well. I think I like 1 and 3 better because there is more movement in them than in 2.

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply, I agree with you about 1 and 3. Image 2 was taken at the longer end of the zoom as the car was going away from me, that probably explains why there is less apparent movement. I also cropped it a touch close in camera, so was limited on the framing choice. I thin out of all three I prefer no 1 the most.

Cheers for the comments.

Andrew

Hey There,
Nice shots. you mentioned using the beercan but do you know what settings you were shooting? i.e., Mode, ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture, Steady On/Off , and any bumps in the Creative Style settings? I planned to be able to take shots like these of boats with my a350 but wound up with a lot of blurry pics, even at slow speeds and sometimes static images. SO, thinking my camera had a focus defect, I took that kit back for another one and plan to buy the 70300G lens for action shots.
In testing the kit 18-70 lens , I had to shoot like 400 ISO with 1/1000 shutter speed to get decent results and 800 ISO at 1/2000 shutter to get pretty good results. This was shooting cars going up my street at only 25-30 mph in bright sunlight ! Those settings seem awfully high, compared to having gotten clear action shots with my old Nikon N65 film SLR with kit 28-80 lens at speeds as low as 500 with 100 and 200 ISO film !
Thoughts?

-Vance

Hi Vance,

Thanks for the comments on the shots, glad you liked them.

As for the settings, I found out the following (couldn't get all as the RAWs are stored as DNG in Aperture, and it doesn't know all the propriety stuff like SSS and creative style choice):

Image 1:

Continuous AF and Continuous Frame Advance
Shutter Priority
1/125 Sec at F13
+0.3 ev comp
ISO 100
RAW and JPG
SSS on (95% sure on that)

Image 2:

Continuous AF and Continuous Frame Advance
Shutter Priority
1/125 Sec at F11
+0.3 ev comp
ISO 100
RAW and JPG
SSS on (95% sure on that)

Image 3:

Continuous AF and Continuous Frame Advance
Shutter Priority
1/125 Sec at F9
+0.3 ev comp
ISO 100
RAW and JPG
SSS on (95% sure on that)

I am fairly sure that I would have tweaked the Creative style to make the file more print ready, but can't be 100% sure, anyway, I would most likely have increased the sharpening and saturation.

The setting you have posted seem a little high, but then you don't state if you are panning with the subject. If not and you are pointing 'head on' at the car, then the camera has to work a lot harder. These were the best of the photos I got and I had to pan with the car to acheive sharp focus. Whilst the Beercan is quicker on the A300 it's still no speed demon! The 70-300G SSM is much better in tracking as moving subject as the SSM seems more willing to make minor adjustments, either way it still requires good technique and a lot of practice to get it right.

Any chance you can post any examples here?

Andrew