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Hi guys,

Some pics from yesterday's races at Wakefield park. Here are the Australian GT Championship and Porsche Drivers Challenge ones, more to follow later! Panning shots taken with the 70-200 VR, front-on shots with 70-200 VR + TC17EII. Enjoy.

Hey Trent,

Lovely series of images. You really make that 70-200 sing. Thanks for sharing

By the way, who won the round?

Nice work Trent.

No pics

How did you get them to stop their cars while you took their pictures?

Good examples of top class gear, steered by top class technique!

Nice one, Trent. Out of curiosity, what's your typical keeper % from a day like this? Obviously with non-studio events like this (and any other form of sport/candid), you have to take your opportunities when they come up, with no chance for a re-take

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated!

Raskill wrote:No pics

Hmm, that's weird. What domain are you looking at the pics from? I have hotlinking to the pics allowed only from a few domains, amongst them dslrusers.com and dslrusers.net. I just added d70users.com too. Can you still access the gallery?

Matt. K wrote:How did you get them to stop their cars while you took their pictures?

That's easy Matt. The hard part is to get them to spin the wheels at the same time!

losfp wrote:Out of curiosity, what's your typical keeper % from a day like this?

For the front-on shots, almost 100%, it's hard to stuff those up! For the panning shots, probably somewhere between 50 and 75%, just off the top of my head. Yesterday I was using my Feisol monopod with a Manfrotto 488 RC2 ballhead on top of it, with the ball slightly loose such that I still had the support of the monopod but was able to pan effectively. I think this setup improved my keeper rate by quite a bit compared to both handheld and the Manfrotto 235 FlexHead (thanks Deano!) I have used in the past.

Can see the pics now!

Nice mate. Sharp and clear. Did you find any issues using the TC with the 70-200? Given it was such a bright day I gather that the loss of light didn't effect anything?

Great shots Trent!
I reconise car number 30 from the A1 Grand Prix at Eastern Creek last year, it's my desktop wallpaper!
Hmm the TC-1.7 looks tempting...

Raskill wrote:Did you find any issues using the TC with the 70-200? Given it was such a bright day I gather that the loss of light didn't effect anything?

Exactly: f/2.8 + 1.5 stops = f/4.8 plus another stop or so for added sharpness, but on a fine day, pfft, whatever.

In terms of image quality, it's not as good as the 70-200 VR on its own, noticeably softer images. It's actually a bit annoying when you get used to the quality of your shots at 200 mm, your ones at 340 mm (effective) don't seem as good! The bottom 3 shots were with the TC17EII and demanded some reasonably strong USM to look good, whereas the pics without the TC look sharp without any USM. They of course can benefit from judicious use of USM, but the pics with the TC need more.

For panning the 70-200 is fine but for the front on shots, especially for the F3s, I found I really needed more length. Thankfully for my ego my fiancee doesn't agree! Now I'm tossing up between the Nikkor 80-400 VR/Sigma 80-400 OS/AF-S Nikkor 300/4 and maybe a TC14EII if I go with the prime! Unless kipper wants me to safeguard his 500 f/4 while he's away.

Paul: yep that's the one, and it's still shooting flames.

Trent, great work pics look great and i like them all. Looks like it was good fun andweather looked ok for you so glad you got some good pics there and makes it all worth while.

Thanks John, always enjoy yours too! Weather was actually too bloody hot but what can you do? As you say, good fun and if you take some good pics too it makes it a great day out.

Trent, these are very good, you should be happy with your results...these guys spend more on their hobby than we do....

I'm a huge motorsports fan, impressive shots! You have a great panning skills, hope I could learn from you one day!