I feel so inadequate

[p38arover]

I went to the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at the Eastern Creek raceway today to take some pics of classic motor bike racing. I had been taking pics with my Pentax K-7 and DA* 60-250mm at the final turn before the main straight.

I now feel so inadequate. This bloke turned up so I had to sneak away and hide my little DA* 60-250 F4 lens. :o

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

[300+]

Blimey.

[p38arover]

I found the zoom a bit small at 250mm. I should have taken my 400.

Pics soon.

[blitz]

Ron
Fancy gear does not make a fancy photographer

Yes I'd near give my eye teeth for a Nikon 400mm f2.8 or a 200 400mm f4 zoom but I don't have them, so I make do with what I have and try to position myself where I can get the best photos with what I have. Which is a 80 200 f2.8 as my other lenses have all carked it from me not looking after them as I should have and to many years of territory heat and humidity.

coming as I can afford them
Nikon 17 - 35 f2.8 zoom
Nikon 50mm f1.4 prime

after winning lotto either the 400mm f2.8 prime or the 200 400mm f4 zoom

[goingbush]

how would one of those go on your Pentax Q :eek2:

[Chucaro]

It would be nice to have the best lens for each photographic application but I guess that it is a matter of money or priorities.
I would love to have a Nikon 600 f/4 VR and couple of converters to go with it but I do not have the $15000 to allocate to buy them.
I have a friend that is a fanatic avian photographer and he have $20000 invested between lens, body and tripod but he drives a $2000 car.
Having a 600mm lens will not make you a better photographer but will increase the opportunities of capturing more species of birds or wild life.

[Chucaro]

how would one of those go on your Pentax Q :eek2:

The Pentax DA 560mm f/5.6 ED AW Lens is available for U$A 7000 but I do not know about the performance of it.
I do not know of any avian photographer that use it.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/03/530.jpg

[Dockstrada]

I went to the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at the Eastern Creek raceway today to take some pics of classic motor bike racing. I had been taking pics with my Pentax K-7 and DA* 60-250mm at the final turn before the main straight.

I now feel so inadequate. This bloke turned up so I had to sneak away and hide my little DA* 60-250 F4 lens. :o

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=57956&stc=1&d=1363511174


Thats Ray Oxford , he's a legend https://www.facebook.com/ray.oxford

[p38arover]

How does one see his pix?

[MickInTheMud]

You need a facebook account mate.
Check out the motor bike racer with no right arm or leg.:eek::o:cool:

[wrinklearthur]

Those photo's are all of motorbikes!! :(

[Sprint]

Compensation Ron, compensation..... Besides, we all know what would happen if you bought a lens of that size and price.....

[p38arover]

You need a facebook account mate.
Check out the motor bike racer with no right arm or leg.:eek::o:cool:

I've seen him race before but I got another pic of him on the weekend.

I've just had a look at some of his pics taken of the same bikes on the same corner. His are much sharper than mine. I'd like to see his EXIF data.

For example compare his

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/542783_613987108614786_364666282_n.jpg


with this:

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=57976&stc=1&d=1363609568

[p38arover]

Besides, we all know what would happen if you bought a lens of that size and price.....

Excellent point there, Sprint.

I need to update the faulty goods thread again. :(

[Chucaro]

Ron, you cannot make a comparison between your and his photo without seen the original of both examples and using the same PP.
Your image is very compressed but I am sure that by PP the original it will be heaps sharp than the one that you have posted.
You are doing well :)

[p38arover]

Ron, you cannot make a comparison between your and his photo without seen the original of both examples and using the same PP.
Your image is very compressed but I am sure that by PP the original it will be heaps sharp than the one that you have posted.
You are doing well :)

Thanks Arthur.

Is mine compressed? Is it obvious? I don't know how to tell. I exported it and reduced its size for the forum. I haven't done any PP as I really have no idea how to do that (I think Lightroom does a bit of sharpening on export).

Ray's lens is superior to mine and I assume he has an FF camera vs. my APS-C but that's not the whole story. He is a far better and more experienced motorsport photographer. I need to practice more.

I learned a bit just watching him use the monopod. I've never had any success with a monopod, the lens always rocked from side to side. I'd tried the techniques espoused on the internet but to no avail.

But on Sunday, I noticed Ray and his mate both using their left hand to steady the lens by holding the lip of the lens hood. I tried it later that day and it works. :)

With the wind on Sunday, when extended to 250mm, the lens was vibrating even on the tripod. The vibration was reduced when I removed the lens hood (it's a tulip style). I had to remove my BlackRapid strap as it was banging against the tripod legs and causing the lens to vibrate, too.

This the lens I was using on my K-7 (K-5 soon!) http://www.photozone.de/pentax/479-pentax_60250_4'start=1

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/03/478.jpg

[Chucaro]

A full frame camera it is not necessary better for sports or wildlife photography that a camera like yours that have a crop factor of 1.5 (like the Nikon)
The K7 have a resolution of 4672 x 3104 (14.5 MP, 3:2), which will give you plenty pixels to play in a raw image during the PP.
Try to do the PP in raw or tif format do the necessary crop, denoise and preliminary sharpening on it.
All that is done when the image is on 16 bit mode.
Once that the image was reduced to 72 dpi and about 200 to 250 kb then do the last sharpening.
You will finish with a nice image.
The thing that your camera have agains the Nikon or Canon is the AF which if even on the K& is an improvement it is not in the same league that the other brands.
A Nikon D300s will be far superior in that.
You have a nice lens and working on your technique will give you very good results.
Try to practicing on a pedestrian over pass bridge with the traffic coming towards you in different weather conditions and when you go to the track you will be happy with the results.

[300+]

Thanks Arthur.

Is mine compressed? Is it obvious? I don't know how to tell. I exported it and reduced its size for the forum. I haven't done any PP as I really have no idea how to do that (I think Lightroom does a bit of sharpening on export).



The lens he has will achieve a few things:

Higher shutter speed/lower ISO for the same lighting conditions, assuming you are both shooting wide open.
It will crop closer, but you have legs and enough pixels to edit closer in lightroom.
It will focus faster, but you can track the bikes and get a good result with yours.
It will give less depth of field wide open - look how fuzzy the back of the pipes are.


The rest is all about getting the right angle, luck with timing and post processing.

The sharpness of the lens may be better than yours, but that would be lost in the fact that they are scaled down for the web.

The sharpness, contrast, etc. could be closely achieved with post processing. You can use the clarity sliders in lightroom along with the sharpness sliders to make the image pop as his has.

There is a guide to the settings here: How to Properly Sharpen Images in Lightroom (http://photographylife.com/how-to-properly-sharpen-images-in-lightroom)

Every image will require sharpening to look it's best. Especially if you shoot in raw.

Cheers, Steve

[p38arover]

Thanks chaps.

I now have a new K-5 - it arrived too late for the bike meeting but in time for my trip to Hobart. I picked it up just before leaving for the airport last week. CR Kennedy were clearing them with the 18-55mm WR lens for $715.