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Biaggi - Race 2 last lap. "Where does the track go again?"
800 @ f5.6 300mm heavy crop, iso 280


Corser - Race 2 every lap after lap 3. "I'll set this rubbish tyre on fire sooner or later."
800 @ f5.6 300 mm heavy crop, iso 250


Sofoglu & Pitt. Supersport Race "Wana swap places."
640 @ f8 300mm iso 200


Tamada - Qualiyfing. "Conserve the front tyre, conserve the front tyre."
640 @ f5.6 300mm iso 200



As you can see these are a little soft. Iam not sure if this is a result of the lens quality (Nikkor 70-300 ed) or if my technique was rubbish. All were hand held and I kept increasing the shutter speed over the weekend to see if I could get sharper results whilst retaining some motion blur. Might have to go the the Aus Supers at QR when they are here in June/July.

Any comments on the softness would be appreciated.

Craig the 640 shutter speed is a good choice as it gives motion blur to the wheels whilst normally allowing for razor sharp panning shots. Not sure as to why these are not sharper - I do not know this lens, sorry. It may be that this is all you can ring out of it and if it is then you have done well.

Craig,

I used to have this lens. It is a very good lens up to about 200-250m. I found that at 300mm, I would get some softness, especially if opened up. If you want to use it at f/5.6 at the long end, you will get some softness. If you close it down, that will help. See Thom Hogan's thoughts on this lens.

http://www.bythom.com/70300lens.htm

It was a great telephoto to take along when bushwalking as it is lightweight and gives good results in most conditions.

cheers,

André

Hi Craig
Shooting these bikes is not easy ,they are very fast and change direction quickly . The lens is probably not your ideal choice for that occasion ie. a little slow to focus.
I found that I had to increase the shutter speed to higher than I would normally use for cars and still had some soft efforts .
What a great weekend it was .

Jeff

i think the shots look great

Craig,

Have you tried calibrating the lens for the D300, using the in-camera fine tuning?

gstark wrote:Craig,
Have you tried calibrating the lens for the D300, using the in-camera fine tuning?

Gary
I have recently read about the fine tuning on the d300 and will give it a try shortly to see if it will improve the performance.


Thanks for the comments guys. It was a great weekend and I would go back tommorrow if I could.
Craig

Enjoyed you photos - especially #4. Also the comment by Big V re the speed, sharp enough for a good picture but also shows some movement on the wheels - good to think about. I ventured over last year and these are two of my efforts, my dissapointment was they didn't show much movement at all (both 1/2000). Comments welcome - but shutter speed obviously a lot to do with it.

http://members.dodo.com.au/~willeraus/2 ... mall_1.jpg

http://members.dodo.com.au/~willeraus/2 ... 0small.jpg

Willer
Both great shots of Casey and Valentino. Even with such a fast shutter speed you did get a little bluring with the pan effect and the disc carrier mounts show a little bluring as well. Looks like you shot these at the entry to turn twelve where they are travelling very fast. Great work.
Craig