Night Action Sports

[Digilus]

Elo all,

Just curious if anyone has been to one of these night-time motor cross things ? (called FMX - thinking of RedBull motocross jumping stuff) - now I've seen it on TV for overseas venues where it is held in huge stadia - but not sure of what the local setup would be like.

Apparently there is an event in Stellenbosch in a few weeks time ...

So taking into account it is night, probably flood lit and not being sure how close one can get to the action (even with a media pass) I am considering a 70-200 f2.8 Tamron lens for the task ? It is "relatively" cheap compared to something like the 70-200 f2.8 Canon (not that I use Canon) - and it gets some pretty good reviews. I'll have a few others in the bag too (maybe a fish-eye for fun too).

Thoughts on this, if you've done/covered something like it before .. ?

Cheers!

 

[bwana]

What camera do you have and how high are you comfortable pushing the ISO?

 

[Digilus]

It's a Sony A100 (an oldie but goodie) - though I can probably loan a Sony A700 too

ISO .. well I'll be covering this for a web site - so no need to have print perfect pictures .. so I reckon ISO 400 or there abouts. (I detest noise, but if it is not going to be used near full res, then I could go higher I suppose)

I realise my flash (even though it is the same basically as the Canon 580 ex) won't help much. Max distance on that is about 16m (claimed) but I have yet to actually see it do anything close to that.

My friend will have his 7D there too (with a 580 ex) not sure what lenses he is bringing to the party though.

 

[bwana]

You'll want to find out if you can use your flash at all or if it's going to be too distracting to the riders.

FYI - when I shoot sports in floodlit stadium I'm pushing the ISO as high as 3200 (or 2500 on the 7D).

 

[Quantum Theory]

That A-100 is terrible in low light at high ISO. Sorry, but I owned one. I had too much noise at anything above ISO100.

 

[Digilus]

That A-100 is terrible in low light at high ISO. Sorry, but I owned one. I had too much noise at anything above ISO100.

Yeah ... I know ... guess I'll be borrowing the A-700 ... gee this is definitely turning into a case of no-good-deed-goes-unpunished (offered to take the pics as a favor for a friend!)