Warning - All the gear, no idea! F1 photography help

megakid

megakid

megakid

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Perhaps the title is a little harsh as I have had some fun with my father's 450D and a friend's 1D but after much research, I have just purchased a Canon 7D with the 17-55mm f/2.8 EF-S lens. Loving it so far - sorry no examples yet but working on it!

I am booked to go to the Melbourne F1 GP in March and suddenly thought I might be able to take some semi-decent shots from my seat (on the start-finish straight, approx. in-line with the 3rd row of the grid). However, I don't think my lens will cut the distances we're talking about and I am considering hiring a zoom lens for the week approaching the GP (to have a play, practice and get the basics sorted) and for the GP itself.

Firstly, is this a plausible plan? Will a week playtime be enough to grasp a lens' capabilities enough to have the confidence of taking some reasonable shots on the grid?
Secondly, which lens? These are my choices: https://www.rentalens.com.au/groups.php?collection_id=&group_id=15&supergroup_id=4

Any recommendations would be highly appreciated.

EDIT: Photos = http://bit.ly/d4fbQv
 
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Thanks for the comments. Especially about the ticket conditions, I guessed I wouldn't be able to get a ridiculous lens in there as they'll be people all around but I didn't realise it was in the ticket conditions.

This 100-400 lens will give me approx 160mm-640mm on my 7D 1.6x crop sensor so that seems a bit on the long side does it not? I am sat in row W so not exactly front row but maybe the slightly smaller 70-200mm f/2.8L will be better? Faster and will give me effectively 112mm-320mm. Or the other choice is the 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L which will give me an even wider focal length (but perhaps too heavy - 1.6kg!)? I'm not dismissing the 100-400 lens because it's obviously very capable but given BUFF's find of 300mm+ lenses being deemed unacceptable it might be sensible to get something slightly smaller?
 
Righto, definitely going for a lens at least capable of 300mm. The 100-400mm lens looks fairly compact when not extended so I might take that.

I notice they don't allow monopods too so I might have to hit the gym to be able hold it for a couple of hours!
 
Ok I'm back... In the end I rented a 70-200 f2.8 II and a 1.4 TC. Worked very well, a little short but the photos will probably tell a better story...

Here's the reasonably good ones, no post-production, crops or edits yet.

http://bit.ly/d4fbQv

Comments etc welcome!

EDIT: Now cropped.
 
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The_Abyss said:
It looks like it was very difficult to get a decent position to take any shots from. I watched the race, and was taken at how few vantage points there seemed to be which weren't completely caged off.
Click to expand...

There were practically none - unless you had an FIA press photographer pass which means you can go into the special "at risk" zones with a 30cm high slot in the fence where you can rest your lens.

Even the places where the marshals stand are unusable due to 3-4+ marshals being in the way.
 
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