Help Needed

bigjoe · Dec 2, 2006

Hi I am looking for some advice.
My hobby is motorcycles racing and I like to photograph it. For the last couple of years I have been using a 300D with a standard 70-300 lens.
I have just bought a new 30D and I will be soon buying a new lens. I have two in mind and would like some advice. One is a 70-200 F2.8 the other is an 80-400 F4.5 with Image stabilizer.
Which one would you advise? One thing to keep in mind is here in Ireland the weather can be dull a lot of the time.
Thanks.
www.bigjoephotos.eu

fmw · Dec 2, 2006

bigjoe said:
Hi I am looking for some advice.
My hobby is motorcycles racing and I like to photograph it. For the last couple of years I have been using a 300D with a standard 70-300 lens.
I have just bought a new 30D and I will be soon buying a new lens. I have two in mind and would like some advice. One is a 70-200 F2.8 the other is an 80-400 F4.5 with Image stabilizer.
Which one would you advise? One thing to keep in mind is here in Ireland the weather can be dull a lot of the time.
Thanks.
[URL="http://www.bigjoephotos.eu"]www.bigjoephotos.eu[/URL]

Joe, it's pretty hard to say without understanding the layout of what you are shooting. The first lens provides more options for depth of field and exposure. The second one provides more reach. Only you know how close you can get to the action and what you are trying to do. On the surface I would probably opt for the first one but I don't know whether you need the extra reach or not.

Alex_B · Dec 2, 2006

well, in any sort of racing, especially when you get close to the subjects, the 2.8 will be more valuable than the image stabilizer as you want to freeze the motion.

an i remember in motorcycle races you can be that close to the track that you eat dirt when a bike passes ... i would go for the 2.8 and shoot at close distance.

I have no experience with the general image quality of those two lenses though...