Motorsports and Nikon bodies

[bhop]

Recently I was approached while shooting at a car show (just as my own hobby) to shoot for an import car website. It's an unpaid gig but they do provide media passes to motorsport events. Since i'm in no way a professional, which they are aware, i'm fine with this. Especially because I usually pay to go to the same events (usually getting hassled by the security at the gate about my "pro" cameras) and don't get to be next to the action. Plus i'm hoping this will give me some experience and possibly lead to "better" things in the future. I usually like shooting film because I like the feel and function of my F100, but for something like this i've gotta shoot digital because of the turnaround time. So far, i've shot one event for them with my D70, and it came out great, but it was a car show, with non-moving cars. Soon i'll be shooting an event with fast moving cars so i'm expecting a different experience.

So, my question is in a couple parts.

Lenses. As I mentioned, i'm no pro. I don't have a pro sized salary, so my lenses are pretty 'consumer' for the most part. I currently have the d70 kit lens (18-70 f/3.5-5.6 af-s), Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, and a Sigma 70-300 apo f/4-5.6. Obviously I want to have good glass when shooting these things, but just how much of a difference will faster glass make in bright daylight with such a slow focusing camera as the d70? Plus it's only for web, does that make a difference?

Which leads me to the other part. New body. Would I be better off, for the time being, getting a newer body that has better AF and build quality? Such as a d200? Is a D2H obsolete or better than a d70 even though it's only 4mp? (I can't justify the price of a d300 or d700 for a non-paying gig) or would it be better to get some better lenses for the d70 and upgrade the body later on?

 

[Heck]

What I did was Get the glass first then worry about the body later. I shot a few local auto cross club events with a D40x and a kit 55-200mm. Then I got the big boy lens 2.8 70-200mm and now the photos were better especially when cropping in. Now I have the d300 and its just a great camera, It does help getting more keepers but you can do some good shooting with what you have on a sunny or bright day. The sigma you got with the d70 should be fine with good technic. Thats just my noob findings lol.