Took my a6000 and a7ii to a f1 race for work

[Vvorsic]

 So i finally took my 7's to the f1 race. Few months ago i sold all of my canon gear and went fot sony. Didn't make any testing before so i made a gamble. As it turned out the a6000 is completely useless for something like f1 (it is a nice backup though). The af on the 7 was a little bit slower but much more acurate so i put the 6000 back in the bag and used the 7 since the first free practice.

 One thing i noticed was some weird digital distortion on the jpegs. I also read that lots of people had similar problems. The thing comes up especially when the photos are not 100% spot on (mostly when doing panning). Had no problems like that on my old dslr but it is nothing crucial.

 Ok i will put down some photos. And i would love to get some hints on what 400+ mm lens to buy for the future.

 

http://shrani.si/f/3C/al/3hHjLlGy/109149608158857185069751.jpg

http://shrani.si/f/0/5U/1TqHbOUK/106046178158869051735233.jpg

 

 

 

[OldNoob]

Wonderful captures. I especially like the Mercedes ones

[Vvorsic]

Thanks

[rimag]

Great post and pictures.

 When you say the A6000 was completely useless for something like an F1 race; in what ways do you mean ?  

[Vvorsic]

The pic. quality, focus is really poor. It's fast but not accurate. I got probably 2 pics out of 30 from the a6000 compared to 2 out of 10 from the a7ii, not to mention the dynamic range. But then again, it is a nice toy and a awesome camera for 500 euro. Jpegs suck on both of the cameras really bad, so you couldn't work for a bigger agency or something like that with that gear.

Here are some pics from yesterday @ the Hungarian GP

[Guest all8]

Great shots! Is there any processing on these (from Hungary). The lens is ?

 

 

There is a Tamron 150-600 that apparently works with an adapter, no sure if PDAF will work ... but perhaps on the new A7iir it will.

[Vvorsic]

the lens is 70-200 f4 from sony. And yes, a lot of contrast and blacks in post

[Guest all8]

That was quite a race! Do you photos get published anywhere on the Web, would be interesting to see if you got any of the action today 

[Vvorsic]

I worked for a sportspaper. Will put few more photos up here toninght.

[seb]

I'm not a fan of F1, but I like your postprocessing. the cars are looking really cool.

I'll try to copy that style some day.

[Vvorsic]

here we go again @ Belgian GP

[Guest all8]

like the pair of the Ferrari with movement blur!

[mkg3]

here we go again @ Belgian GP

 

 

Wow, it must really suck having to goto every GP.....  Would have loved that in my youth....

 

Really like the 4th and 5th shots of Kimi.  Gives great sense of speed.

 

Do have a technical questions since I've not seen much posted anywhere about a7ii/a7rii used for sports.  What's your thought on how these bodies work for moving subjects?  With only 4~5fps, do you use video and frame grab key images or is the still image speed good enough?  I did notice your comment about 2 out 10 are useable.  How does that compare to your old Canon?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

ps, looking forward to your Monza images!

[seb]

@mkg3: "What's your thought on how these bodies work for moving subjects?"

I was shooting a friend on weekend. He's a big fan of downhill and now he wanted some cool pictures for his bike workshop.

The downhill trail was inside the wood and it was sunny. So I had really tough conditions for the AF-C. If used the S-Spot with lock-on to track him. In about 50% I missed him at the beginning, most time because he was still too small or behind a ramp, tree, bush, but when I had a good sight on him at the beginning, the tracking worked perfect through every shot of the multishot series.

I'v used the a7RII with 16-35/4, 55/1.8, 90/2.8 and the 28/2. No differences...

he's cut out in a cheap C1-mask to give him more contrast. So he may look a little blury atm. I will redo that in photosop for a better result...

And I'm still not sure how to compose it or let it as it is.

 

@mkg3: "With only 4~5fps"

for me, more than enough (well more is always better). you have to be really near to need more. But the buffer works for about 6(?) seconds, so don't start too early pressing the release button. otherwise you can miss some shots at the end, because the buffer is full. when it's full the fps goes down to aprox. 1-2.

[Vvorsic]

Here is the thing. You can't compare shooting formula 1 to anything else when it comes to gear performance. I've been shooting MTB Downhill worldcup, Rally, superbike,.. you name it i probably shot it. But when i came to my first f1 race i felt like i got my hands on the camera for the first time.

 You can work with it but it is much harder, you need to plan every shot in your head and hope for the best So if you would work for a agency or something simmilar, where you are f*cked when you miss a shot if something important happens, you would need pro dslr gear without a doubt (also because of the variety of tele lenses). It's not the low fps but the af where the problem is.

 But for everything else my 7 works. I am still trying to get used to the mirrorless af system and the more i shoot it the more i doubt that i will go on. If i get bigger clients i will switch back to dslr for sure.

 Af is slower, less accurate and sometimes it gets confused. When i shot the chicane while there were driving 5 cars in a row it almost always got confused a little bit and threw me out of focus and blurred the picture so i used manual focus a lot. I would also kill for good jpeg quality while shooting f1 and i need to edit the photos rightaway.

 Here are few more shots from the race:

[seb]

Hehe, you're right. It's much faster. I would love to get a chance for practicing at a f1 race. for me the difficulty last saturday was the diversity of locations. I'm not used to shoot sports, I didn't know the course at all and we shot about 30 different spots with only 1-5 runs each time. on some I've just manual focussed, because there was only one point the jump looks cool.

 

btw. cool panning shot of the renault red bull. you turn steady shot off while panning?

[Vvorsic]

I usually shoot with steady shot off. Trying to let as little as possible functions to interfere with the speed of the camera, so i am shooting 90% of the things manual.

 Think it was shot at 70mm, f18, 1/80 with iso400. The car here is driving at around 280+kmh (some 175 mph i think)

[seb]

I usually shoot with steady shot off. Trying to let as little as possible functions to interfere with the speed of the camera, so i am shooting 90% of the things manual.

 Think it was shot at 70mm, f18, 1/80 with iso400. The car here is driving at around 280+kmh (some 175 mph i think)

 

thanks for your insights.

[mkg3]

.........But for everything else my 7 works. I am still trying to get used to the mirrorless af system and the more i shoot it the more i doubt that i will go on. If i get bigger clients i will switch back to dslr for sure.

 

......so i am shooting 90% of the things manual.

 

Thanks for the feedback and your insight.  These two statements say a lot about the limitation of A7Rii in this context.

 

Since I'm not a working photog, just a hobby for me, so its not critical as you've noted.  That said, I'd hate to go backwards to what I already have in dslr for the sake of lighter setup. I was ready to go there if all things were equal/in balance between the two, with different strengths and weaknesses.

 

It sounds like mirrorless systems need bit more time to mature in key areas or have their development focus shifted towards action use for certain models.  In other words, if Sony made an A7ii focused towards sports/action features (e.g., D4), some of these issues maybe addressed differently.

[mkg3]

..............So I had really tough conditions for the AF-C. If used the S-Spot with lock-on to track him. In about 50% I missed him at the beginning, most time because he was still too small or behind a ramp, tree, bush, but when I had a good sight on him at the beginning, the tracking worked perfect............................And I'm still not sure how to compose it or let it as it is.

 

@mkg3: "With only 4~5fps"

for me, more than enough (well more is always better). you have to be really near to need more. But the buffer works for about 6(?) seconds, so don't start too early pressing the release button. otherwise you can miss some shots at the end, because the buffer is full. when it's full the fps goes down to aprox. 1-2.

 

Thanks for responding.  I like the composition of the biker and the woods.  Tough lighting and you can probably pull out details of the subject a bit in post.

 

Also had not read anything about the buffer filling up so quickly before. Do you know if that's a function of write speed on the card as well as I assume you're shooting raw?

[seb]

Thanks for the feedback and your insight.  These two statements say a lot about the limitation of A7Rii in this context.

 

Since I'm not a working photog, just a hobby for me, so its not critical as you've noted.  That said, I'd hate to go backwards to what I already have in dslr for the sake of lighter setup. I was ready to go there if all things were equal/in balance between the two, with different strengths and weaknesses.

 

It sounds like mirrorless systems need bit more time to mature in key areas or have their development focus shifted towards action use for certain models.  In other words, if Sony made an A7ii focused towards sports/action features (e.g., D4), some of these issues maybe addressed differently.

Vvorsic is shooting with the A7II (and tried the A6000) not the A7RII. I didn't shot with the A7II nor A6000, but I know the A7 very well. The difference is like night and day.

Here you can find some infos in comparison to the A6000: http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Alpha_A7r_II/ (search for chapter "Sony A7r Mark II autofocus")

 

Thanks for responding.  I like the composition of the biker and the woods.  Tough lighting and you can probably pull out details of the subject a bit in post.

 

Also had not read anything about the buffer filling up so quickly before. Do you know if that's a function of write speed on the card as well as I assume you're shooting raw?

Yes, I shoot RAW only and the flash card was this: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-SDSDXPA-064G-X46-Flash-Memory/dp/B007NDL54C/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1441177963&sr=1-1&keywords=SanDisk+extreme+pro+sdxc+64

I don't know if it was 6sec. Maybe it was 10 or even more. I can do a test this evening. I had this issue once on the weekend. I had everything for a cool stacked image over three ramps, exept the drop-off.

I have updated the picture, now with photoshop post. so the masking isn't that blurry: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5626/20433006463_146ff2c008_k.jpg

[Vvorsic]

As Seb said, i didn't shoot the a7rii. I am shooting the 7ii and i sold the 6000 since it is useless. I mean it's a nice gadget and travel camera for that money but for me it is useless.

[mkg3]

Thank you both - I missed that it was shot on A7ii.

[Vvorsic]

From the reviews i think the af on a7rii should be somewhere around the 7ii. But then again all of the reviews are completely useless until you test the camera in the enviroment you work in. It has always been like that and i've been shooting everything from canon to hassel not even once, the camera was like the people that test it say. And don't buy the shit the reviews on youtube sell. I saw one guy talking about the 6000 and 70-200 being the perfect sport combo

[mkg3]

Its so true.  These reviews are like buffet.  Frankly I can't/don't need everything that the specs offer - just like I can't eat everything at the buffet (nor do I want to...).  Just have to fine the right combo to meet my needs.