Suggestions for shooting a car race

W

WAFlowers

Active member
OK, actually it is an autocross competition, but that shouldn't make a difference. I think it will be bright and sunny. I hope it will.

I'll be able to be up close and personal for much of this; often within 25' of the cars -- even closer at the start line if I want.

I don't know that I need to do anything special, but I wondered if anyone had any suggestions.
 
It would be cool if you could slip a lipstick cam inside one of the cars. Other than that, depending on the length of the course, it would be great to have a camera to cover different sections. According to Murphy's Law, any good crashes are likely to be out of camera view, or you will either be switching tapes, or in the porta john.
 
In an autocross it is one car against the clock. No crashes. Best you can hope for is a spinout.

And, yeah, the course is long and narrow (old runway) so with my luck the good stuff will happen at the other end of wherever I happen to be at the time.

If I can convince my son to come he can man my 2nd camera.
 
Sounds like a drag race? I still think a lipstick cam in the car would be nice, although it's unlikely you can do it.
 
Drag race? No, nothing like that. It is a handling skills competition more than anything. This course is an out on one side of the runway and back on the other, weaving in and out of cones that mark your path. Fastest time wins. Every cone you hit adds 2 seconds to your time. There are slaloms through cones, Chicago boxes (a particular type of 3-cone slalom with walls on 3 sides), offset gates, etc.

If it helps you to picture it, here is the course map for tomorrow: http://www.tamparacing.com/photopost/data/500/course1.jpg

Sad Max, why do you suggest 60i? And, what is MOTFU?
 
My understanding is that 60i is better for the purpose of capturing fast-moving action, since you are sampling every 1/60 second, rather than every 1/24 second or 1/30 second, the way you would with progressive settings, plus if you're whip-panning around to follow your subjects, you won't get the nasty-ass strobing effect that 24p or 30p will create (but I'll defer to the various techno-gods around here who know more than I do...)

MOTFU = Master Of The F*cking Obvious
 
Thanks to both of you for clearing those points up. Sad Max, I had all sorts of stuff going through my head... and none of it was even close. You are correct about the 60i, especially if you wanted to slow down the footage in post, but mostly because the cleaness of the fast action.
 
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