Fuji X-T2 makes it pro race debut

[Stephen S]

I shot my last professional motorsports race of the year this last weekend with my newly arrived X-T2 plus the power booster grip. By way of some background: I've shot professional motorsports for 13 years with professional accreditation, everything from CART, IRL, American LeMans, Rolex Prototypes, AMA and World Superbike and MotoGP, etc. I was one of the official track photographers for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for 6 years, and now shoot for Sonoma Raceway. This race is the ultimate round of the Indy Car Championship series held at Sonoma Raceway, Sept 16-18, 2016. Thought you'd like to see how things turned out. I shot from practice on Friday all the way through the race on Sunday with just the Fuji instead of my pro Canon 1D-series body. I came away with a much better understanding of the camera and it capabilities. I really stressed the AF system with it's ability to acquire, track and hold autofocus. This was a good test because these cars are going MUCH faster than cars on the street or sports cars on public roads. On the whole, I found the performance and image quality of the X-T2 to be VERY impressive. Welcome your comments, questions, etc.

Friday morning, first practice session, Bus Stop Chicane...Max Chilton

Sebastian Bourdais...

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Tony Kanaan, notice he's cornering so hard that the inside front tire is completely off the ground...on a race car of this type, this is serious cornering force.

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Juan Pablo Montoya

Panning shots exiting Turn 10 as the cars are flat out going down to Turn 11...
Spencer Pigot

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This is Turn 10, the fastest corner on the track, the cars are close to flat out through here and going VERY fast...

Tony Kanaan

Alex Rossi, Indy 500 winner...may go to Formula 1 next year

Panning shot of Helio Castroneves going up into Turn 2 during practice #2

Will Power

Ryan Hunter-Reay apexing Turn 2

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Graham Rahal smokin' through the last straight to Turn 11....

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Qualifying
Ryan Hunter-Reay completely over the kerbing and "flat" through the Bus Stop during last qualifying session

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Joseph Newgarden

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This image of Simon Pagenaud was used by the Media Directors for the Qualifying Press Release...pretty cool!

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Some GT car racing...the Realtime Acura coming down out of the esses into the Bus Stop

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[Stephen S]

Nice shot of Helio Castroneves coming out of the Esses towards the Bus Stop chicane during Sunday morning warmup.

 

[Iansky]

Great shots and good to see the XT2 delivered. I shot a Motocross event last weekend using the 100-400 for some long shots and the 16-55 for some suddenly appearing subjects - in both cases the setup worked perfectly and exceeded my expectations. This is the link to the images - 571 Photography

 

[KillRamsey]

1. You don't even need to qualify those shots with your credentials... they're very obviously professional. Those are just wonderfully framed and captured.
2. Is that guy's name actually Will Power? Man, his parents are mean.
3. I know it's asking a lot, but if you get a minute, could you walk me through the way you set the gear up for each of those kinds of shots? I know what I would do, but I would be absolutely fascinated to hear what goes on in your head as you set up, what settings you tended to use, what worked and what didn't, etc. Purely a selfish request in an attempt to learn, mind you.

 

[Bobby T]

Amazing set of photos. Great to see how well the T2 can perform.

 

[Stephen S]

2. Is that guy's name actually Will Power? Man, his parents are mean.
3. I know it's asking a lot, but if you get a minute, could you walk me through the way you set the gear up for each of those kinds of shots? I know what I would do, but I would be absolutely fascinated to hear what goes on in your head as you set up, what settings you tended to use, what worked and what didn't, etc. Purely a selfish request in an attempt to learn, mind you.

2. Hi Kyle, yes his name really is Will Power. There is also a racing driver named Scott Speed.

3. Regarding setting for these kinds of shots...as you might guess, it depends on the shot.
For all shots, I had the camera on AF-C focusing on the front switch, CH for the drive mode, and Custom Setting 3 for most all of the shots. For the shots like the Bus Stop and Turn 10 shots, the 3/4 front view where the car is closing on me, I used 1/400 to 1/500 of a second on either the 50-140 or 100-400. Both lenses worked great for AF. I was shooting usually ISO400 so that I could use 1/400th sec shutter speed and still have an f/stop in the F/11-F/14 range. Reason for that is these cars are very long, and you need a small aperture in this range to get as much of the car in focus from front to back at these focal lengths. Most of the focal lengths were in the range of 200mm to 450mm in 35-e. The Ryan-Hunter Reay shot in the Bus Stop during qualifying, for example is about 400mm in 35-e. For the focusing mode, believe it or not, I used single-spot (in the center) or the Zone AF mode. Both worked well, but if the car was heading directly right at me, I found the single-spot gave me a higher percentage of really sharp keepers than the Zone mode. If the car was transitioning out of the corner, e.g. starting to move to the left or right out the frame, the Zone mode worked a bit better. In Zone mode, I usually used a small no. of squares e.g. 3X3 or 5X5, because it was easier to keep it right on the car and pan really fast. I also set up the camera for back-button AF when using the camera on single-spot, so that I could lock focus on the car and then take the picture the instant I wanted to. The single spot will track focus if it is held locked on and stays on the subject. If you let up on the back button or the shutter it will go off very quickly though. For the panning shots, I used 1/250th of a second, using with single-spot, it was easy because the car was not moving to or away from me in the frame, it's distance to the camera remained essentially the same through the pan. So, I lock the AF on the car, track it while panning and fire away. I've done so much of this for so long, I am a quite a good "shot", and I can keep the AF square dead on the car all the way through the pan. That's how I can get shots like this:

Troy Corser, World Superbike, Miller Motorsport Park, 2008 (Canon 1D MkII)

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My dad was rated a Marksman in the military, so maybe there's a genetic component!

The places where I would lose AF lock/tracking is when the car was going very fast (e.g. 135-150 mph), and I was quite close to the car, and as the car got closer and closer or further and further from me away while vigorously accelerating towards or away from me, the AF system simply could not keep up fast enough. Also, I tried some panning shots when I was quite close to the cars when I was in the esses, but I didn't have much luck because I was so close to them and they were going completely flat out. It's actually quite hard to simply even be able to pan fast enough and get the car in the damn frame when you are that close and they are going by that fast. And I have a LOT of panning experience. My Canon 1D MKII N struggles with this, too. If I was far enough away, it was not a problem, but as close as I am to these cars in some cases, at those speeds, every AF system I've used struggles. I think it is because the camera simply cannot accelerate the lens element fast enough to maintain AF lock when the car is closing or going away or going by side to side that fast. These are amongst the fastest racing cars in the world, so this is a pretty extreme test. Hope this helps.

 

[Iansky]

Wow, thanks for sharing this very detailed explanation of the settings used, great to see how well it does perform though in capable hands.

 

[KillRamsey]

"I also set up the camera for back-button AF when using the camera on single-spot, so that I could lock focus on the car and then take the picture the instant I wanted to. The single spot will track focus if it is held locked on and stays on the subject. If you let up on the back button or the shutter it will go off very quickly though."

This is fascinating. I wonder if the XT1 does that too...

"Also, I tried some panning shots when I was quite close to the cars when I was in the esses, but I didn't have much luck because I was so close to them and they were going completely flat out."

If I were trying to get that, I think I'd go immediately for manual focus... I'd get it set at the right distance, get the depth of field deep enough to be forgiving, and then just pan away on CH. In other words, I wouldn't even have enough faith in the AF to even attempt it.

"Hope this helps."

EXACTLY what I was hoping for. Thanks a ton! I never try such small apertures for this stuff.

 

[Stephen S]

Thought you guys would like to see some pit lane shots from the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma from last weekend.

Simon Pagenaud

Pagenaud holding until pit lane is clear

Takuma Sato

James Hinchcliffe

James "Hinch" Hinchcliffe

Scott Dixon

Dixon gets a push out of pit lane...

Will Power exits pit lane...

 

[KillRamsey]

Very cool. What's that little fan-like thing that seems to be right in front of their faces? And don't say "...it's a fan, stupid"

 

[Luke]

those pit shots are VERY cool

 

[Stephen S]

Very cool. What's that little fan-like thing that seems to be right in front of their faces? And don't say "...it's a fan, stupid"

It's a fan...

 

[KillRamsey]

Dammit.

 

[Stephen S]

Dammit.

Yeah, what can I say. They get hot sitting in the car with all their gear on...

 

[KillRamsey]

It makes so much sense. And yet I had hoped it was some other, more interesting device.

 

[robstar1963]

Just caught site of this thread. Have only read the initial post prior to writing this but this is just what I wanted to read
Have just become a Fuji user intending to move up to the XT2 when it becomes more affordable perhaps next Motorsports season
I am an existing M43 user and frequently shoot at Moto GP, Superbike and Speedway Events in the U.K. - see my thread on M43 if interested (if that doesn't constitute being a traitor lol). They do get a bit better towards the end of the thread (Moto GP 2016 shots)
MOTORSPORTS Thread - Post Your Fast Paced Action Here
Am very keen to see how the XT2 performs in these environments although I will probably maintain both Fuji and M43 systems
Currently have an XT10 and XT1
Will read on through the thread now
Thanks for posting
Regards
Rob