Muscle Car and Custom Autocross - Del Mar

[Chris Dodkin]

My good friend Gregg, owner of the 69 Camaro which I shot at SEMA last year http://www.realphotographersforum.com/general/2818-sema-show-69-camaro.html entered his car in this weekends Good Guys Autocross at Del Mar.

After so many years of painstaking reconstruction, this was a chance for the Camaro to stretch it's legs, and show off it's HUGE power plant and trick suspension.

It was also a good excuse for your's truly to 'muscle in' and get a press pass

Dusted down the Canon 5D2 - which had been lying forgotten and unloved since the Fuji's arrived - loaded up some fresh batteries and the 300 f2.8L, and headed out.

Weather was meh, as in various levels of overcast with slight drizzle, but it never actually rained, which was good.

Couple of shots of 2G in action at the wheel of his Camaro...

Both shots used AI Servo AF, with ISO around 500 or so to get a decent shutter speed and aperture in the lowish light conditions.

Plenty of variety of motors doing the timed laps...

Chevy testing brakes and tires!

Saturday afternoon drive with the wife.

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice shots Chris and the Camero looks like it is producing the desired grins from the occupants! And it seems you haven't forgotten how to use the 5D!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

You say that Pete - but as I first picked the 5D2 up to look through the viewfinder, I instinctively went for where the 'rangefinder' viewfinder would be, and missed the actual viewfinder completely!

It was interesting to compare AF and feel between the two systems - Fuji and Canon - very different.

And I was reminded again that the 5D series AF is not built for sports - with a 1D series body, I could have shot at f/2.8 and had sharp images with AI Servo AF - with the 5D series body, I was around f/5.6-f/8 to make sure the DOF accommodated the slower AI Servo tracking of the moving target.

Horses for courses - you just have to know where the bodies are buried on each camera model!

 

[Paul Lange]

That Camero is a beauty and from a time when cars actually looked good. I'm just jealous that it's not me in the car with a big **** eating grin on my face!