Any tips for shooting a sailing race?

steve1307 · 09-27-2012, 05:15 AM

Dominique (username : tcom ) had some great shots of the Volvo 60's from Lisbon posted here in the PYP threads.
They were taken with K5 + 50-135 from a Zodiac. Pentax/Ricoh even even used some of them in the Photokina display stand.

nono · 09-29-2012, 03:34 AM

Thanks everyone, lots of good advice here. I will post a few photos after the race, if they are good enough.

nono · 10-08-2012, 07:53 AM

The race was canceled due to the lack of wind. Next one is in 3 weeks, I hope the weather will be better.

nono · 10-29-2012, 05:04 PM

And it was.

There was a regatta last saturday, 3 rounds, probably around 3 hours total. I spent the first round on one of the zodiacs used for mooring buoys and the other two on the judges' boat.

I took the K-5 with FA 100-300 and the K200D with DA 18-55 and got back with more than 1300 photos. I have yet to go through all of them; here are a few first thoughts anyway.

As I wrote, more than 1300 photos. That's a lot. I had brought one 16 GB SD card, 4 or 5 8 GB ones and a few 4 GB as spares; I filled a couple of 8 and most of the 16 and used part of two more 8. Some more 16 GB or 32 GB cards would have helped. Amazingly, the battery in the K-5 (which took almost 1000 photos) lasted the whole afternoon and the camera still shows it as almost full.
High speed, high ISO, small aperture. The K-5 and its TAv mode really come in handy here. On the K200D I had to settle for Tv mode with moderately fast speed (around 1/500) and moderately high ISO (up to 400, which is already quite high for this sensor). This was OK with my original setup; towards the end, I exchanged the lenses and bodies and the K200D proved a bit slow for using the 100-300.
Whereas the judges' boat was quite comfortable if small, holding yourself on a zodiac while carrying a couple cameras is at best a difficult task. I left both cameras in a crate when I was not using them and both got wet. I was not too worried for the bodies but my lenses are not WR. The FA 100-300 autofocus got stuck at one time; I cleaned the contacts on the lens and body and it got working again; I hope it will not fail again. I also came back with one UV filter so dirty with salt I'm not sure I will be able to clean it. Note to self: next time, try to get WR lenses. The filter is just expandable I guess.
300mm is too short and 18mm is too long. The first is not that important as there are lots of occasions to shoot ships from far away; at worst, just wait for them to get closer. The wide end is more of a problem in practice; there were a few cases where a wider lens would have been useful.
It was damn fun!

nono · 11-02-2012, 09:17 AM

And here is the gallery. A few samples:

10-29-2012, 05:04 PM	#19
nono Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Paris, France Posts: 248 Original Poster	And it was. There was a regatta last saturday, 3 rounds, probably around 3 hours total. I spent the first round on one of the zodiacs used for mooring buoys and the other two on the judges' boat. I took the K-5 with FA 100-300 and the K200D with DA 18-55 and got back with more than 1300 photos. I have yet to go through all of them; here are a few first thoughts anyway. As I wrote, more than 1300 photos. That's a lot. I had brought one 16 GB SD card, 4 or 5 8 GB ones and a few 4 GB as spares; I filled a couple of 8 and most of the 16 and used part of two more 8. Some more 16 GB or 32 GB cards would have helped. Amazingly, the battery in the K-5 (which took almost 1000 photos) lasted the whole afternoon and the camera still shows it as almost full. High speed, high ISO, small aperture. The K-5 and its TAv mode really come in handy here. On the K200D I had to settle for Tv mode with moderately fast speed (around 1/500) and moderately high ISO (up to 400, which is already quite high for this sensor). This was OK with my original setup; towards the end, I exchanged the lenses and bodies and the K200D proved a bit slow for using the 100-300. Whereas the judges' boat was quite comfortable if small, holding yourself on a zodiac while carrying a couple cameras is at best a difficult task. I left both cameras in a crate when I was not using them and both got wet. I was not too worried for the bodies but my lenses are not WR. The FA 100-300 autofocus got stuck at one time; I cleaned the contacts on the lens and body and it got working again; I hope it will not fail again. I also came back with one UV filter so dirty with salt I'm not sure I will be able to clean it. Note to self: next time, try to get WR lenses. The filter is just expandable I guess. 300mm is too short and 18mm is too long. The first is not that important as there are lots of occasions to shoot ships from far away; at worst, just wait for them to get closer. The wide end is more of a problem in practice; there were a few cases where a wider lens would have been useful. It was damn fun!

11-02-2012, 09:17 AM	#20
nono Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Paris, France Posts: 248 Original Poster	And here is the gallery. A few samples: Last edited by nono; 11-08-2012 at 09:47 AM.

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09-27-2012, 05:15 AM	#16
steve1307 Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Sydney Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,130	Dominique (username : tcom ) had some great shots of the Volvo 60's from Lisbon posted here in the PYP threads. They were taken with K5 + 50-135 from a Zodiac. Pentax/Ricoh even even used some of them in the Photokina display stand.

09-29-2012, 03:34 AM	#17
nono Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Paris, France Posts: 248 Original Poster	Thanks everyone, lots of good advice here. I will post a few photos after the race, if they are good enough.

10-08-2012, 07:53 AM	#18
nono Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Paris, France Posts: 248 Original Poster	The race was canceled due to the lack of wind. Next one is in 3 weeks, I hope the weather will be better.