What lens for off road race

<p>I am a newbie here to photo.net and have a question. I am a <em>hobby photo enthusiast</em>, cannot afford a fancy lens, so I am looking into renting one. I needed suggestions for which lens would be useful. <br>

Event is called King of the Hammers. Hammerking has established a racing class known as the Ultra4 class. The defining characteristic of this class is that all cars must be capable of 4-wheel drive. The race is off road in the desert, hoping the weather is nice and bright! Beyond that, the class is unlimited, which means these cars come in all shapes and sizes and are capable of speeds over 100+ MPH and still contain gear ratios as low as 100 to 1 for technical rock crawling.<br>

I have a Canon Rebel T4i. I currently have the 18-135 STM and a 50mm 1.8. We will no be able to get super close the trucks on the course or in the crawling area. I thought for the pits my STM or 50 would suffice, but what about getting some action shots, from a average distance? I read some other threads here and was thinking the 70-200mm zoom? I want to be able to get a stop action on the trucks with good detail of the immediate surrounding terrain (dirt, dust). <br>

Also, any filters I should think about? Circular Polarize?<br>

Again I hope I'm not over stepping my newbie status and asking lame questions for professionals. <br>

<br>

Burgen </p>

<p>Hi Burgen. I haven't shot any off-road events so I'm guessing with my response. I'd think the 70-200 might be a "good enough" lens for your first time out - I used mine for years on tracks and got lots of shots that I'm happy with. The ideal length these days is in the 400+ range - I picked up a used 100-400 from a photo.netter last year after renting one a couple of times. Perhaps you could rent for this trip to find out what works best?</p>

<p>Think about how to keep both the lens and camera as clean as possible if there's going to be lots of dust. Don't swap lenses unless you can get a real clean area to do it.</p>

<p>David, Thanks for the response Yes I've thought about dust and lens change, there will be "trailers" we can go into and take care of this.<br>

I understand there are different zoom lens, ones with IS and ones that have faster auto focus, do you have any thoughts on using one over the other? Yes I will be renting. I'm super excited, going out this weekend to take some shots of cars just to practice a bit.<br>

Also I read somewhere about a polarizing filter for glare and what not, do you think this would be necessary?<br /><br />Thanks again.<br>

Burgen</p>

<p>Burgen - IS is very useful, but know what functions your particular lens has. On my 70-200 IS was for stability when holding the lens in a static position. On my 100-400 there is a second IS function that is designed for panning, and its helpful to turn that one on/off depending what kind of shooting you're doing. IS will give you a one or two more stops in terms of camera shake/stability and is well worth it on Canon lenses/cameras. I'm attaching a shot that would have been otherwise very dicey without the IS on the 100-40 ( 1/100, f5 )</p>

<p>I usually carry a polarizing filter for daylight racing. It all depends on how you're setup with the sun. If you're shooting into the light, it won't make much difference. If you've got the light behind or beside you (polarizers work best at 90 degrees to the light) you will get best results. You lose a stop or two with a polarizing filter, so you want to be shooting at high shutter speeds for it to be effective and to not cause you some camera shake with a long lens. The two reasons I want one on the lens is to get some color in the sky, and to reduce the glare from cars, especially if there's a lot of white paint on them.</p><div></div>

<p>David,<br>

You have been a tremendous help, thanks! I'll pick up a filter as well as renting a lens. I really want to grab some color in the sky and get good details in the blacks, and ground. Seems as this race is all about the terrain. Again thank you so much! Also I love that shot! </p>

<p>No problem Burgen. I'm looking forward to some of your shots.</p>

<p>I got back yesterday, re-sized a few photos and whalla!! I had a blast, it was very windy and cold, and I was sitting on the side of a huge steep hill in dune sand, and was trying to avoid slipping or dropping anything! I was sitting directly across from the sun, so I didn't use the circular polarizing filter. The 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens I rented was a dream!! I couldn't really tell if anything was in focus because of the dust but when I got home I was decently surprised! Enjoy and I welcome the comments!! <br>

How do I add pictures? </p><div></div>

<p>Here is another. Seems I can only add a photo when I submit my response </p>

<p>last one for now</p>

<p>trying again! Sorry </p>

<p>one more, couldn't resist! </p>

<p>Some nice action shots Burgen - especially those first two. The light actually worked in your favor with the backlit dust. Nice and sharp - good job.</p>