slantsix spends some time behind the Camera

I have found that 1/200 shutter speed is the slowest I want when I'm further away from the action, like the stands at COTA.

this was with a 80-210mm lens on a D200: 

In reply to slantsix :

Happy to help.

We had to memorable assignments in high school photo class: pan and stop motion. 

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

I've got a Nikon Z5.  It's okay in good light and it's not heavy and I can work with the RAW files pretty easily in the old version of Lightroom that I use.  Here's why I want to sell it;

1. Low light autofocus is not good.  Like, all around, not good.  I think my Pentax K-5 II outclasses it in this area, and this is not something you want to lose to a 12 year old Pentax on.  

2. The EVF is not great.  It isn't terrible, but manual focus with this EVF and associated hardware/software makes manual focusing more difficult than I would have expected.  If you're just surveying the scene and composing a shot it's acceptable. 

I bought the Z5 because of the ability to adapt my K-mount lenses to this camera and not have a fat filter stack on the sensor ala Sony's which negatively impact image quality.  My plan is to sell this camera and my Fuji X-H1 (which I like a lot but I want to not deal with crop factor when adapting glass) and get a Nikon Zf.  And maybe a Fuji X-E like an X-E2 as a garage/beater camera that I don't worry about and is small etc.  

One of the nice things about Motorsports, especially in the digital photography age, is you can potentially get hours of practice.  You can even split it up: first two laps of a session in auto mode to get a couple "keepers" then the following laps experimenting with Shutter Priority (S), and/or various shutter speeds.  The big thing (which I still struggle with) is to approach it with the view that "it's OK to miss, because this is about getting better".

Here's the VR marker on my 16-85... which is sometimes in red. Also can be import to switch it to the "active" mode on the bottom switch when panning.

Some good thoughts to stir the pot.

Thanks for sharing.

Something related: I feel like I learn something whenever I pull the camera from the bag, and I have been doing this for a long time.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That's a great perspective and attitude that I like to think I also have with most things, but I am of course human and have many facets.. so probably not as often as the utopia in my head would suggest.

Of course, we should all be doing that with pretty much everything in life.

I feel the same way when I get out tools etc. to work on stuff that is not '62-'89 RWD Mopar, there is always so much to learn.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Just Checked my Lenses..

The Short lenses have VR, but no option for Normal vs. Active

and the 70-300 as well as the 200-500 do ot have any VR.

Maybe time to shop for some glass upgrades for Christmas, etc.

Thanks again!

Your focus looks good. Before buying new gear, I’d try slowing down the shutter speed. Also, that harsh light isn’t helping. Softer light and some motion blur might make deliver your desired results. 

That is sure an easy enough experiment.

Thanks!

most all of the "moving" shots I took at OneLap in 2022 (and something like 90% of all the shots I made there) were shot with a 70-200 f/4 without stabilization.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/sundaecup-invades-one-lap-sleepyhead-mazdeuce-bobzilla-spacecadet-and-others-do-onelap-2022/193378/page3/

full album here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GWeLsoa6oKBAoKTo7

the 70-200 was mine, but I hadn't shot it (or any Canon) for a while before that... so it took me about half the week to get comfortable again, and I started getting better shots with more blur... all without stabilization of any kind.  So, it's definitely do-able.

put the GAS in your car, don't let it fill your camera bag.

Since everyone is going to mirrorless now, you can get some really great "mirrored" camera gear for really cheap if you browse CL or FB Marketplace. Sure, the older cameras are "obsolete", but that doesn't mean that they are junk. I've seen some decent used mid-level Nikon and Canon bodies with a nice assortment of lenses for only a couple hundred dollars. I have a Nikon D7500 (Nikon's top-of-line cropped sensor camera) that is awesome. With lots of practice, I've gotten semi-proficient at panning and can gets some decent shots.

As a technical exercise, I will select a slow shutter speed such as 1/100th or 1/80th and try panning. When I go to the Rolex 24 there is plenty of time to mess around and try things, so sometimes I'll try a really slow speed of 1/60th, but the success rate of those shots is way less than 10%. But when you do get a successful shot, it can be really good. That's what's so great about digital, you just delete all the bad shots. The shots below turned out well, but as I said I had to delete around 90 - 95% of the shots because they were too blurry.

There's a ton of usefulness in a not that old DSLR.  Honestly something like a Nikon D750 and an F90 or F100 seems like a pretty great pair of bodies to share lenses with.

Something that can help increase stability when doing pan shots: the weight of a battery grip.

I run one on the Canons, and I find that it helps balance out the big lens. 

Plus I also have battery life for the entire day.