so i just got a nikon D60 for school, but i plan to use it at the track, whats the best setting for top fuel drag racing, in cloudy and sunny condtions, i have a max 1/4000 shutter speed, any otheradvice from any experts here?

 

Youll never see that shutter speed used.... unless you shoot wide open at the sun lol...

First of all, what lens?

Tips for any action shots:

- Always shoot with a shutter speed of 1/focal length... i.e. my 28-300mm lens. If I'm shooting wide (50mm or so) I must use a shutter speed of 1/50 or faster to reduce blur from hand shake
- Always shoot with the lowest ISO (assuming this will be during the day, you can probably get away with 200 or 400)
- Always shoot in RAW in case you over/under expose the picture and to adjust white balance later on, this is very helpful in Photoshop
- Always pic a spot on the object (tire, for instance) and follow it with an AF point before you take the shot. This will reduce any blur as well.
- Get a UV filter, this doubles as protection for your lens. $20 filter > $100 lens.
- Use an f/stop of 8 or 11 if you can for the best mix of clarity and depth.
- Don't shoot the car in the middle of the frame (read: use the rule of thirds)

If you have more specific questions, I can probably answer them. I am the resident HAF photography guru.

 

my current telephoto lens ill use is 55-200mm, and the one coming in is 18-55mm

 

Well on a track i have used this on my old slr camera for regular races
shutter 1/1600
Iso 400
F 4

but obivolsy topfuels do 0-300 in just over 3 seconds sooooo yeahhh... and im looking from the side not so much from the front

 

Like I said, 1/focal length will stop the action (down to about 1/60 or so), even if you dont follow the object like I suggested.

And you most likely dont have a constant aperture lens (hella $$$) so at 200mm youre looking at an f/stop of 6.3 (or 5.6 if your lucky)

If you can sit in the front row, a 50mm f/1.8 lens is nice to have, especially at night. Adn theyre under $100.

 

well i have taken them with 4, and 16f, just playing around, and the lens has continus autofocus, aperature, is constanly changing in the manual modes

actually its almost always 4, or 4.6 O.o

haha am i even talking about the same thing as you?

i really have no clue when it comes to dSLR

 

dSLR and SLR operate the same... I dont get why you are so confused

A continuous aperture lens like say a 200-400mm f/4 cont. ap. would stay at f/4 throughout the zoom, whereas 955 of all zoom lens decrease in size. Like my 28-300mm lens for example, is max f/3.5 @ 28mm, but maxes out at f/6.3 @ 300mm, it is mechanically difficult to keep teh aperture constant when extending the focal length, hence the price.

There are usually 4 manual modes: program (basically auto with no auto flash and can shoot in raw), shutter priority, aperture priority and auto depth of field (A-DEP on my cam).

For low light, aperture priority is usually best as it will keep the lens at the largest aperture and only adjust the shutter speed for the correct exposure.

For action, shutter priority is better because it will lock your shutter in at 1/focal length or faster while adjusting the aperture for the correct exposure.

A-DEP is good for shooting group pictures as you can select the closest and farthest objects you want in focus, then the camera figures out the largest aperture you can use while maintaining focus.

Program is basically for people who want to shoot raw and have no clue what theyre doing.


Then there are a few autofocus modes, but I never use AF so I dont know specifics.

I know one will focus once and let you take the picture and another will track a moving object and maintain focus as long as the shutter button is held 1/2 way down.

 

wow that helped alot, thanks