What Equipment Do You Need for Photographing Motorsports?

Many motorsport fans love taking photos of racing cars when attending a motorsports event.

Although smartphones get more and more advanced these days, there is still a limit on what you can achieve with them.

A lot of people have asked me over the years, what kind of equipment do you need?

Camera type

A good digital SLR camera is essential for motorsports photography.

Important! If you already own an SLR camera and a telephoto zoom lens, don’t simply go out and buy a new one. At the beginning you really want to learn how to take the photos and an old camera is best for that. The more experience you get, the more you will understand what you actually need in a camera and lens. It is like learning to drive a car, you don’t usually learn to drive in a Ferrari.

I started out back in 2014 by using my basic Canon EOS 550 D and properly learned the trade by using an old Nikon D2x. The Nikon D2x does not have any automatic controls so it was good to force me to learn how to take the photos. In recent years I have used Nikon D7100 (new version D7200) at a lot of events and recently upgraded to a Nikon D500. The pro motorsports photographers who use Nikon, mostly use D5 and some D4.

Once you have more experience, then you can upgrade to a better model depending on your budget.

Canon? Nikon? Sony? Which one is better?

I believe all of the major brands are good. Nikon/Canon cameras seem to be equally split between pro motorsports photographers.

Nikon is my preferred choice as for me the camera body of most of them is better quality. In any case, consider what type of lenses you want to use in the future. The camera lenses are made specifically for the camera type. I.e. You can put a 200mm Nikon DX* lens onto Nikon DX branded cameras but it will not fit a standard Nikon camera or on a Canon camera.

*Nikon has two main types of Nikon digital SLR cameras. There are full frame cameras and cropped sensor camera which are called Nikon DX.

Lens type

A fast telephoto zoom lens of 200mm/300mm or longer is good to have.

The lens should have an image stabilization function. For Canon lenses it is “IS (Image Stabilization)” and Nikon “VR (Vibration Reduction)”.

Keep in mind that really big and long lenses are heavier and more difficult to carry around especially when walking around a circuit on a hot summers day. It can be more of a curse than a blessing.

The lens length required for your photos also depends on the event that you would like to photograph. I.e. if the cars are fairly close to you like for example at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain or at Thruxton Circuit in the UK, then a 200mm/300mm lens is perfectly fine.

When I attended the Belgium Formula 1™ Grand Prix and the Japanese F1™ Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit, there were certain parts of the circuit, where a longer lens would have been good to have. However, I was still able to find areas that worked fine with a 300mm or even 200mm lens.

Lenses can be very expensive. Whilst it is good to purchase the lens from the camera manufacturer, it is worth mentioning that there are other cheaper alternatives available. Lens producers like Sigma and Tamron also sell lenses for the specific cameras. Their lenses are getting better and better. I used to own a multi-purpose Sigma lens and it was very good.

UV Filter

It is advisable to purchase a good UV filter along with any lenses you purchase. The reason being, that this will protect your lens which can last you many years if you take proper care of it. It is very easy to touch the lens by mistake even with a hood on (you should use the hood if you have one). Apart from that the filter protects the lens from dust and therefore unwanted scratches. In comparison to the lens, the filter is cheap and you can simply replace it. Some years ago, I dropped my Canon camera (it was not a hard fall but there was an additional climate change from extreme heat in Malaysia to cold Irish weather) and the filter completely cracked just before I had a media tour of the Dublin Storehouse. The entire tour I was thinking of that camera. Fortunately, after the tour I realized that only the filter had cracked and the lens simply had a tiny spot on it.

Monopod

Monopod if you have a heavy lens or in case you really want to keep your camera still for images, then you need a monopod.

Memory card

An equally important part of your equipment is your memory card. Motorsport is all about speed and freezing the action and if your card cannot handle the speed you will just get annoyed and lose valuable photos.

The memory card needs to be able to capture high-speed and enable seamless capture and playback. A proven and commonly used brand is SanDisk. It is best not to use unbranded cards. The memory space should be at least 32GB but 64GB or more is better. The cards usually show the number and GB i.e. 64GB. Another number is the MB/s – this is the megabyte per second (not to be confused with megabit per second). This number shows you the reading speed which means how fast the images transfer from your card onto your computer. It should be at least 45MB/s. A more important number is the SD card writing speed. That is the speed your camera takes to write the photos onto the card as you take the photos. This should be at least high-speed “Class 10” and U3.

It is also good to have a spare empty memory card with you.

Spare Battery

Motorsports photography can be quite tough on your battery especially when you are starting out, because people have the tendency to take a lot of pictures. In any case, it is always good to have a fully charged spare battery with you.

Before you attend the next thrilling motorsports event, do your research. You can often purchase a set of a camera body together with a zoom lens and a standard wide-angle lens. Read recent reviews and if you have a specific event that you would like to attend, check their rules and regulations beforehand. Some circuits don’t allow lenses longer than 300mm or monopods.