A fun couple of days at the World Rally Championships in Wales armed with the Sony a6500 and the 100-400mm 4.5-5.6 GM lens.
All images that you will see throughout this article are SOOC (Straight Out of the Camera) JPEG’s. If I do any post editing to images I will always make this clear.
**Please Note: Unless otherwise mentioned no post processing has been applied to the image samples in this guide except for cropping. Full resolution SOOC JPEG images are available to download. RAW files are also available but password protected to help keep my hosting costs sensible. However, I do provide the username/password to all members of our community forum. All images are copyright protected and may be used for personal use only.
400mm | 1/400 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 125 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
400mm | 1/1000 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 400 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
390mm | 1/1500 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 250 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
400mm | 1/800 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
400mm | 1/1600 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 640 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
You can see some lens flare in the following shot. This is coming from the Hoya UV filter that I was using to offer a little protection to the 100-400 GM, the lens itself is very resistant to flare. I’d rather not use the filer if I can help it, but on this corner it was far too risky.
235mm | 1/200 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 1250 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
360mm | 1/1600 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 250 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
400mm | 1/1000 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 1600 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
100mm | 1/125 sec | f/4.5 | ISO 1000 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
140mm | 1/1250 sec | f/5.0 | ISO 12800 | **Full Resolution Download: JPEG | RAW
This was the first time I’ve used the Sony a6500 and 100-400 4.5-5.6 GM lens shooting rally cars, it was also the first rally that I’ve ever attended and will most definitely not be the last!
As usual the combination of the a6500 and 100-400 GM worked extremely well. Focusing was never an issue when there was plenty of light available, and even under the darker canopy of the forest stages it still locked focus very quickly. However, I did find that it will hunt a little around the 250-400mm focal length when light was particularly low.
Many of the spectator positions around the various rally stages allow you to get extremely close to the action, as a result the 100-400 was often overkill. Many shots could have been taken with my 70-200 F4 G lens.
I’d like very much like to try the 70-200 F2.8 GM lens at a rally to see if the extra stop makes a difference during the darker forest stages, I guess I’ll need to start saving!
If you love shooting rally or any other sport with your Sony Alpha camera, then I’ve setup the Sony Alpha Sports Shooters Group on Facebook where you can share your photos with fellow sports shooters.
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