Fuji X-T2 rips through Sonoma Raceway!

[Stephen Scharf]

I shot my last professional motorsports race of the year this last weekend with my newly arrived X-T2 plus the power booster grip. By way of some background: I've shot professional motorsports for 13 years with professional accreditation, everything from CART, IRL, American LeMans, Rolex Prototypes, AMA and World Superbike and MotoGP, etc. I was one of the official track photographers for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for 6 years, and now shoot for Sonoma Raceway. This race is the ultimate round of the Indy Car Championship series held at Sonoma Raceway, Sept 16-18, 2016.  Thought you'd like to see how things turned out. I shot from practice on Friday all the way through the race on Sunday with just the Fuji instead of my pro Canon 1D-series body. I came away with a much better understanding of the camera and it capabilities. I really stressed the AF system with it's ability to acquire, track and hold autofocus. This was a good test because these cars are going MUCH faster than cars on the street or sports cars on public roads. On the whole, I found the performance and image quality of the X-T2 to be VERY impressive. Welcome your comments, questions, etc.

Friday morning, first practice session, Bus Stop Chicane...Max Chilton


Sebastian Bourdais...


Tony Kanaan, notice he's cornering so hard that the inside front tire is completely off the ground...on a race car of this type, this is serious cornering force.


Will Power


Juan Pablo Montoya


Panning shots exiting Turn 10 as the cars are flat out going down to Turn 11...
Spencer Pigot


This is Turn 10, the fastest corner on the track, the cars are close to flat out through here and going VERY fast...


Tony Kanaan


Alex Rossie


Panning shot of Helio Castroneves going up into Turn 2 during practice #2


Will Power



Ryan Hunter-Reay apexing Turn 2


Graham Rahal smokin' through the last straight to Turn 11....


Qualifying
Ryan Hunter-Reay completely over the kerbing and "flat" through the Bus Stop during last qualifying session


Joseph Newgarden


This image of Simon Pagenaud was used by the Media Directors for the Qualifying Press Release...pretty cool!


Some GT car racing...the Realtime Acura coming down out of the esses into the Bus Stop


Helio Castroneves during Sunday morning warmup entering coming out of the esses towards the Bus Stop Chicane...

[Kevin Raber]

Nice, pretty much echos my findings on this site.  I have been shooting with the X-T2 for several weeks and posted an initial review on the home page.  AF and tracking is pretty good.  I found for most of what I do AF tracking in mode 3 - track and ignore obstacles really good.

[Stephen Scharf]

Nice, pretty much echos my findings on this site.  I have been shooting with the X-T2 for several weeks and posted an initial review on the home page.  AF and tracking is pretty good.  I found for most of what I do AF tracking in mode 3 - track and ignore obstacles really good.

Thank, Kevin! I have to say the X-T2 exceeded my expectations on the whole for the weekend. One thing I've noticed, and I don't know how it compares with your X-T2 is that the new Multi metering mode can tend to overexpose in bright scenes, more so than I remember my X-T1 doing. Sometimes I find that Center Weighted Averaging gives more accurate metering. Have you noticed anything similar? I've seen a number of posts in other forums and some blog entries about this already.

BTW, really enjoyed your initial video of the X-T2 from Greenland and await your more comprehensive review; please do some exposure metering tests! Like the beard, BTW.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Lens?

[E.J. Peiker]

Being a huge open wheel racing fan (Indycar and F1) I rally appreciate the pics.  Great to see how well the X-T2 is performing as well.  I think my favorite photo of the bunch is the Montoya picture (not my favorite driver, just my favorite picture )

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Very impressive set of photos.

This is very nostalgic for me, as I photographed SCCA New England races back in the 1960s for the local rag, Pit Talk.
The equipment has changed a lot (both vehicular and photographic), but the essential skills are the same.
I was shooting with a Pentax and 50mm and 100mm lenses and probably Tri-X.

So my favorite in your set is the panning shot, where the camera can't take most of the credit.   

[Rob C]

Very nice photographs.

I used to love watching F1 on tv years ago, but over time, especially during the reign of Michael S., it became a procession that lasted two hours. Then, the various commercial channels bought out so many rights that I called it a day when the BBC lost its real-time access. I think the same has happened to it in Spain, where it used to be available free on Antena 3 but, as far as I can see now, that no longer is the case.

In the end, I would still watch the Monaco GP because of the women: fantastic talent all over the place. But not by subscription, thank you very much.

Rob C

[Stephen Scharf]

Lens?

50-140 f/2.8 or 100-400. Both worked great and are very sharp at these apertures (f/9 to f/13).