A 300mm focal length is only useful in certain corners of the Sepang F1 circuit. Since the circuit is built specially for F1 racing, many of the areas that make for exciting photographs are located quite far from the action. As such, lenses of at least 400mm or longer are necessary in order to get the shots one needs. The higher telephoto end of the EF 75-300mm IS USM was good enough for these 4-sequence shots of the Formula 2000 racing car shown below. It was captured in rapid succession with the EOS 5 via its Tv mode at 1/180 sec (camera used 1/2-stop increment) at f/8. But there was an oversight on my part when using the EOS 5 to shoot the action sequences shown in this page - I did not set the camera to its Continuous High (CH) mode, which would allow the AI Servo AF to function at 3 fps. It was set to normal Continuous Low (CL), which operated at 3 fps (normal) and about 2 fps for tracking. First shot Second     Third Fourth Only when the whole event was over did I realize the reason for the camera's somewhat slower response at focus tracking. I guess this was due to me being too familiar with using the EOS-1 series of cameras in the past and none of the EOS 5. Though I wanted to limit the use of the EOS 5 with just two lenses, I did borrow an EF 300mm f/2.8L USM that belonged to a fellow EOS professional shooter and see how well the camera would respond to the action with the single focal length telephoto lens. These 4-sequence photos of another Formula 2000 race car were shot with the EOS 5 fitted to the EF 300mm f/2.8L USM and Extender EF 2x, turning the lens into a 600mm focal length. Except for the third shot (driver is soft, car is sharp), the rest is sharp - not bad for a camera that was set to tracking at its CL position. First shot Second     Third Fourth The reason why the driver in the third shot looked soft while his car was tack sharp is simple. I had the EOS 5 switched to just one out of its 5 AF-points, which was the center sensor. In capturing the these sequence shots, I had the center AF point placed on the car all the time and as it got nearer and going across the frame (while still panning the camera), the sensor was still locking into it and the driver's position was not in its placement path. Take another look at the fourth shot and you can see that the driver too, was still a little bit soft and his car looked much sharper than him, anyway. << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 .