There has been a lot of questions about whether you can use Fuji cameras for sports. When Fuji came out with the X-T10 it had a quicker autofocus system than the X-T1 and has been quicker than some other DSLRs. With motorsports every millisecond counts when you are trying to track cars drifting around a track chaotically.
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It was my first trip to the track with the X-T10 to shoot for my website pistonringmedia.com. I was excited to pair it with the 50-140. I walk out to the track and start going through my settings. This is what I got.
My Settings
Autofocus mode – Set the dial on the front of the camera to C for continuous focusing.
Push the dial in the front to display the AF Mode settings. The two modes I was experimenting with were Zone and Wide/Tracking.
Wide/Tracking Mode VS Zone Mode with Continuous focus
The Wide Tracking mode uses the entire frame. Place the focus point over the area of your frame you want to capture. When your subject gets in sight half press the shutter to track the subject and finally snap your shot. It will then follow the subject across the entire frame and using this with continuous focus will adjust if your subject is coming closer or moving further from your focal length. This is the best for motorsports since the cars are larger so having the wide mode on will assure your subject is in focus within your frame.
Zone mode
When you are in Zone mode if you hit your preset button to select the zone you want to focus in, when the box is green spin the front wheel again to see the different size boxes for your subject. For my subject I was using the wide one to insure the whole car will be in focus.
Wide/Tracking
When you are in this mode you will notice as soon as you push the shutter half down the camera will start working overtime and keep focusing. You can set you area you want on the display and if a car is moving through it will work double time to keep focusing throughout the whole pass. I didn’t use this mode as much because I feel like it would make the battery suffer a lot more with the extra work it’s doing.
When I was shooting I was using JPEG only in fine mode and CL ( Continuous low speed ) or S. ( Single shot ) depending on the type of shot I was going for. I felt like sometimes using CH ( Continuous high ) it would almost shoot too many photos too quick. I was pretty amazed how quick everything work such as the focusing and the frames per second compared to my older Nikon setup.
Extra stability and the 50-140 2.8
Extra stability comes in the form of not a software thing but a nice piece of hardware which should not be overlooked. Make sure you attach your monopod to the mount on the lens. By doing this it will offset the weight of the lens vs camera ( since the camera looks non-existent attached to this lens ). There is a small screw next to the mount. Be sure to loosen that a little and it will allow the lens to pivot on it’s mount. So now when you are panning to capture a car sliding around a curve just hold tight onto the camera and do your thing, the lens mount will do the rest. It will pivot the base and keep your camera level so you gain better stability while keeping things level.
All in all
I really like this camera for motorsports. It’s small, compact and lightweight even with the giant lens on it ( compared to my old setup ). Its manageable for all day shooting out on a hot ( or cold ) track. The image quality is really remarkable for a camera in it’s class. It’s quick and easy to change settings if I need to. Also the lens mount works wonders when using a monopod. Please check out, like and follow my automotive blog pistonringmedia.com, my Facebook page and my Instagram feed.
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