Photographing SailGP with the Canon EOS R8 Sydney February 2024

 

Competitive sailing is very popular in many countries but until recently has never been  a spectator sport, nor has it been the type of activity which could readily be filmed for broadcast television.

But in the last few years some key technologies have enabled sailing to join the ranks of spectator sports which can be effectively televised.

One is the sailing craft. These have evolved from graceful but slow, ponderous things to high speed flyers racing across the water at speeds up to 99 kilometers per hour, as fast as a car on the expressway.

These speeds have been made possible by raising the main body of the craft out of the water by foils which dramatically reduce resistance.

Now we have  advanced drones which can capture all the action close-up to the sail craft and beam the video to our living rooms.  

All this comes together in the form of SailGP which is a kind of formula one for sail with ten craft competing in ten events at various locations around the world.

In February 2024 the SailGP show came to Sydney so I boarded one of the spectator ferries to see and photograph the action.

I took the Canon EOS R8 with the EG-E1 accessory grip and the Canon RF 100-400mm lens. Both the R8 and the lens proved ideal for the occasion. I needed the full range of the zoom as the distance from the race craft to the spectator boat varied from 100 to 1200 meters.

Conditions on the day were dull overcast with rain showers.

I made 2050 exposures on the day using two LP-E17 batteries in the process. I used the EVF for all exposures with a bit of chimping to check focus along the way. This is a good result for the little LP-E17 batteries which the R8 uses.

I used electronic first curtain shutter at 6 fps and servo AF for all shots. All except a few frames were sharp and clear, the AF functioning well even when the racing craft were in the hazy distance.

I used manual shutter speed at 1/1000 sec and manual aperture at f8 with auto ISO.

Here are some pictures from the day.