shooting a car race-panning concerns with E-420

[DooSPX]

I have a E-420 which I love. There is a Sports Car race coming up next month, and I want to try my hand at panning the cars, my fear is since the E-420 does not have Image Stabilization, my shots may appear blurry or out of focus.

Does anyone have any tips? Thank you very much

[dlambert]

If it makes you feel any better, IS wouldn't have helped you. It's only useful for eliminating *your* shaking -- it won't really help with a moving subject. The panning is all up to you!

[RichardTaylor]

See this tute of mine, on this site.

Panning: Motor sport

You don't need IS, It just makes keeping the image centred in the viewfinder a bit easier.

[DooSPX]

Thank you for the tutorial link Richard! Also, that you David for the advice on IS!

[LeeR]

I'm sorry, but isn't that the purpose of panning: to make most of the image blurry to create a sense of motion? I agree with previous posters that IS would not be much help. Practice, and lots of it, will do the most good. When you feel like you've got it well in hand try reverse panning for that leaf-in-a-hurricane look.

[DooSPX]

Thank you LeeR!

[xinman]

For all those saying IS doesn't help in this situation I generally agree. However, my e-620 has 3 settings for IS. 1 - Both vertical and hortizontal, 2 - vertical, and 3 - horizontal. For me if I were panning a vehicle I would use #2 as that would help to keep the vertical blur to a minimum where as I would want the horizontal blur to be visible.

I would say use a tripod and practice. I've done some shots like this but never had a huge reason to practice that much. Post your results when you are done and let us see what you came up with.

[flores_g57]

I had an Olympus E-520 & I was able to get some great shots @ the Phoenix race w/out utilizing the IS feature.Set a high shutter speed. Follow the Race car (pan) & take the shot. If you want to blur the background & freeze the race car, shoot @ 1/250 of a second. I would also shoot in continues mode for better results.

[DooSPX]

Thanks! I wish the E-420 had IS, and I plan up an upgrade later on but right now I want to get the most from the body and learn without the IS's help.
Flores, the attachments did not work correctly. I had that same issue with using the manage attachments on this form. throw them in Photo Bucket or something like that and post the IMG link.

[autofocus]

Slow shutter speed - 1/20 - 1/40
Like a golf swing, follow through with your pan
Keep your horizontal pan as level as possible
Continuous focus setting