A Day at Donington with the Sigma 100-400mm zoom lens

Report By David Harbey

2 October 2020

Encouraged by my recent visit to Snetterton for the Classic & Sports Car Club (CSCC) racing, the prospect of full and varied grids (with reserves !) plus the chance to see headline grabbing Special Saloons like Baby Bertha was grabbed with enthusiasm.

This will NOT be a technical assessment of the lens (they can be found on the internet written by experts); rather it will be my impressions of using the lens to shoot motorsport as an all-purpose lens.

A 100-400mm zoom range is useful and the lens is lighter than the 200-500 zoom / monopod I tend to find myself using in most locations at Donington.

On arrival, mid-morning, for the last knockings of qualifying, the long suffering marshals were cleaning up an oil leak around most of the circuit - there would be another one later in the day.

Thanks, as ever, to the people in orange !  Given the bright sunshine expected for most of the day, I walked round the outside of the track “with” the cars. There I found a gap in the fence giving a clear rear view through McLeans.

At the exit of McLeans, there was a window open in the fence for the video camera offering live streaming of the racing. I must confess I hadn’t seen it open before, so I grabbed a couple of shots.

As is often the case at Donington, there is fencing or other circuit furniture in the background which I tend to try to crop out, if possible.

Walking up to Coppice, there’s also a gap in the fence for a rear view of the cars heading into the difficult double apex corner.

To finish the set of Tony and Aston Blake’s Project RSR Porsche 911, I shot the cars coming into Coppice through the fence. The gold wheels on that car look superb.

And so to my favourite spot on the track at the inside of Coppice and very glad that I was not carrying lunch, big zoom, medium zoom, monopod, step and sensible clothing.

Here’s a couple of variations on the same shot of Bill Lancashire’s Morgan +8 and a tight crop of the Pidcock / Whitt driven Porsche 924.

Racing began with the “Special Saloons & Modsports and Bernie’s Sports Racing and V8s” - it takes nearly as long to type it as the race took to run !

With Baby Bertha (very loosely based on a Vauxhall), a DAF V8 (even less loosely based on a DAF) a Modsports Midget with a 2300cc engine and a 6277cc Morris Minor some interesting racing was in prospect. I grabbed a shot of lap 1 through Craners.

Joss Ronchetti demonstrated the noble art of saving on tyre wear in his Talbot Sunbeam Lotus.

The next sequence will be described by the drivers as either – “he closed the door on me” – or – “he went for a gap that wasn’t there”  Whatever, they both ended up in the Coppice gravel trap.

Although the sequence looks the wrong way around it is correct – the Mustang has already been hit by the Minor.

Over the lunch break I walked to the lowest part of the track – the inside of the Old Hairpin and the next set of shots will be from that area. The first race of the afternoon was the Swinging Sixties Group 2 race – essentially for the larger engined cars.

Working up and down the fence line gives a range of shots.

Some people regard the track as merely a rough guide to the way to go; this was the most dramatic (and slowest) line through the Old Hairpin taken by George Perkins. Mr Warr, however, preferred a Mini adventure !

For the Classic K race, I worked my way round from Starkeys to McLeans. I like the panning shot of the Elan with a little Dutch Tilt added for effect. It’s a very striking blue – especially in the sunshine.

With a long zoom, it is also possible to get a shot of the cars entering Coppice. It would be nigh on perfect if there was no fence !

So back to the inside of Coppice for the Swinging Sixties Group 1 race for smaller engined cars. This well-presented Lancia Fulvia Berlina was somewhat stately in progress, but only had 1100cc to play with.

Rather quicker was Richard Belcher’s Lotus Cortina (you can insert your own saving tyre wear comment by now !). However, he retired leaving the way clear for Ian Staines to take the win in his Midget.

Then it was back to the outside of the track at Coppice and McLeans.

With racing running to 7pm, the shadows were getting deeper and longer and the light was gorgeous. From the window at McLeans, there’s a good rear view up towards Coppice.

The blue Escort is taken through the fence at McLeans In and shows (with a crop) you can avoid the fences at Donington.

You can always turn around towards Craner Curves for a different shot. Spectators were getting a little few and far between by then …

Walking back towards Starkeys led me to the gap in the fence for the rear shot into McLeans in the evening sunshine – tight crop on a Ginetta; a tailgating BMW (!) and a Lotus / Ginetta combo.

By now it was getting late and with the prospect of the fence all the way up the outside of Craner Curves, I had pretty much given up on anything good.

There’s a gap where the big green recovery vehicle sits and you can just get an angle on the Old Hairpin. With the sun backlighting - get that camera out again … I think it was worth it !

I realised the fence was in deep shadow and tried a couple of shots; increased the ISO and, well, I think it was worth it with the sun backlighting the cars and drivers’ helmets.

The Mustang has a presence all of its own and perhaps a touch of black and white can work well. Looking up towards Hollywood, there is a superb silhouette against the skyline, but without accreditation, you can’t get the angle clear of the fence.

This is as close as I could manage.

Duly re-enthused, I sought out the fence gaps on the run down Craners.

It was then that I discovered that the Skyline was flaming out on the up-shift; we like flames !

So, what was the verdict ?  For a day knowing that I would be away from the car all day and had to be self-sufficient, it was a practical solution with the 100-400mm range, although at the Old Hairpin I missed that extra 100mm focal length.

I also found less “keepers” than usual. That might be, in part, due to me normally using a monopod with the 200-500mm zoom and relying on the extra stability that provides. Apart from the inside of Coppice, I’d probably use the 200-500 pretty much all the time at Donington.

No, it doesn’t have the f2.8 of the Nikkor 70-200mm zoom. The minimum aperture is f5 – 6.3, but low light performance in the early evening provided images with which I was happy.

Focus was not quite as quick as the Nikkor lenses and occasionally the lens briefly hunted for focus. That may have been affected by the focus pattern I was using - I haven’t done extensive tests.

On balance, and acknowledging that I am fortunate to use the 70-200 and 200-500, I’ll stick with them for motorsport, but the Sigma does provide an interesting alternative, for example, if you are upgrading from kit lenses.

Mrs H uses the Sigma with a D3300 for wildlife (giving her an effective 150-600m focal length) and is very pleased with it. The two lions are behind fence and have very little post production.

Lots more photos from CSCC Donington can be found on Flickr.

By the end of the racing there was only me and him left. (Not entirely true, but you get my drift – there was certainly no queue to get out !)

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