I can vouch for IS/VR. The 70-200 2.8L IS I use can be hand-held at 200mm all the way down to 1/20th, provided people aren't moving through the frame, while still retaining sharpness. Amazing lens, and I'm sure the Nikon version is just as good. If I ever shoot with an assistant who doesn't have the IS version, no matter how awesome they are, I know before we even start that I'll end up with a much higher percentage of tack sharp shots than they will.

They tell you not to use the IS feature on a tripod, but many times during weddings (specifically indoor ceremonies) I'm just using a tripod as extra stability, I'm not actually locking the ball head after I frame something up. So in these cases (mostly at f2.8 1/60th) I've found the IS is still helpful on the tripod. I'm not sure about the Nikon, but the Canon gives you 2 IS modes, one that only stabilizes vertically, so you can pan a shot and still get the horizontal blur. Pretty cool.

Wide angles are a different story. Sure, it can't hurt to have it, but the extra cost may not be justifiable given how easy it is to hand hold a wide angle at the reciprocal of your focal length.

Quote from pearcy_2k7 :

It wants you to keep some sort of throttle imput all the way through the corner, which sucks.

It's a trainer, just like the Skip, it wants you to have a little throttle while turning so you're forced to drive properly. Slow in, fast out, back on the gas by the apex, etc. Get used to it and I guarantee you'll pick up time in the other cars.

Edit: Log into the iRacing forum and check out this thread, lots of good info on the car.
SRF Thread

Last edited by titanLS, Sun 12 Jul 2009, 19:03.

The world record for the rookie Solstice @ Laguna is listed as 1:46.7, but that time may be from a previous build which was faster. The aliens are still well into the 47s this season though.

The chicane at the end of the straight? I usually don't have problems there for some reason. I brake hard as the nose hits that first white line on the track (right after the big black sign), I hold them a little longer than I think I have to and then I dive across the first apex at full throttle. Tiny bit of trail braking at turn in. Getting out of there quick is fun because you can blast by people over the hill if they didn't get back on the gas early enough. Love this track...

Thanks for the info guys, I'll have to look into it.

My only question is whether it's always up on screen or can you hide it, etc. How exactly does the interface work?

Oh that's right. I knew you had told me once before, and I see you on there all the time, just couldn't make the connection.

Yeah, it seems every time I carry more than 120mph through T1, I choke and screw up somewhere down the line. I should probably look into the split timing thing, but have been waiting it out to see if iRacing integrates something on their own.

Yesterday I was following Volker and Towler around and wow, just unbelievable how late they brake, mid-corner speed, exit, etc. ET phone home.

Last edited by titanLS, Wed 1 Jul 2009, 18:46. Reason : typo

Road Atlanta in the Mazda has to be one of the best combos yet!

1:18.1 puts me 12th in Qual. this week, 1st in Div 2. That's about as good as it gets for me...

Spanks what's your name on there?

Also,

The Hives, Operation Ivy, Kings of Leon, The White Stripes, Tool, Franz Ferdinand, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Muse, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Elliott Smith, the Streets, Boy Least Likely To, The Raconteurs, The Beatles obviously, Elvis too, the Stones, Pink Floyd, Ween, Blind Melon, Phantom Planet, the Specials, Vampire Weekend, Johnny Cash, Creedence, Neil Diamond rules, John Mayer when he's ripping on blues guitar, Beastie Boys, VOD, Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, One King Down, 25 ta Life, Candiria, Sonic Youth, Downset, Bad Brains, 7Seconds, system of a down, slipknot, lamb of god, merauder, the Ramones, Dead Kennedys, The Clash, Talking Heads, the Smiths, Le Tigre, Arctic Monkeys, Mouse, Supergrass, the Shins, the Strokes, Death From Above 1979, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, Kasabian, Smashing Pumpkins, the Decemberists & Tarkio, The Flying Rickshaw, Zombina and the Skeletones, the Dead, Phish, Beach Boys, Spoon, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Eric Clapton, Ryan Waniata, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Queen, Donovan, Bright Eyes, Dave Brubeck, Miles, Ella, Louis, Chet Baker and Stan Getz, Ahmad Jamal, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Carmen Mcrae, Norah Jones, Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Duke Ellington, Etta James, the Skoidats, Mephiskapheles, the Toasters, Madness, Laurel Aitken, NY Ska/Jazz Ensemble, the Slackers, Dizzee Rascal, Lady SOV, Wu-Tang, Big, J5, Sublime, old U2, Descendents, Beck, old AFI, Dropkick Murphys, Big Wig, NOFX, Lounge, 99cents, Danger Mouse & the Grey Album, Gnarls Barkley, Outkast, Death Cab, pre-90s Motley Crue, Roger Miller, Hank Williams, H.W. Jr, the III, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Waits, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Franki Valli, James Taylor, Elton John, Sinatra, Perry Como, Doris Day, Morrissey and the Smiths, Spoon, Tenacious D, The Good the Bad and the Queen, Babyshambles, Violent Femmes, We Are Scientists, Weezer, Wilco, Wolfmother, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 7 Seconds, 22-20s, the Black Keys, Albert Hammond Jr, Alice in Chains, Atari Teenage Riot, Bela Fleck, Bloc Party, Cake, Cold War Kids, the Cure, Darkness, Depeche Mode, Bowie, the Fratellis, Tapes n' Tapes, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Oakenfold and Paul Van Dyk, Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Leadbell, Muddy Waters, Son House, BB King, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Nordine, Rod McKuen, everything 80s, Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Phoenix, the Zutons, etc., etc...

(copied from my Facebook info tab)

Unfortunately (or from what it sounds like, fortunately) the OP video is gone so I didn't get to see how awful it was. Music these days has it's ups and downs, but there are definitely still some good bands out there.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of indie stuff with odd lyrical presentations:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Wolf Parade

Usually I'm not crazy about the super-obscure indie scene stuff, but I fricken love both those bands.

The new Danger Mouse album is also awesome.

Some others that have been around but are still great:

Arctic Monkeys
Raconteurs
White Stripes
Franz Ferdinand
The Hives
Radiohead
I could go on forever...

Last but not least, Colin Meloy and his band The Decemberists have recently released an amazing rock-operaesque album called "Hazards of Love." If you liked "The Wall" and "Darkside of the Moon," and you also like Indie music... get this album NOW.

Edit: I forgot Kings of Leon, IMO on of the best rock outfits of the last few years. "Youth and Young Manhood" and "aha Shake Heartbreak" are two of my all-time favorite rock albums. Amazing stuff.

Last edited by titanLS, Sat 27 Jun 2009, 07:10. Reason : No one is perfect.

So you want something that sounds like screeching tires and annoying announcers? You might want to clarify "drift sound"...

Quote from atledreier :

I've been racing the Spec Racer alot lately, and even there the racing is clean. Quite a few errors from some, but wheel to wheel racing is the norm. And the thing about the lower classes, most guys buckle real easy under pressure..

Yes and yes. I've been door to door with people in the SRF races, rubbing paint but with no incidents, not even a 0x. Lots of fun.

Agreed. The racing in C+ is usually super clean and competitive. Actually, it's the cleanest sim racing I've ever seen.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Got a new Russian lens today. The Helios-44K-4. It's essentially the same lens as my Helios-44M, but in Pentax K-mount rather than M42 screwmount. And it's just as optically awesome. 58mm f/2 max aperture.

That bokeh is really nice, especially the foliage with sunny highlights. I was lucky enough to shoot with a Canon 400mm f/2.8 IS recently and was blown away by the out-of-focus areas from that lens as well. I suspect you paid a lot less than $6000 though...

Try this:

Go to Run, and type %APPDATA%.
Then follow the directory Mozilla>FireFox>Profiles>pxdg9jd5.default
Delete the file "cookies.sqlite," a new one will be created when you start FF again.

That works for me when auto-login stops working in FireFox.

Quote from spanks :

I must say its getting pretty frustrating to hop on the sim at night here on the west coast and see 0-10 people at most in any series.

The most really for the prototype and radical is like 2-4 people.

I just want some cars out there during open practice..it makes it much more enjoyable.

The SRF practices/races have been pretty busy, but yeah that's about it.

I'm not much for sigs, but if I was, it'd probably be this:

Quote from tristancliffe :

...you'll probably find that horses judge one another on things like horseyness

or this:

Quote from Timdpr :

You have all the appeal of a paper cut.

Best thread ever.

Is it just me or did a lot of the cars just get really ridiculously good looking over the last two weeks? The new noses on the BMW and Torro Rosso, new Ferrari chassis... All look great.

And wow, Mclaren is building a batmobile. Looks like they're really trying to find time in the wing designs...

Last edited by titanLS, Fri 8 May 2009, 23:59.

You could do a lot of things, but at $156/yr. not many people are willing to destroy their reputation (given we all have to use our real names, no hiding behind some crazy screen name) and run the risk of being shut out from the higher levels due to SR loss.

For the first few months I raced I spent most of my time being angry at the SR system, but I got over it. My SR is pinned at 4.99 now, and I still run door to door with a lot of guys, and have never been stereotypically wrecked in T1 like I have in every other sim out there... The system is doing it's job by keeping people in check, and the result has been the cleanest sim racing ever. No complaints.

I'm loving Road Atlanta more in iRacing than ever before. Took a bit to get used to the blind entrances that Rfactor, Forza, etc., don't have. You're pretty much hanging on in every car, and the Mazda through the esses is A LOT of fun.

Talladega was released today, fwiw. I've never been crazy about ovals but a lot of people are freaking out about this.

Quote from greg_slideways :

They arnt on, ONLY for racing, They are a car/ Automotive channel, Racing isnt the only thing being covered...Two guys garage...Unique Autosports(Been there great guys and shop)...It is more of all things to do with cars or things that drive, Look at two wheel tuesday that has shows that cover info from builders...ect! (:shrug Y...Y does alot of people think its only for racing, or only should be, I dissagree I love to learn how to change a part on the car, Like in two guys garage! ...Just my 2 cents

People are throwing a fit because Speed used to be all about racing. Anytime you turned that channel on in the 90s you were guaranteed a good race. It's kind of like what happened to MTV, started off playing music, now plays virtually none. Hopefully Speed2 will pop up and give us back our racing channel...

The little orange bit behind the driver's head might look better white.

Anyway, looks good.

Quote from DaveWS :

It's underpowered, geared too long, unstable under braking due to the open diff, oversteery on corner entry, understeery mid corner, oversteery on corner exit, and has horrible tyres which feel like they are made from plastic.

As it should be though, it's a trainer. Worst trailing throttle oversteer ever! I've definitely found some speed in other cars by learning to deal with all those situations in the Skip first.

I've never driven a sim car that actually needed partial throttle to plant the rear tires, but it works overly well in iRacing's skip barber. Realistic or not, to go fast in that car as it is you have to left foot brake and ride the throttle a little, basically all the time. Stability and grip come alive.