Dazecoop - Blog of David Cooper - Minis, Photography, SEO and more

The Goodwood Revival always attracts a huge amount of attention throughout the country, and infact the world, of all motorsport fans young and old and this weekend saw the 2007 Goodwood Revival come to life. The Goodwood Revival is all about bringing back "what it used to be like", "back in the day" in the 50’s and 60’s with absolutely everything inside of the circuit grounds being pre-1967, this includes all of the cars and transport, including the emergency service vehicles, fire engines, etc, the general public with the men in their waistcoats and the women in their pin-up dresses, to the clothing stools, food vans, and even the entrance tickets themselves all made to look and feel like something from the 60’s. Its a true time-warp.

And talking of warping, I also managed to buy myself a new lens for my camera the day before we went to Goodwood, so this event was a perfect opportunity to put it through its passes. The the new I bought is the Sigma 10-20mm (for the real geeks; a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 HSM EX DC on a Canon fit). For the photographers amongst my readers, the lens is a little slow starting at f4 and going up to f5.6 at 20mm, but I was hoping this didn’t matter too much since I’d mostly be shooting at 10mm - and hand-holding at 10mm even at 1/4 second is pretty easy. Plus I have a nice flash to put to use as well if things got a little dark.

Anyway, without going into too much depth into each photo, here’s my favourite photos from the day with the Sigma 10-20mm.

Reflections of the clouds in a Corvette’s long bonnet

Morris Mini Cooper S

Mini Cooper S rally car, GRX 5D, 1966 Monte Carlo Rally, 3rd place.

VW Camper

Alfa Romeo GTA

We eventually got round to Lavant straight and Lavant corner to see some of the racing action - and it was as brilliant as always! The drivers truly pushing the limits of these priceless golden oldies.

Ford GT40

Lotus 77 in John Player Special sponsorship

Ford Mustang Coupe with Rowan Atkinson at the wheel

Mustang and Mini’s battle it out

A really fantastic weekend with literally thousands of cars of all types to keep even the most pedal-headed people happy! Oh, and in case you’re wondering, me and my girlfriend Amey did dress up this year and here’s a couple of photos of me and her. Amey tells me to excuse the flip-flops - the pointy high heels were just too much for this year!

Amey next to the Mustang Rowan Atkinson drove

Both of us after a very long day!

And a final word regarding my new lens, needless to say I am very pleased with the results. As you can see from some of the photos above, the sharpness is second to none (in fact very close, if not the same, as my Canon 17-40mm L). The distortion is present, as you’d expect, and sometimes can get in the way, although this is something which can be improved on as you get more used to the lens and depending on how you frame each photo. For the price, its a great buy, and it might just put my wide-angle L-glass out of use!