I don't know about the distance from werners to mainbreak at lancelin but you can get some pretty big telephoto lenses for your DSLR, expect to pay over a grand for even the basic ones.
I have a sigma 150-500 mm tele zoom for my Nikon d90 and have taken some great shots with it out to about a 400m range.
The main problem with using a big zoom i have found is that when shooting from down near water level the water in the foreground tends to capture the autofocus so i switch to manual focus to overcome this.
www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/
i have found this site gives you a pretty good guide as to what quality lenses are available and their prices seem pretty good compared to other similar sites in australia.

Have fun with the camera they can be addictive when you learn to use many of the features

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice i'll try and get as bigger lens as possible but looking at the prices of them (from $6000 - $11,000) it would be cheaper to buy a boat and get closer to the action

I might try taking some pics in raw and then zooming into them as the camera is 18MP so i should be able to zoom / crop OK i hope.

Yeah I'm looking at getting a camera together aswell. Shame about the $5k to get into the game. I'm thinking Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm pancake then wait till they release a decent telephoto lens for the fourthirds.

AFAIK a teleconvertor (TC) would be the way to go to increase your lenses range but maybe a decent mid-zoom lens + a helicopter would be the better option! And cheaper lol. Check out this vid:



It was done on a Canon 7D with a gyro stabilizer in a chopper.

For practice you should come down to the freestyle meets as tricks aren't done too far off the beach.

I'll definitely bring the camera down to the freestyle meets to get some pics of us all, really keen to get the vulcan cracked as well so its a two birds with one stone situation.

Yeah the price of getting into it is a bit crazy but then i suppose a lens with that reach is likely to cost a fair bit of money! Either that or we could buy a telescope and stick the end of the lens on it and hope for the best

Hi Guys,

Brought canon eos50d with 4 lenses online from states at 1/2 the price of local shop. Full manufacturers warranty and all genuine products
Cant go wrong

I have a 40D and use a 70-200 f/4.0 for all my outdoor work.

For windsurfing, even when shooting at Pelican Pt, it's not long enough. I'm looking at hiring some longer lenses in the near future to find out what length is going to be ideal.

I'm looking at testing the 100-400, which is a good action lens, or the 70-200 f/2.8, with a 2.0x extender ring.
One of my friends has the 70-300mm and she uses it rather well for nature work.


Those 18 megapixels mean that you might be able to do some fairly serious cropping, which is the poor man's zoom.


Some examples of the shots I've done in the past with my kit.
pelican pt - http://www.flickr.com/photos/japester/sets/72157613989221723/
mettams pool - www.flickr.com/photos/japester/sets/72157623048187097/
lancelin - www.flickr.com/photos/japester/sets/72157612396390687/

The Lancelin ones were from the judging platform, not the beach and even then, there is some fairly serious cropping on most of them. :(

Nothing in our price range is feasible for shooting the waves from the beach. You'd need something like a 1200mm lens to make that work. A boat will be cheaper.

Got 40DNikon and got a second hand lens F=400mm 1:5.9 for less than $100 incl post.
Use it on tripod in manual mode and works very well.
So there might be a way to get closer for less!

The other thing to remember is that taking pics in WA after 2:30 ish in summer is pretty pointless (This gets you out from behind the lens and out there ). The sun going down into the ocean means that all you will get is white background and black people.
I have a Canon 40D and a Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=63167
see the above for the results.
I agree with the other posters, the quality of the lens will determine the level of cropping you can achieve, not the Mp count.

and get a circular polarising filter. best thing for cutting the glare off the water.