Hi all, I'm renting a Mk4 and a Canon 100-400mm IS for an airshow this weekend and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the best custom settings. This will be my first experience with a 1-series body and I'm looking to compare the fit/finish/feel of the 1D vs my gripped 7D. The 7D has been set up per some sports recommendations and has performed well at past airshows. Would the settings be similar? Looking forward to capturing some nice shots of the Thunderbirds
Fast shutter speed for the jets. Slow (1/100) for the prop planes to get propeller blur. I would set af in servo, single point with expanded surrounding points and tracking sensitivity to one notch lower than the middle setting. I would have the aperture at f8.
Jase1125 wrote:
Fast shutter speed for the jets. Slow (1/100) for the prop planes to get propeller blur. I would set af in servo, single point with expanded surrounding points and tracking sensitivity to one notch lower than the middle setting. I would have the aperture at f8.
Unless you've had a lot of panning practice I'd recommend a slightly higher shutter speed for the props. I recently shot my first (full scale) air show and spent a lot of time experimenting with shutter speeds from as low as 1/30 to as high as 1/400 and ended up happiest with 1/200-1/320. Now that's for props, but if there's a heli you need to get under 1/100.
1/200 (getting a good shot of this Lanc was very important to me because from all I've been able to learn of it's history it was one my father would have served on many decades ago.)
All taken with a 1D4 & 100-400 L IS. Things to keep in mind that influence the shutter speed for props are what they're doing. Engine speeds are generally higher on take off & while doing aerobatics & slowest for landings & low & slow fly by's. As for the jets I was using 1/1000 which I now think was too slow even though I got acceptable results. This was with the 1D4 & 28-300 L IS I bought from Jim (VERY HAPPY with that lens)
Thanks for the responses!! I've shot a few shows with my 7D and followed the shutter/aperture/Servo Tracking recommendations here and on the MA2A thread and got plenty of acceptable shots.
I also d/l from Canon the AF guide for the 1D4 and will play around with it some tomorrow. From what I've been reading, it seems like the custom settings are similar to the 7D and I'll start with what I'm using there.
The shots posted here are beautiful and I hope to capture something similar.
You might want to read up on C Fn lll-2. I like my cameras set to ignore something suddenly breaking the AF beam. I want it to stay locked on whatever it is that I'm tracking.
The 1DIV is a great camera to use at low shutter speeds with an IS lens. last year I shot all the prop planes at our local airshow at 1/50th-1/100th. Holding steady and panning as smooth as possible produced a decent amount of keepers with the frame rate and buffer of the MKIV.
Also with the super slow shutter speeds you can use some really small apertures and rely on the motion to provide a nice BG.
I love shooting avaiation stuff and I do a lot of RC aircraft photography which helps with the full-scale. Here's a couple of models from a recent exhibition.
Those are very nice. I'm the guy who covers the local scene for the clubs & have been for the last 5 seasons. Funny thing is I left R/C & model building when I got into photography back in the 80's but have started flying again thanks to E power.
Mark, that Spit is always a hit when it shows up. Unfortunately he knocked the landing gear off on the left side when he overshot his landing by just a bit. Only got in the one flight so I was glad to get some good shots of it.
