Thanks for the tips. I'll probably just take a couple of pictures with and a couple without. Will the polarizer darken the pictures so much that I have to use an exposer that will cause motion blur to the airplane from me not tracking steadily. I do not have image stabilization.
Here's a good example. I shot this at 700mm handheld and the frame is cropped to square, losing about 35% of the file. It's sharpened to about 110%. My personal standards make this a throw away file. The questions I pose to myself are, is this soft because the MKIII didn't do it's job properly? Is this image soft because I didn't do mine properly? I need to shoot more to be able to answer that. Oddly, I have regularly shot 700mm handheld at shutter speeds of 250 and below with great success. Why then are my sharp to soft ratios favoring the soft side of the scale at the moment?
There are other considerations in all of this as well. Every time a new camera comes out the files seem to require a little different sharpening technique. I remember when I got my 1Ds MKII and I thought the out of the box raw files didn't look nearly as good as the ones from my 1Ds. Some discussion with my Canon guys and a little experimentation and they were beautiful. Possibly the sharpening formula is a bit different on the MKIII.
One thing I think I can tell you with some confidence, is that the sensor cleaning feature (which we were all looking so forward to!!) is not nearly as effective as I'd hoped Visible Dust doesn't need to worry about losing market share to this new feature..
Here's the specs on this one, this was shot at 125th at around 500, and he was probably at around 180 mph at this point. I sharpened the file 140/1.2/1 in CS3. The file is cropped to 5/8 of it's original proportions. How many of you would kick this one if you had taken it?
I'm analyzing as I go here and it seems the autofocus is so fast and sensitive that if you are shooting a fairly shallow depth of field, (which you are when using a long telephoto, regardless of your f/stop) the MKIII might pick a flying wire or an I strut as the center of your shot instead of the fuselage behind. There are a huge number of variables here and I think maybe each photographer needs to meld his or her technique with the incredible speed and technology that embodies this camera. There are countless parameters that translate into options we never had to think about before.
We haven't had the best of skies this year and today they opened up just as the airshow was beginning. Butch and I braved it until my gear was soaked (no problem with Canon!!) We bolted for the rental and ended up having a wonderful time and dinner over at the seaplane base. For those of you who might have missed that facet of OSH, it's another world. Peace and tranquility on the shores of beautiful Lake Winnebago. I've got to get that seaplane rating now!
These are the kind of conditions I'm used to pulling off with the 1Ds MKII, low light, speed, slow shutter speeds. This image belies how little light there really was in this scene. We had just had a substantial rainshower and there was a layer of steam/mist rising from the surface of the lake. Kind of cool conditions.
Well I'm about to fall flat on my face but this file tells quite a bit about the MKIII questions I'm wrestling with. I hand focused this shot, handheld at 500mm in low light. This is every bit as sharp as anything I've shot with any of my previous Canons. So the camera can do it, it's the tweaking of the custom functions for each situation that creates the "problem". This shot makes me feel better about the camera. Good night Guys, thanks for listening to my ramblings.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Here's the specs on this one, this was shot at 125th at around 500, and he was probably at around 180 mph at this point. I sharpened the file 140/1.2/1 in CS3. The file is cropped to 5/8 of it's original proportions. How many of you would kick this one if you had taken it?
JW
Hey that's not a he. . That's Susan Dacy flying Big Red.
Yeah it is, but it looks a hell of a lot better when it's racing around the pylons at Reno. Mike Brown likes to fly a very low line around the pylons, and those two R-2800's at full throttle are quite a sound!!
I hate to say this, but, maybe you are getting older.... I used to take wedding pictures buy candle light, at 1/10 of a sec hand held... no more. Just a thought, you can throw it away. To me these images don't belong in a throw away file.
Tom
Hello all. I've been following this thread for months now, have finally worked up the courage to participate. Jim - you've been my inspiration since I saw that very first Mustang shot of yours. I've been watching very closely and have been trying to learn from your examples and advice here, as well as some of the other guys that have posted some superb images on this thread. Great standard, guys.
I attended RIAT and Farnborough in the UK for the first time last year, keeping a childhood promise to myself. I enjoyed it so much, I went back to RIAT again this year.
Next year I intend to go back and try my hand at some low-level stuff in Scotland. Anyone interested, take a look at this site : http://www.warplane.co.uk/
181+ pages worth of amazing aviation photography!!
Im heading out to the Abbitsford International Air Show this summer. I can only hope that my attempt to capture those aircraft as well as all of you have done here.
. That's Susan Dacy flying Big Red.
