Photography - equipment, help hints

Not to mention that prime lenses are usually sharper than zoom lenses.

Yeah, by far.

Better quality glass, and you'll notice there's fewer elements inside, as well. Fewer elements mean less refracted light getting lost in the lens.

Question, when taking aerial shots at an air show do you set your focus point at single or do you select all points, or do you just set your camera on Full Auto? Sounds like a dumb question, just curious

I was shooting in full manual and letting the camera auto focus. Eric says I was doing it the hard way and for the life of me I can't remember what priority he told me to shoot in. He'll have to answer this or PM him Merv, he will gladly let you know. I want to say he told me Aperture Priority but I'm not sure.

I usually just put mine on "Sports" setting. But I'm not the pro, either!

I'm used to setting my camera on Aperature Priority: f/8.0 when I'm using my 70-300...this also depends on the lighting conditions

Thanks everyone, I was wondering what settings everyone used. I always used full auto, I 'll try the Av settings you suggested at the next air show in Riverside. One article I read said to use shutter speeds of 1/250 for airplanes and 1/125 for helicopters with an ISO of 100, if your using the Shutter Priority setting. The article also said to set the focus point selection to single point. I'll give them both a try next time. Thanks

Eric is definately the resident authority for all things airshow, but I had good success with my 70-300 under overcast conditions with the settings at f/8.0 to f/9.5, 1/500 to 1/750 sec. shutter with an ISO-200

Generally, the higher ISO you use, the better the action wil turn out. the lower the ISO, the better for stills and landscapes.

One trick is to use Aperature Priority (most cameras have this as Av on the dial) and see how that works.

The cryptic letters on the dial usually mean:
P - Program Automatic: The camera controls all funtions
Tv - Shutter over-ride: Meaning you set the shutter and the camera adjusts the Aperature to compensate
Av - Aperature over-ride: Meaning you set the aperature and the camera ajusts the shutter speed to compensate
M - Manual setting: Means if you adjust the Aperature in Av mode, then switch to M, you can then control both the Aperature AND the shutter speed.

I was using "M" mode at the airshow, floating between f/8.0 and f/9.5 then adjusting the shutter as the skies lightened or darkened according to the cloud cover at the time...

I use shutter priority for air shows almost exclusively. The general rule of thumb is no faster than 1/focal length. That is a general rule, and I break it occasionally. So if you have a 300mm lens, the rule of thumb is no faster than 1/300. That being said, it's what you are comfortable with. If you have a stabilized lens (IS for Canon, VR for Nikon), you can go lower with good results, but keeping a steady hand can be really helpful. My Sigma 50-500 is a non-stabilized lens, so I will usually shoot 1/500, but will drop below that if I feel comfortable.

When you shoot shutter priority, you control the shutter speed, the camera will adjust the aperture automatically for that shutter speed. Aperture priority is the reverse, you control the aperture, and the camera selects the shutter speed based on the aperture setting you have. The reason I use shutter priority is so that I can control the speed of the shutter and thus control the amount of prop blur I can get. The slower the shutter, the more prop blur. But that also has a risk of everything being blurred.

ISO with digitals is kind of a throwback to film speeds based on ISO ratings. There are a ton of differing opinions on it. I used to shoot 200-400 ISO at airshows but found that there is significant grain in enlargements at 400 with the camera that I use. I have since gone to ISO 100 for everything on my D80 and 200 on my D50 (lowest setting the D50 supports). You will have to experiment with the camera body you have to determine what the sweet spot it for ISO settings. Most newer cameras has high ISO noise reduction that can reduce the amount of grain at high ISO settings, but some do it better than others.

Shooting full automatic will net you some nice shots, but the problem with automatic is that you are trusting the camera to make the right decision, which for many shots is fine. But when shooting propeller aircraft on a bright sunny day will often set the shutter at 1/1000 or even higher. That will stop the prop completely. Maybe I am a control freak, but I like to be the one who decides what speed the shutter will open and close at. When trying new settings, it's always best to experiment before you go to an airshow to get a feel for the settings before you spend a day shooting and get home to find your shots are over-exposed, blurry or not up to par.

I figured I had it wrong.

Thanks a million, Aaron, Dave and Eric. All this information is great. I think I'll take a walk to the highway and practice on some of those speeding cars

Just don't get runned over.

Knowing the drivers around here, I think I'll use a long lens

Good idea Merv.

My latest acquisition is arriving tomorrow, a 50mm f1.8 for more portraits and other shots. I can't wait to get my mitts on it.

AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D from Nikon

Excellent!!!!!

Just out of curiosity, how many of you shoot in RAW-CR2 ? I always shoot in jpg but from what I read is that RAW is by far better, but uses a lot more memory and takes more time to download to the computer. Any comments or lessons from experience?

The advantage to shooting in RAW, you can do so much more in the photo editing programs. And it looks so much better. The draw back, like you said, it takes up a lot of space on cards and hard drives. jpgs tend to loose info when moving them to. We had a speaker on this a few months ago at the camera club.

Thats what I heard to. Have you used the RAW setting in any of your shots Aaron ? I thought I might give it a try on a few shots, just to see the difference. From some samples I've seen it seems to pick up more detail too, but I may be wrong.