Duxford piccies in exchange for help, please!

Yes please!

there’s a big demand here for shots taken in the past.

post away!

Thanks for all the hints / tips / etc.
For many years I have been going to airshows and using 35mm – most recently with the same 70-300 and/or 170-500 with Nikon F60 and F80. Like many people, I shot loads of film but on getting the prints back from the lab there were usually a few good ones, some mediocre ones and a lot of cr*p! Unfortunately I could never remember what settings, etc, I had used to get the good ones!
I am a relatively late convert to digital but I can already see loads of advantages – take MORE shots, delete the cr*p, etc. At least I won’t need to pay the developing and printing costs of the ‘inferior’ ones!
The shots in my original post were sharpened very slightly and cropped in Photoshop Elements 3 before posting.
My next project will be to scan some of my (better) negatives from previous years which include three trips to the States, including the CAF show, and flights in B17, B24, SNJs, Stearman, Mallard (scheduled flight!), TravelAir.
Anyone interested?

Hi fidgit 1,

Your not alone!
I used a Nikon d100 coupled to a 120-300 sigma lens with a sigma EX 2X converter a Duxford, out of 450 shots taken during the display theres only around thirty I’m really happy with. I tend to stick with a shutter of 1/250, but this does mean I loose a lot of shots to slight blur.

Unfortunately over the last few years the displays at Duxford have moved further away from the crowd line, at one time you could just about get away with an 80-200, these days you need ideally need 400mm. I just wish Nikon would copy Canons product range.

However with a 1.4 converter on the same set up and shutter speed still set at 1/250 the success rate drastically improves. I will reluctantly raise the shutter speed if I use the 2X converter again. There’s nothing worse than getting home to see all those great shots a touch out of focus.

Septic

practice panning!!

I can only echo the statements already made, I’d practice panning if you can see a road or somthing similar, a train line perhaps???

the good thing about digital is that you can ‘live fire’ and see the results, and then just bin ’em. Digital has certainly improved my skills faster than film……

A couple from RIAT 2004, i’m not perfect but I dont think they are too bad.

no.1 was taken at 1/125 and required a little sharpening and a little cropping only

no.2 was also at 1/125 and required a little sharpening and more cropping just to frame it a bit better.

no.3 was taken at a faster shutter speed forfeiting prop blur ofr a better chance of actually getting the picture. speed is 1/1250 I think I brightened this one a bit but thats it.

canon eos300D with the eos 300 kit 300mm film lense.

Smallest card I’ve got is an 8mb card that came with a compact. The ‘m’ button isn’t too far from the ‘g’ button…;)

Flood

Well spotted. Should’ve said Gb.

…The happy snappers on here have been known to fill a couple of 2Mb cards twice over…

Smallest card I’ve got is an 8mb card that came with a compact. The ‘m’ button isn’t too far from the ‘g’ button…;)

Flood

1/500 would be appropriate for normal minimum speed for sharp pics. However, if you want prop blur then it’s the slower speeds and start panning. Buggered if I can do it well – was a crap rifleman too. Had to get something with a bipod on to keep me on target.

I seem to be able to get away with 1/320 @300mm, but everybody is different. You will still get some prop blur at 1/500 so it may be best to start there and work back.

It is probably better to get a picture with an almosted stopped prop as opposed to no picture at all!

Jonathan

never go below 1/focal length.

Using my 300D with a zoom at 300mm, should I be using 1/320 as a minimum shutter speed, or with the apparent ‘magnification’ of the DSLR, which effectively makes the focal length 480mm, is 1/500 more appropriate?

Hi,
I too use a D70, and the most important thing is to practice, practice and practice :). I try to do the following….

1. Unless using a lens with IS or VR, never go below 1/focal length. If you do you will decrease the number of sharp pictures significantly.

2. Use AF-C mode with dynamic areas selection.

3. This is personal, but I have found that it works quite well. I have configured the AF-l/AE-L button to operate the autofocus. This means that you can start the focus motor tracking with your thumb and then lock the exposure and take the picture with your shutter finger.

4. Always take loads of pictures. I shot 3.5Gb at the weekend.

Jonathan

Fidgit1

I ran off just under 1000 pics at DX on Sunday and that was taking shots one at a time rather than multiple burst. The happy snappers on here have been known to fill a couple of 2Mb cards twice over.

Out of my shots I have around 40 that are reasonable and a couple that I am very pleased with. As Darren says panning technique is critical to get a sharp picture. Slow shutter speeds at long focal lenses is something that generally guarantees me an unsharp picture.

Good luck using a 500mm lens on a digital camera I look forward to seeing the results.

Thanks, Darren
You’ve pretty much confirmed my suspicions! When I see some of the superb Photos on the Forum it makes me want to consign my cameras to the skip! At least I know that other people don’t get a 100% hit rate either!
[Memo to self: 1) Switch to multiple drive, 2) Get more practice with panning – especially before trying to use my Sigma 170-500 for this!, 3) Try and stand out of the wind!, 4) Buy another media card!]

Duxford on Saturday was my first outing with a digital camera having made the move from 35mm. Camera is a Nikon D70 and it was used with a Nikon 70-300ED-D lens. I spent the afternoon, (in between showers!), experimenting with different settings, etc, and rattled off about 200 pics. On downloading to PC I was disappointed to see that quite a few appeared slightly out of focus.
Now here’s the Question!
I know there are many of you out there also using Nikon D70 cameras so which focusing modes do you use, please?
(I was using AF-C, continuous servo, and dynamic area mode. All images were shot at 200asa, shutter priority at 1/200 for props or 1/500ish for jets and saved as large, fine jpegs.)

Any advice would be much appreciated!

My personal experience, if it helps…..
Firstly, your not alone, its a common problem. Continuous or predictive AF is only so good, and it will not always be sharp. Some of the answer is technique, and thats about panning. Any slight lack of fluid panning will cause slight blur. The other way to get that shot is to put the camera on multiple drive, so that you have a chance of capturing at least one shot of a pass. At this weekends show for example, I took 10 shots of the Hurricane (UP W), on a banking pass. Out of the 10, only two were in focus. Yes, it does use a lot of memory, but at least you get the shot.