Arrival days landings – 7d with 100-400mm Canon lens.
Display practices – the above and 50d with 500mm lens.
Main show day – 50d with 100-400 Canon lens.
plus 7d with 500mm lens with 1.4 convertor attached on the odd occasion
Departure days take offs – 7d with 100-400 lens. Also used 50d and 500mm lens for aircraft that rotated well before the FRIAT stand but most of those shots useless due to glare and still too far away anyway. Usually I have both cameras with lenses attached hanging round my neck so I can quickly switch between the two.
5dmk2 and 24-105 lens for any other jet that is too big and statics, although I could not be bothered with the statics at RIAT.
I use shutter priority A1 servo auto focus. For fast jet take offs, I take about three shots just after they lift off the ground then zoom out to about 400mm whilst still following the aircraft ramping up the shutter speed as I go from about 400th a sect to about 800th or 1000th a sec. As soon as the aircraft is inside the frame again I refocus (or try to) and take about 2 or three more shots. I use ISO 200 to 250 in bright weather for take offs.
Perhaps under exposing in sunny shots helped preserve some details.
For take offs of slower big jets and prop jobs I use about 320th a sec and lower ISO and take my time shooting as they are not so quick.
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