H5 focus, things flying

I'm taking the kids to an air show tomorrow & I'm taking my H5 along. I've seen some air show shots on here as well as BIF. I know I'll need to ratchet up the shutter speed so I'll be using the shutter priority setting. This is still new to me & I haven't worked with "manual" at all. My question is, do I rely on auto focus, half clicking while on target, or do I need to do something differently?

HELP PLEASE!

--

Dont be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hold my beer.. y'all watch this.

..Stephen

If you are shooting slower-moving planes or more at a distance, you should have good luck with center autofocus, halfpressing and shooting.

For fast-moving subjects that are too hard to keep the camera crosshairs leveled on while in flight, you may consider setting focus to manual, use a slow moving plane to determine focus (which may just be 'infinity' depending on the distance from the plane), and then just worry about following the moving object and snapping.

The H5 focus is pretty fast, so autofocus is actually fairly successful even with fast -moving subjects, but you still have to develop good tracking skills. I find that using the EVF helps me track moving things much more accurately than trying with the LCD.

Hope that helps!

--
Justin
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

Thanks for the tip. I've been reading & trying so many different things in the last two weeks I've had this camera it gets a little difficult to keep everything straight. Ever have the feeling of information overload? LOL.. It is the learning process though!

I'm looking back over the whitepaper chapter 1 on the Manual Focus part. Since I'm at work I don't have the camera to fiddle with at the moment, but I'll definitlyl need to experiment a little before we go.

--

Dont be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hold my beer.. y'all watch this.

..Stephen

It takes practice tracking an object that moves that fast. Here's a photo of a plane I managed to take (at full zoom!) before it disappeared out of the view behind a building (shutter speed - 1/800)

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=20663412
--
rich
http://www.iceninephotography.com

Good info, more to think about. Thanks for the link!

--

Dont be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hold my beer.. y'all watch this.

..Stephen

CenTexSlim said:

I'm taking the kids to an air show tomorrow & I'm taking my H5
along. I've seen some air show shots on here as well as BIF. I
know I'll need to ratchet up the shutter speed so I'll be using the
shutter priority setting. This is still new to me & I haven't
worked with "manual" at all. My question is, do I rely on auto
focus, half clicking while on target, or do I need to do something
differently?

Click to expand...

First, here's a link to Ivan's airshow pics (EXIF is intact)...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=18892311&q=airshow&qf=m

Another link to T.L.'s airshow, plus some pointers...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=18892311&q=airshow&qf=m

P51's airshow (EXIF intact)...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=18644451&q=airshow&qf=m

One of 'Egg's...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=18212838

Some of J2B's advice...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=15233694&q=airshow&qf=m

Personally, I wouldn't use shutter priority. If the light is constant (same amount, same angle), then use Manual. Review your pics and check your histogram carefully to make sure your exposure is where you want it to be. If the light is changing, then use Aperture priority (f5.6 works well on sunny days, and enables 1/2000 sec for those fast jets). Use max aperture on cloudy days to maximize your shutter speed.

Some of the others have had good luck using Manual focus. Just be careful, and verify that focus is spot on (the H5 can focus BEYOND infinity at its furthest setting). If you use Autofocus, then use the Multi-AF frames if the background is the plain sky. If there are other objects in the background, then use Center or Spot AF. Don't use burst, as the camera will not keep up with the focus.

I shoot a lot of BIF, but that is really a different animal than PIF (planes in flight, )

Compositionally, keep those propeller blades blurred, and leave room for the aircraft to fly into the frame. These aren't from an airshow, but from an exercise that thundered right by me while I was in a field shooting dragonflies...





Have fun! And make sure you put the camera down sometimes (and just have fun with the kids).
R2

--
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.

http://www.pbase.com/jekyll_and_hyde/galleries