Airshow settings, tips and advice

vcxz wrote:

The planes are generally easy to track since they're big, they often move in predictable lines, and the background is an empty sky. Of course this is a generalization, but it's much easier than erratic birds.

There's no real answer on the shutter. The pre XH2 cameras have a finite buffer. Do you have a lot of self control? When I shot with the XT4 I didn't so I set it to continuous low at something like 5-7 fps and I could get around 35-40 shots. If you set it to the max fps the buffer will fill up quickly. Electronic preshot can also kill your buffer if you're not micromanaging it.

The XH2 removes all these constraints but I understand it might not be worth it for a single event.

Personally if I was shooting the XS10 I'd set the fps relatively low. The planes don't have facial expressions like birds and I'd be more worried about missing shots from a full buffer versus getting high fps. Just shooting them flying in a line shouldn't be too hard but some things like planes flying into each other and passing each other very closely might be tough with a limited buffer.

I echo these comments of setting the fps relatively low.  I've shot quite a few airshows and I use 3 or 5 fps for moving aircraft and Single for parked aircraft.  Even though the planes are moving at high speeds very little in the scene is actually changing in 1/10 of a second.  Spraying and praying at 10fps just means a lot more images to have to cull through.

A couple of more tips-  Consider where the sun is and try to shoot with it at your back or side.  Also look for the best backgrounds to shoot the aircraft in front of...  places free of distractions etc.  On the other hand, it's great to have other stuff in the image to give it some context as opposed to an aircraft by itself.  Things like the runway signs or other aircraft can add to an image of an aircraft taking off or landing.

Move around so that your images have variety.

Shooting propeller powered aircraft well takes practice.  It's easy to freeze them with a 1/2000 shutter but the frozen propellers detract from the image.  As Morris said, to capture propeller planes you need to be down around 1/125 and pan with the plane.  I usually start at a higher shutter and work my down.