R7 at the Edwards Air Force Base airshow

Thanks, (selected responses below to reduce space)

JayLT4 wrote:

Yes, it seems like airshows deliberately have you shooting into the sun😊. I primarily prefer to shoot WW2 planes, so I want the sun to illuminate the front of the prop to see the prop and its yellow tips better. But as you say, you must work with what they give you.

Just a luck of the draw with position and time of year. When I was at NAF El Centro early this year it was perfect, sun was at my back all day long!

I'm also very aware of wind socks. On both of my last two airshows, they changed landing directions. My favorite shots are at take-off and landing.

I've been shooting with M mode with Auto-ISO, but am thinking about switching to Tv with ISO fixed to 100. And then using an ND filter when shooting prop planes to keep the f-number from getting too high.

Yeah, I noticed the aperture creeping way up, especially on Sunday with all the extra sun. For props, and ND filter wouldn't be a back way to go to help dial that back!

Applying the "Sunny 16" rule (at f16 shutter speed = 1/ISO), a 2-stop ND filter supports approximately 1/60th at f11. With prop planes, I have been shooting in Auto-ISO and f11, shooting between 1/60th and 1/125th and letting the ISO vary.

I'm thinking about removing the filter and shooting at a higher f-number when planes are in formation to get more depth of field. I think the DoF gain will be more than the diffraction loss. I may also up the shutter speed as you can see (on closeup) the planes are bouncing about relative to each other at lower shutter speeds, giving up prop blur for sharper images. Plus the fighter plane jockeys tend to be hard to track and will do better with more shutter speed.

I came close to getting the R7 for the extra crop factor but decided to stick with the R5 due to the buffer size and frame rate and less rolling shutter in electronic shutter mode. I like back-button focus with tracking (Vehicle or None) for airshows so I can concentrate on zoom and framing and not keeping a focus target on the plane.

I didn't have an issue with the buffer on the R7. I shot in CRAW and at 15FPS in mechanical and e-shutter, with that I found with a nice V90 SD card I could get a good 5-6 seconds of straight shooting without hitting the buffer, and I never hold for that long in a single string.

That's good to know about the buffer. The R7 was getting criticism for its buffer size. I'm using the Express B card for most of my shooting with cRAW and I hit the buffer limit sometimes.

I almost exclusively use electronic shutter for prop planes, but then I typically shoot at 1/60th to 1/125th, so the prop is more of a blur that avoids a warped prop due to the rolling shutter. I'm firing off long bursts of shots to get a few pics where the plane is acceptably sharp with a good amount of the prop disk. I use a 2-stop ND filter when shooting props on a sunny day to keep the f-number in the f11 range.

My panning kind of sucks, so I tend to err on the side of slightly higher shutter speeds to help offset it!

I'm working on panning and practicing (at the local airport with jets on landing). I'm using a combination of better technique (tuck arms in and swivel the body), IS Mode 2 on the RF100-500, electronic shutter (which seems to help tracking in the viewfinder), and bursts (to give me a good shot).

Additionally, I have found that Topaz AI motion blur correction can make a "close" shot look very good. I typically use PS layers to selectively apply the Topaz result.

I'm curious why you decided to use EFCS for the prop planes. Is it to prevent the warping of the prop or for some other reason? I assume it is the same reason for planes opposing each other (I will try this at the next airshow where the Blue Angles will be flying).

On the R7 rolling shutter is a much bigger, and much more visible issue, compared to the R5. The R5 can shoot props, and if you look close you can see a bit of skewing, but with the R7 it's way too apparent. Same with opposing passes, one place will be good they other will look all stretched out. EFCS mitigates that. I could shoot full mechanical, but EFCS has just always been my preference.

The rolling shutter difference was my primary reason not to get the R7. I'm hoping Canon will eventually come out with a high-megapixel APS-C camera with little to no rolling shutter (basically what the wildlife shooters also want).

I'm also curious how you have found the handling of the R7 vs. R5 for airshow photography.

The weight made it a very easy show to deal with all day. However, I miss having a grip. My hands are a bit too big and my pink has to sit under the camera, which isn't horrible, but after a while it's also not the most comfortable thing.

What I really liked on the R7 was that I could shoot a full battery and not worry about the FPS dropping in mechanical/EFCS mode. Also, having the fake shutter sound really helps remind you how long you're holding the button down with the electronic shutter.

The other obvious benefit is the field of view of the R7 and the 100-500. As long as the planes were off the ground I could get nice shots at the full 500mm and not worry about heat mirages. The haze from the sun, well, it is what it is so you do your best to pick a good spot in the morning to shoot from!

I found that 140 to 700mm on a full frame would be ideal for the airshows I have been to. Unfortunately, the range limit with the 1.4x TC on the RF100-500 is a big problem in this regard. I will only put on the TC when there are only the smaller fighter planes, and it is a hassle and a half to take on and off under the gun to do it quickly (reminds me, I need to practice this before the next air show).