GH3 & 100-300, St. Thomas Airshow, AFC & burst modes

Yesterday, I went to a big airshow in St. Thomas (Ontario, Canada).  These are all with my GH3 and the 100-300 lens.  Most of these are in high-speed burst, AFC mode.  The GH3's AFC mode can do sports, and quite well too.  The trick is, that it is very challenging with the EVF - I had help by using a RDS (red dot sight) attached to the hot shoe.  The RDS makes it much easier to track motion.  I posted a thread a short while back showing some results on birds with good success.  I found it easier with the planes (being larger).  These are some, but check my gallery for more.  Thanks for looking!

Great shots.

My RDS should be here in the next day or so. I'm going to try and photograph some swallows.

Which RDS did you get?

I got one made by Tasco.  Picked it up from a local store in the sporting goods section for $50.  Works very well.  Also got the photosolve mount to attach it to the hot shoe.

In the USA you can go to jail for a very long time for pointing a laser at any airplane in flight. Does your red dot violate US law?

Dick

Digital Dick wrote:

In the USA you can go to jail for a very long time for pointing a laser at any airplane in flight. Does your red dot violate US law?

Dick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dot_sight

A red dot sight does not project any light or laser at the target.  The light is only visible to the user and is reflected back by the front element.

Would you please post a picture of the GH3 with the RDS on it?

Sorry, my bad - didn't understand how they worked.

Dick

aljudy wrote:

Would you please post a picture of the GH3 with the RDS on it?

Taken with a smartphone, not high quality - but you get the idea.

Dick,

Thanks for taking the hit  for me. I didn't know how those red dot sights worked either.

yslee1 wrote:

6 FPS works for you?

Yup. Actually, the 6 fps spec. is only in AFS or manual focus... When in AFC, the burst speed slows down to 4 fps. For BIF's, a higher burst in AFC would be nice but I have done quite well at 4. For the planes, 4 fps was good. I would like something higher, but for now I can live with it, but maybe in the next body that spec. will improve (GH4 possibly?) For more static sports shooting (example, locking focus on home plate in baseball, a player staying in roughly the same spot, etc.), 6 fps is quite fast IMO.

I do agree that the EVF is like a really poor SLR from the early days. I assume the RDS has parallax correction controls?

The EVF is arguably the weakest point on the GH3 now.  Still, it does work very well for landscape, family, and most general types of photography.  I am happy with it.  It is just for fast motion tracking that it really lets the whole camera down.  With the RDS, I think the camera works just as well for sports as most entry or mid level DSLRs.

I am not sure if I understand about the RDS and parallax correction controls, but it adjusts with little adj. screws so you can calibrate it with the lens.  When I am looking through it, if I shift my head up/down or sideways, the red dot stays in the center.  I assume that is what you mean?

I have tried an RDS in the past but decided it was more trouble than it was worth.  What I don't understand is how RDS users know they have focus.  I get the information from my EVF

Nice pictures , love the B17

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

I have tried an RDS in the past but decided it was more trouble than it was worth. What I don't understand is how RDS users know they have focus. I get the information from my EVF

I guess it just takes practice. The more I used it, the better I got at following motion and being able to track. Now, after using the RDS, I could not imagine trying to go back to the EVF for fast motion.  It is a little odd at first looking only through the RDS, not seeing any exposure or focus values, but I found that I was so busy just concentrating on tracking the subject, and letting the GH3 do its thing.

When doing BIF's I turn on the focus confirmation beep. It is not totally necessary, but helps. For the planes, I did not bother with the beep: the planes are typically large enough that they fill a good portion of the screen for the camera to lock focus on. My focus was set to single point, centre, with the box enlarged 2 times. That worked like a charm, and I had very few OOF pictures for the whole airshow. Just my experience...

Nice pictures , love the B17

Thanks!

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My Galleries are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/trevorfcarpenter

I am not sure if I understand about the RDS and parallax correction controls, but it adjusts with little adj. screws so you can calibrate it with the lens. When I am looking through it, if I shift my head up/down or sideways, the red dot stays in the center. I assume that is what you mean?

Since the RDS is mounted above the lens (by some distance) the spot displayed will also offset from the centerline of the lens. Therefore the view of the sight and the view of the lens is slightly different. The closer the subject is to the camera the bigger an issue this becomes. Since you are taking pictures of objects that are quite some distance away, the difference in the two fields of view is very slight.

Ok - excellent explanation, I understand now.  Thanks!

Yay. Mine arrived today. It's sitting in the post office.

Enjoyed your pics-

I am interested in the RDS - What is needed to attach it to the hot shoe?

Where did you get the attachment?

I'm in London Ont so could probably go where you went-

Thanks

Monty

savonie wrote:

Enjoyed your pics-

I am interested in the RDS - What is needed to attach it to the hot shoe?

Where did you get the attachment?

I'm in London Ont so could probably go where you went-

Thanks

Monty

I had it shipped to me from the US. Here is the link to the company:

http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendasight/index.html

The RDS is the Tasco model from Canadian Tire.

Thanks for the reply-