Air Show Advice Needed

I would recommand the Olympus EE-1, an external viewfinder that you put on the cameras hot-shoe that shows you the center of your image (of the image the camera can see) with a red LED-point but shows you a much much bigger frame and you also can see the background around the frame .... that makes it possible to see the full sky with your eyes while having a frame in front of you/on top of your camera with a red LED point in the middle that shows you the center of the cameras sensor = your picutre.

That makes it easy to follow a fast moving subject like an airplane.

It is explained very well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnTAbBSUHZk

Olympus homepage: https://www.olympus.at/site/de/c/cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_other_accessories/ee_1/index.html

Otherwise - if you use only your viewfinder - it is hard to follow such a fast subject and if you have lost your airplane in the sky it is very hard to find it again.

Before you use it the very fist time you have to adjust it to your lens, but that's very simple

Use more focus-points = 9 or even all your camera has

Play and learn it before you go to the airshow!

Thomas,

Thanks, I'I'll definitely look in to it :-).

Thomas Traub wrote:

I would recommand the Olympus EE-1, an external viewfinder that you put on the cameras hot-shoe that shows you the center of your image (of the image the camera can see) with a red LED-point but shows you a much much bigger frame and you also can see the background around the frame .... that makes it possible to see the full sky with your eyes while having a frame in front of you/on top of your camera with a red LED point in the middle that shows you the center of the cameras sensor = your picutre.

That makes it easy to follow a fast moving subject like an airplane.

It is explained very well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnTAbBSUHZk

Olympus homepage: https://www.olympus.at/site/de/c/cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_cameras_accessories/pen_om_d_other_accessories/ee_1/index.html

Otherwise - if you use only your viewfinder - it is hard to follow such a fast subject and if you have lost your airplane in the sky it is very hard to find it again.

Before you use it the very fist time you have to adjust it to your lens, but that's very simple

Use more focus-points = 9 or even all your camera has

Play and learn it before you go to the airshow!

i prefer to use a viewfinder so i can concentrate on the framing of a shot when it comes to aircraft, aircraft at shows tend to do passes with a certain window where a good good shot can be taken

paul cool wrote:

Got a weekend ticket for headcorn looks like they do fly close a real bargain £16 pound for the weekend or £12 for the day ,i am getting ready to get some practice in for riat first airshow of the year

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58365044@N05/

can't do RIAT as it's my wedding anniversary and i live in the Netherlands these days, next year hopefully, only done frisian Flag this year which is sort of close by.....well worth it for watching 50 jets scramble and take off

Hello Trevor,

always keep an eye out for your airshow pictures as so impressive. Question re the nd filters. Which make do you use, and what value do you opt for when we do actually get a bright sunny day here.

Regards,

Bob

... 3 stop is perfect for prop airshow when trying to reduce shutter speed enough to get some prop blur.

Marumi 72mm is realistically affordable.

Without it you may end up shooting at f22 and bringing home lots of very blurred plane photos just like I did the first time !!!

If the weather keeps alternating from sunny to cloudy a 3 stop should allow you to keep between f5.6 and f22 at a suitable shutter speed without having to make any other adjustments.

battybob wrote:

Hello Trevor,

always keep an eye out for your airshow pictures as so impressive. Question re the nd filters. Which make do you use, and what value do you opt for when we do actually get a bright sunny day here.

Regards,

Bob

I've got a Hoya ProND8 4 stop 67mm which I use with a 72-67mm stepup  ring.  I already had this. I also was put off by the price of 72mms but this setup is working fine for me.  If I was buying new I'd buy a 3 stop 4 is just a tad too much if the sun goes in.

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

battybob wrote:

Hello Trevor,

always keep an eye out for your airshow pictures as so impressive. Question re the nd filters. Which make do you use, and what value do you opt for when we do actually get a bright sunny day here.

Regards,

Bob

I've got a Hoya ProND8 4 stop 67mm which I use with a 72-67mm stepup ring. I already had this. I also was put off by the price of 72mms but this setup is working fine for me. If I was buying new I'd buy a 3 stop 4 is just a tad too much if the sun goes in.

I have just purchased the 77mm hoya Pro nd 4 2 stop now i am wondering if it will be enough oh well see how it goes also purchased a step up ring of 72mm -77mm so my 100-400mm and 40-150mm can use it ,two chances

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58365044@N05/

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

battybob wrote:

Hello Trevor,

always keep an eye out for your airshow pictures as so impressive. Question re the nd filters. Which make do you use, and what value do you opt for when we do actually get a bright sunny day here.

Regards,

Bob

I've got a Hoya ProND8 4 stop 67mm which I use with a 72-67mm stepup ring. I already had this. I also was put off by the price of 72mms but this setup is working fine for me. If I was buying new I'd buy a 3 stop 4 is just a tad too much if the sun goes in.

Hello Trevor,

thanks for the reply. These filters are not so cheap, so your input will save me experimenting on a trial and error basis. A 3 stop it is.

Regards,

Bob

Ok, I have a little update... I'm still going to Duxford on Sunday, however, I've just managed to score tickets for RIAT the following weekend! I've never been, so assume the flight line is further away than at Duxford. I guess I'd need a lot more focal length for that, right? But 100-300 or 100-400...?

I might bring some upgrades forward a bit...

Dave Abrey wrote:

In a couple of weeks, I will be going to the Flying Legends air show at the Imperial War Musem at Duxford in the U.K. I will be taking my EM5 ii along with the Olympus 40-150mm Pro and the 1.4x teleconverter. However, it's been a while since I took photos at an air show, and this will be my first time with the EM5 ii, so I am hoping to get some advice before I go.

1) If anyone is familiar with Duxford, will the 40-150mm + 1.4 teleconverter have enough reach? That would be a maximum of 210mm, or 420mm full frame equivalent field of view. The only other time I've taken photos at an air show was with a Canon 10D and a 100-400mm (640mm full frame equivalent field of view). That seems like I'll be coming up short, and the smaller planes may be quite small in the frame. Long term, I plan to get either the 100-300mm or 100-400mm, but that's unlikely to be an option before the show (100-300mm may be possible, 100-400mm definitely not).

I've shot all my air shows with a 450mm equiv. (300mm on a 1.5x crop sensor) and it worked fine, so 420 equiv., while a little shorter should still be able to give you some good shots.

2) I am aware that the EM5 ii doesn't have the best continuous autofocus, so is it best to just stick to single AF? Also, which focus points would be recommended? I had problems recently when I tried to photograph F15s at RAF Lakenheath using a single point, would it be better to use the 9 point group to give the AF more chance?

90% of the time at air shows you will be focusing at infinity anyway.  So just manual focus to infinity or use back-button focus to reduce focus hunting

3) Related to the previous question, what drive mode would be best, single or continuous?

see above

4) Is there anything else I should do, e.g. settings etc.?

bring an ND filter if it's a sunny day.  You want to slow down your shutter to capture spinning props.

My long term plan is to upgrade to the EM1 ii, but that won't be happening until later in the year, so I want to try to get the most out of what I have at the moment for this air show.

just add an ND filter, you have everything you need.

Thanks,

Dave.

Dave Abrey wrote:

Ok, I have a little update... I'm still going to Duxford on Sunday, however, I've just managed to score tickets for RIAT the following weekend! I've never been, so assume the flight line is further away than at Duxford. I guess I'd need a lot more focal length for that, right? But 100-300 or 100-400...?

I might bring some upgrades forward a bit...

if the choice is 100-400 vs 100-300 first version then its absolutely the 100-400, as the 100-300 will focus hunt, has limited burst speed (due to the lens, not due to camera settings).  The AF of the 100-400 is magnitudes better than the 100-300.  The "useability" and "user experience" of the 100-400 is just that much better.

If you can get a 100-300 second version that might work well as I believe the DFD and AF speed / communication is very similar to the 100-400

Quick post show update...

First, thanks to everyone for the input and help in the thread so far.

I've had a quick sort through the photos and deleted the rejects - there were quite a few! No images to share yet, but here's some things I've learned from today's experience:

1. When doing a software update on your camera, check ALL settings afterwards. I updated to v3 a couple of weeks ago, and changed some settings for the event, but forgot to check what image quality it was set to. As a result, I found out after I got back that I'd been shooting in JPEG only, not RAW 😢.
2. As a result of shooting JPEG, I can't do much with adjusting the exposure compensation. Which I think I would need to do in many cases, as in a lot of the shots, the plane is too dark.
3. I bought a 4 stop ND, that seemed to do the job, as I was able to shoot at 1/125 or 1/160 (I think), and was able to get some ressonable prop blur.
4. The EM5 Mark II C-AF is really not great for air shows. I tried some S-AF, but I don't think they worked (does the EXIF data have focus mode in it anywhere?). I also tried C-AF with tracking, which seemed to work a bit better, but again, I'd need to check.
5. The 40-150 with 1.4 TC was just about ok for reach, but more would have helped. I'll be cropping some shots.
6. My wife doesn't like air shows 🙁.

So, a lot of that I can work on my technique to fix. The C-AF issue is more of a problem. The obvious option is to get an EM1 mark II, but hey are very expensive. Another option I've though about would be a G80/85. This would clearly benefit from the DFD used in the Panasonic 100-300mm or 100-400mm (both of which are possible lens options), but would that give an improvement for C--AF over the EM5 Mark II? I've never used a Panasonic body, so I have no idea how DFD performs.

Another more radical idea would be to get an APS-C DSLR from Canon or Nikon and maybe something like the Sigma 150-600mm just for air shows...

Any more thoughts from anyone?

Thanks,

Dave.

1. When doing a software update on your camera, check ALL settings afterwards. I updated to v3 a couple of weeks ago, and changed some settings for the event, but forgot to check what image quality it was set to. As a result, I found out after I got back that I'd been shooting in JPEG only, not RAW 😢.

Been there, done that!

1. As a result of shooting JPEG, I can't do much with adjusting the exposure compensation. Which I think I would need to do in many cases, as in a lot of the shots, the plane is too dark.

You might still be able to work with them a bit.

1. I bought a 4 stop ND, that seemed to do the job, as I was able to shoot at 1/125 or 1/160 (I think), and was able to get some ressonable prop blur.

You could have probably gotten away with a bit higher, like 1/250 to 1/500

1. The EM5 Mark II C-AF is really not great for air shows. I tried some S-AF, but I don't think they worked (does the EXIF data have focus mode in it anywhere?). I also tried C-AF with tracking, which seemed to work a bit better, but again, I'd need to check.

I find for most airshows, you don't need any kind of auto-focus, I just manually focus to infinity, stop down to f8 or so and then forget about it.

1. The 40-150 with 1.4 TC was just about ok for reach, but more would have helped. I'll be cropping some shots.

I shoot at about 450mm equiv and rarely have to crop, but it really depends on where you are relative to the airplanes.

1. My wife doesn't like air shows 🙁.

Neither does mine

So, a lot of that I can work on my technique to fix. The C-AF issue is more of a problem. The obvious option is to get an EM1 mark II, but hey are very expensive. Another option I've though about would be a G80/85. This would clearly benefit from the DFD used in the Panasonic 100-300mm or 100-400mm (both of which are possible lens options), but would that give an improvement for C--AF over the EM5 Mark II? I've never used a Panasonic body, so I have no idea how DFD performs.

I think you would just be throwing a very expensive solution at a really simple problem. Just try leaving the lens locked at infinity next time. Planes in the air are going to be at the farthest focus distance of the lens anyway.

Another more radical idea would be to get an APS-C DSLR from Canon or Nikon and maybe something like the Sigma 150-600mm just for air shows...

Any more thoughts from anyone?

Thanks,

Dave.