Redbull Air Race at Ascot

[bass_junkie83]

My wife got me tickets to go to those on Sunday. Although I don't know a great deal about planes it always looked exciting.

I was deliberating over what kit to use for a while. I have a 1dmk2 kicking around for ages. I knew it's AF would wipe the floor with my 5dmk2, but I was concerned with poor image quality, partly fueled because I hadn't used it for so long I think. Still, no one is going to care about the image quality of an out of focus shot, so that made my decision easier. Turns out I was worrying over nothing.

When it came to lenses, my longest is a 70-200 f2.8 which I knew I would struggle with. I have hired a 400mm f5.6 in the past which was very nice, but I couldn't afford that this time around unfortunately, so opted for a 2x teleconverter as a compromise.

Pretty happy with the results. During the early part of the day I was struggling to get the shutter speed low enough to get some good rotor/prop blur, particularly with the chinook.

Got a little blog post here, but have put up a few of my favourite shots below.

http://www.photographerinessex.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/redbull-air-race-016.jpg

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[Carlh]

Think I might have read a thread about you hiring the lens out, I'd be scared to - in case I liked the lens then it would be my mission to buy the bugger hahaha

I like the shots you've done, though focus seems to have been missed ever so slightly on <some> of the aircraft, maybe the shutterspeed was too long? I've never photographed aircraft so I cant advise on what to shoot at, sorry it might just be the panning combination, I guess it would be the same as photographing a panning car which is follow , click and keep following for a half second more to get it as pin sharp as possible. Hopefully a more experienced aircraft photographer can advise.

You seem to have a couple of dust-bunnies in #2

 

[bass_junkie83]

Yes I hired the 400mmf5.6 a few years ago and really liked that. And that being the cheapest of the canon 400mm then it's fair to say I would like the others even more, so very dangerous.
Fortunately/unfortunately I simply can't afford it so just rented a 2x TC on this occasion.

There are a few where the focus is a bit off. I found the chinook much more difficult than the planes as its next move is so much less predictable. That an the slower shutter speed needed to get the rotor blur made things worse. 1/40th at 400mm didn't go well! lol

I was on the start/finish straight so there were a lot of times when the planes would be going straight past in a straight line which made tracking a lot easier, these deffinately gave me the sharper shots.

When the planes were further away they were pulling hard turns around cones so their movement was more eratic and I found it difficult to keep the AF point on them so had less keepers there. Bizzarely I found panning right to left easier then left to right. Right to left I seemed to be more jerky, almost stop start and strying to catch back up witht he plane after each burst.

Thanks for looking. And yes, the sensor definately need a bit of a clean!