Airshows?

Mandoo

Mandoo

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I'm going to be going to my first airshow later in the summer, but as a relative beginner still, I'm not sure where to start in terms of settings. I will also be taking my 9 year old niece with me who will be using my FZ7 bridge camera.
To ensure the youngster doesn't show me up, what is the easiest way to get half decent results when I still don't fully understand everything?
I was thinking that if I used aperture priority mode like I usually do would upping the ISO then increase the shutter speed so that I don't have to worry about it?
I know it is going to be down to the conditions on the day, and I'm going to be trying to learn as much as I can before I go, but the main bulk of my photography is landscapes and scenery where I don't have to worry about anything moving and have a lot more time to adjust my settings.
 
Depends on the airshow. On a Crop camera 200mm will be the absolute minimum for in flight, ideally 300mm, or something like a 150-500mm zoom.

If jets, I think 1/1250 at the very least, basically as high as you can go. For prop planes 1/125 - 1/200 shutter speed so always use Shutter priority or Manual. You need to pan and this takes a lot of practice.
 
If you're shooting props you'll want a shutter speed of around 1/250th or less, to achieve prop blur, otherwise it will loom as if the planes are about to fall out the sky! This means you'll need to pan though. I use shutter priority to get this. Jets it really doesn't matter but you'd ideally want quite a quick shutter speed, over about 1/1000.

Also, keep the ISO down (lowest setting preferably) otherwise you'll have noise issues.

Hope this helps, Harry.
 
So stick to shutter priority with a low ISO and let the rest take care of itself?
I'm only 10 minutes from Stansted airport so I think I'm going to pop over that way a few times before the show to practise my panning technique.
It's looking like I'll be using the 45-200 on my G2 unless I can get hold of the 100-300 in the mean time.
 
There is one in Minehead in the middle of August which I'll be going to as I'm down there on holiday at the time, and then at the end of August I'll be heading over to the Clacton show.
 
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