Question when doing airshows

[Mike.P]

Do you use the fps feature on your camera?

I'm just wondering if I would get more keepers (sharp pics) if I used it at airshows (or at least the 3 fps rather than 6)

I tend to just focus, take a shot ... refocus a few seconds later and take another .. probably keep about 20% of the pics but that is a lot to do with me shooting when they are much too far away to be able to do anything with when I get back.

 

[chameleon]

Simple answer... yes and no.
I have been to plenty of shows where I have taken hundreds and hundreds of photos but only a small %age is worth keeping, many are near identical or OOF or too early or too late.
On the other hand, picking and choosing your moments will give you a higher %age of keepers but you have more chance of missing the exact moment you want to capture.
If it is a solo show, say a Spitfire, I would time my shots and choose just the right moment on each pass. But, if it is something really fast like the Red Arrows, a machine gun approach will usually give more chance of good results. Horses for courses really.

 

[tdodd]

Unless you have a well honed technique you may well find that when you release the shutter button you jerk the camera slightly. Shooting with a long lens will magnify the tiniest movement. When you are shooting at low shutter speeds for prop aircraft this can be a serious concern. If you shoot in short bursts of maybe 3-5 shots then you are more likely to get a crisp shot amongst them. Of course, if your shutter release technique is perfect then you may have no such problem, but even then, slightly imperfect panning or a little shake can still trip you up. Single shot shooting is perhaps a little bit of a gamble. Shooting short bursts might improve your odds, but unless you want a long series I think a burst of up to five shots should be enough.

There's a thread over on DPReview where someone has a very impressive series of aircraft shots. If the thread doesn't shed light on his technique you might want to ask....

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1019&message=35872409&changemode=1

I wish my own results were as good.