What Settings for my 400D

[Mrs NucSquash]

Okay, off to Fairford air show tomorrow but last year I took some alright photos but didnt seem to capture the movement of the planes because I only used the auto settings. This year I want to brave and go manual, so being a bit of novice can anyone suggest some settings I could try out???

Thanks
Nik

[350Wedge]

With aircraft i usually take my shots on Shutter Priority and let the camera set the aperture. For prop aircraft such as the older warbirds like Spitfire etc etc set a shutter speed of about 1/250 of a second or slightly less. I normally use 1/200th to get a good sense of movement of the propeller. Any faster than 1/250th i find that it freezes the prop. Same for helicopters...

examples here from this weekend just gone...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

As for Jets where you dont have to worry about freezing props i tend to use as fast a shutter speed as i can get. 1/500 sec and above although if light allows i tend to shoot around F8 due to this being around the sweet spot of my lenses aperture range for max quality.

Interestingly i used my 400D for a bit while at duxford but got fed up with the AF hunting when the aircraft flew between af points! Spent the rest of the day using the 1DS II and putting up with the lack of magnification....lol

Hope this helps....

[350Wedge]

Oh One other thing that i did find. If its cloudy and you have a fairly dull white/grey background the camera will end up exposing for the sky a lot of the time so the aircraft is underexposed and too dark.

Try setting 1 stop of overexposure to cancel it out, there were points where with dark colour schemed planes i was using a stop and a half to get the plane correctly exposed.