Jet shot oof- any ider's ?

[GyRob]

i had lots of shots like this the other day a few very sharp but most over a 100 like this one .
can anyone give an ider what the problem is.
this is just resized to post.
1dmk2 500f4isL 1/3000sec f4 set manule- iso 200 AI servo lots of time to track the jet too
single focus point as shown .
Rob

[Robert_Lay]

Doesn't look very sharp, but at this resolution it is too coarse to judge sharpness.

I would suggest posting a small full detail 100% crop. See instructions, below!

A good place to take the crop would be centered on that royal crest on the vertical stabilizer.

At Frame 37 - Tutorial on Full Detail 100% Crop
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34606&page=3

[GyRob]

thanks Robert
a 100%crop not good at all .
Rob.

[Johno]

Rob

Can you let me know why you set this capture on manual as i believe it would be better using av or tv and consider using at least 400iso. I have a good experience of aviation photography and find this to be the best solution. Just out of interest, as I use the same body, do you have your sharpness setting altered in anyway? I have mine set to 4.

Let me know.

Johno

[lakiluno]

your focussing on the fuel tank on the far side of the wing. Don't expect the tail to be sharp at 500mm and F/4 (well...It could be)

Anyway, how sharp is the fuel tank?

[Robert_Lay]

thanks Robert
a 100%crop not good at all .
Rob.
Dear gyrob,

The crop does not appear to have been made correctly.

The "Large" size image from a 1D Mark II N (8.2 MP) should be 3504 pixels wide.
Based on the assumption that the original post was not a crop, the portion of the airplane re-posted as a 100% crop should have been 26% of the original width or 910 pixels, but is only 495 pixels wide. That would suggest that the crop also re-sampled.

Please do the crop again using the directions provided. During the crop, there should be no resampling of the image and the settings for the crop tool height width and resolution fields should all be blank.

I went ahead and examined the crop closely to try to determine whether there is any indication of blur from focus error or a smear from motion. My opinion is that there is no smear from motion, but there could be a focus error. I would rather see the proper 100% crop to be more sure of that.

[mjordan]

The last airshow I shot at, I used my 1DMKII for the first time. I was shooting at 400mm (of a Canon 100-400), ISO 800, with the shutter speed between 1/650 and 1/1000 mostly between f7 and f14. I shot AI Servo and 5 focus points. Spot metering. Most of mine came out pretty sharp. The lighting was kind of flat because of the cloud cover.

Did you have your IS on or off? I turn my IS off when shooting airshows. I read a recommendation not to use IS when shooting airshows because the twisting and turning that is done to follow some of the aircraft can confuse the IS and give you out of focus shots. So I leave my IS off when I shoot active fly-bys.

The f4 you shot with does not give you much depth of field. With the 1/3000th speed you were shooting, I would have slowed down the shutter speed a bit to gain a smaller appurture, say at least f11 or smaller.

These do not look like camera movement, they look like out of focus... either from the lens not being focused when you took the shot, or depth of field being to narrow.

Mike

[GyRob]

Robert
i tried again
I think this is the right 100% crop but i really carnt understand how its done :oops:
Rob

[GyRob]

Rob

Can you let me know why you set this capture on manual as i believe it would be better using av or tv and consider using at least 400iso. I have a good experience of aviation photography and find this to be the best solution. Just out of interest, as I use the same body, do you have your sharpness setting altered in anyway? I have mine set to 4.

Let me know.

Johno
sharpness is at 5 contrast +2 color matrix 3H- its just the exsposure i set on manual because the jets fly past in the same place so i dont want diffrent exsposur's once i have the right one .
if i use tv or av im letting the camera decide what right for exsposure i.e if a white cloud come's into the shot that will alter the overall reading, when on the jet nothing has changed .
Rob.

[GyRob]

The last airshow I shot at, I used my 1DMKII for the first time. I was shooting at 400mm (of a Canon 100-400), ISO 800, with the shutter speed between 1/650 and 1/1000 mostly between f7 and f14. I shot AI Servo and 5 focus points. Spot metering. Most of mine came out pretty sharp. The lighting was kind of flat because of the cloud cover.

Did you have your IS on or off? I turn my IS off when shooting airshows. I read a recommendation not to use IS when shooting airshows because the twisting and turning that is done to follow some of the aircraft can confuse the IS and give you out of focus shots. So I leave my IS off when I shoot active fly-bys.

The f4 you shot with does not give you much depth of field. With the 1/3000th speed you were shooting, I would have slowed down the shutter speed a bit to gain a smaller appurture, say at least f11 or smaller.

These do not look like camera movement, they look like out of focus... either from the lens not being focused when you took the shot, or depth of field being to narrow.

Mike
i had IS on 2 the shots are Taken at a bombing range, they fly right in front of me from left to right a simple pan - they are about 1000ft away even f4 should be ok at that disstance ,the lens is sharp at that apture too .
Rob

[Robert_Lay]

Dear gyrob,

Sorry, that's still not right - it's coming out with half as many pixels as it should have for that percentage of the original picture.

Never mind - I don't want to badger you about it. However, if you have a Web site somewhere which allows you to place the full size file, then we could download your original file from there and have a look at that.

Meanwhile, I doubt that there is going to be anything new come of it, because it's in that gray area where you're not sure of whether its a DOF issue or a focus issue, and on this particular image I don't think we will ever know.

[GyRob]

I think your right Robert its a hard thing to work out one way or another but thanks for your time and others to.
i will have another go with a few sujestion's here and see what happends .
Rob

[Tdragone]

Going on the possibility of focus error..
Focus is based on contrast (Like a vertical or Horizontal line) The disclaimer made by Canon is that the AF sensor isn't exactly under the AF point you see in the viewfinder.

If the AF point is a little to the left; it might not be able to 'find' something easy to focus on if the actual focus point is on the left side of the AF point shown. This would be where the forward hardpoint connects to the external tank; it's all a gray blob to the camera.

Questions:
Did ANY of your shots come out okay from this outing?
When you are panning; do you re-focus between shots or just hold down the shutter?

It's my understanding that if you're shooting at x frames per second on that monster 1 series camera; only your first shot is truly focussed. The rest are shot at the same focus distance as the first until you re-focus.

When panning, distances from when you aquire on the left to when the Plane is directly in front of you can change a LOT, and if the first 1-3 shots are okay (but far away) and the rest are blurry, this might be part of the problem. This was my mistake the first Airshow I went to with my 300D and my 70-200.

[GyRob]

Going on the possibility of focus error..
Focus is based on contrast (Like a vertical or Horizontal line) The disclaimer made by Canon is that the AF sensor isn't exactly under the AF point you see in the viewfinder.

If the AF point is a little to the left; it might not be able to 'find' something easy to focus on if the actual focus point is on the left side of the AF point shown. This would be where the forward hardpoint connects to the external tank; it's all a gray blob to the camera.

Questions:
Did ANY of your shots come out okay from this outing?
When you are panning; do you re-focus between shots or just hold down the shutter?

It's my understanding that if you're shooting at x frames per second on that monster 1 series camera; only your first shot is truly focussed. The rest are shot at the same focus distance as the first until you re-focus.

When panning, distances from when you aquire on the left to when the Plane is directly in front of you can change a LOT, and if the first 1-3 shots are okay (but far away) and the rest are blurry, this might be part of the problem. This was my mistake the first Airshow I went to with my 300D and my 70-200.
Some shots were sharp and i often relese the shutter presure and re'engage it to re focus as i have plenty of time as the jet comes in, But i thought A1 servo ajusted the focus all the time even on high fps thats what its for .i.e if you point the camera at the ground in A1servo and move the camera up focus ajust's all the time so im a little unsure about your ( same focus distance ) comment .
Rob

[Tdragone]

You're right..

Trying to find the doc I read this on; I found the mother of all documents;
Which says:

"AI Servo AF: This mode is intended for use with moving subjects. It operates
continuously up to the instant of exposure, and it also operates between exposures in burst mode shooting."

http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/EOS_Digital.pdf

I humbly apologize

[GyRob]

You're right..

Trying to find the doc I read this on; I found the mother of all documents;
Which says:

"AI Servo AF: This mode is intended for use with moving subjects. It operates
continuously up to the instant of exposure, and it also operates between exposures in burst mode shooting."

http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/EOS_Digital.pdf

I humbly apologize
no need to :)
Rob