More Air Show Help

With my 6D and a rented 100-400L II IS my first air show a couple of months ago turned out to be a learning experience with missed focus being the biggest issue. The Blue angels are coming to Oceana next month and my question is will renting a 7D Mark II using my 70-200 f4 IS help with the focusing and will the 70-200 on this 1.6 crop body be enough. I can't afford to rent both plus another media card. With SS being my only income I have to save to do these adventures. Suggestions please, thanks.

From Seymour Johnson AFB

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2cruise wrote in post #17661035
With my 6D and a rented 100-400L II IS my first air show a couple of months ago turned out to be a learning experience with missed focus being the biggest issue. The Blue angels are coming to Oceana next month and my question is will renting a 7D Mark II using my 70-200 f4 IS help with the focusing and will the 70-200 on this 1.6 crop body be enough. I can't afford to rent both plus another media card. With SS being my only income I have to save to do these adventures. Suggestions please, thanks.

The 70-200 on the 7DII would produce the same fov as a 320mm lens on your 6D. So you would have less "reach".
Of course you can crop the 7D's image, and air show lens selection often depends on how close you are to the action.
In my experience shooting air shows with my 70-200 f2.8 IS II does a fine job with planes in formation, or those close
to the spectator line. But for planes farther away I need a longer lens.

You might want to consider renting or buying a used 400 f5.6 lens. It doesn't have IS but at higher shutter speeds (for jets)
this isn't needed. I've seen some superb air show photos taken with the lens.

I'd bump up your ISO a bit...just going to ISO 200 will give you a faster shutter speed...first shot at 1/500 at 400mm is entering the danger zone if you ask me...if you didn't feel like you had enough reach with the 100-400 on your 6D, the 70-200 on the 7DII won't help...it'll help you with FPS though...but in the end, i'm not sure what your costs for rental are but you could probably get away with cheaper options, like an original 7D, or 70D, and a sigma 150-600C...it may end up being a bit more costs, but i think you'd get better results for probably less than $20 more than the 100-400II rental would be

Agree that shutter speeds were too slow for JETS. I use 1/1000 & up depending on the light & circumstances. I looked through a small album I shot in bad light to see what FL I used shooting my 7D2 & 100-400 (original version) & although some are under 200 mm many are way past that. When I shoot the Snowbirds I use a 28-300 L IS so I can go wide as needed (full formations) & still have a decent long end.

At the Air Show in Niagara Falls last month, we had rapidly changing light conditions. Within a 2-3 hour window there was overcast to bright sun. Here's what seemed to work well:

7d2
150-600 Tamron (but you should be able to get some good images with the lens you will use- yes, I read your post)
ISO: 400-800 most of the time, but the 7D2 should handle a higher ISO easily
Shutter speed (for the Thunderbirds): 1/1200-1/1600 most of the time
Focusing settings (THE reason for using this camera for things like this): Auto Selection 65 point AF, AI Servo. The camera did a great job of "grabbing focus" as the jets flew by

Also, use one of the cases for fast moving objects. Don't forget to compensate for shooting into the sky. I used Evaluative metering, but would experiment with Spot based on what images, distance, etc are possible.

Maybe some of this will help. Looking forward to your pictures- they are always very good. I'll watch Flickr!

Good point about the metering. I shoot in Tv & rely heavily on EC to expose for the aircraft rather than the scene.

Thanks, good points all. I'm going to go with the 7D II and use my 70-200 for two reasons. I need help from the pros as to position on the flight line as last time I was stage wayyyy right and missed the good afterburner shots. (I also hear follow the big lenses or pros) When I get back home from the show a huge bike race (UCI World Championship) will be in town and this camera should be a plus also. As stated a while back I never shoot anything that moves so this has been a real challenge for me so much so it was the first time I had the camera in AI Servo (don't laugh). Thanks again as I can always count on help from you folks.