Flight Photography Impossible

After many tries i have declared flight photography to be impossible with my camera when i am using aperature priority...i have a 300D and it only has the option of focus when you press the shutter half way it focuses and stays there and to focus again you have to press the shutter again...there for it is impossible to do because if you are taking the pic of a fast bird by the time you press shutter and the delay it is out of focus...and if i want to track the bird i have to switch to action photography setting and lose all setting control...also i found when i was shooting into blue skies and even light clouds the bird was always underexposed...what should i do to fix this in terms of exposure compensation???

Doesn't the 300D have AI Servo mode? With that you can track the subject in flight and shoot when you like.

Alternatively you could pre focus to a particular range and shoot with a wide DOF to be sure it's in focus?

Sorry don't know to much about the 300D, but thought I'd offer some ideas.

steve

The 300D uses "AI Focus" in the creative modes, and someone at Canon deserves a swift slap upside the head for that.

Shooting any kind of action with that camera can be a painful excersize, but there are a few tricks to "kickstarting" the AF system into servo mode. You can half-press the shutter, aim at the ground and then something more distant. Or you can try grabbing the focus ring and moving it a bit to throw it out of focus. Once it's in servo mode, it will try to follow your subject, as long as you don't let go of the shutter button.

alright thanks I hope that will help... i am seriously thinking about upgrading to the 30D and that would solve the problem and give me a lot more custom settings...yeah when i first read that it only uses AI focus i was pretty pissed...but my camera is 4 yrs old so i think im due for an upgrade...

Brandon