Aviation action with the K100D ?

[The PIPE]

Dear Fellow K100D-Using Pentaxians:

The PIPE Here...I've had my brand new K100D "in-house" for a week, acquired with the Pentax kit lens and the 50-200mm Pentax digital zoom lens, and a lot of my interest in photography, for over twenty years now, has overlapped with my interest in Radio Control scale aeromodeling and antique full-scale aviation.

When I seriously got into taking photos of vintage aircraft with my Pentax K1000 film SLR, both in small form as accurately crafted, flyable RC scale models, and antique aircraft that can be seen at airshows and at places like Old Rhinebeck, one person long ago (very early 1980s) told me the best way to get the best exposures of "in flight" aircraft was to set a suitable shutter speed (say, about 1/500th sec), then aim the camera at a patch of grassy ground, and get the K1000's light meter needle to register at mid-scale with the lens aperture.

With those shutter speeds and aperture f-stop settings "locked-in", when the K1000 was aimed upwards at a flying aircraft, the needle zoomed upwards, but the planned overexposure usually gave a good, bright and very clear image of the aircraft being photographed.

To do the same thing with my K100D, would I best be advised to do the same sort of metering at a grassy area (as before with the K1000) in shutter priority mode to get the desired f-stop, then remember the selected f-stop number, and shift to full manual mode with those settings, to get good "action-style" in-flight aviation photos?

Hoping for some answers...a good World War I RC Scale model fly-in event is coming up in CT on July 8th...and my K100D and I hope to be there!

Thanks in advance,

The PIPE...!

[Samb4]

Originally Posted by The PIPE

Dear Fellow K100D-Using Pentaxians:

To do the same thing with my K100D, would I best be advised to do the same sort of metering at a grassy area (as before with the K1000) in shutter priority mode to get the desired f-stop, then remember the selected f-stop number, and shift to full manual mode with those settings, to get good "action-style" in-flight aviation photos?


The PIPE...!

I'm new to the K100D (only had it a week), but I think you got it right. Figure out you exposure, then lock it in with the manual setting. You might need to switch to manual focus so the camera doesn't waste a bunch of time trying to focus when it should be taking the picture.

Sam

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by The PIPE

Dear Fellow K100D-Using Pentaxians:

The PIPE Here...I've had my brand new K100D "in-house" for a week, acquired with the Pentax kit lens and the 50-200mm Pentax digital zoom lens, and a lot of my interest in photography, for over twenty years now, has overlapped with my interest in Radio Control scale aeromodeling and antique full-scale aviation.

When I seriously got into taking photos of vintage aircraft with my Pentax K1000 film SLR, both in small form as accurately crafted, flyable RC scale models, and antique aircraft that can be seen at airshows and at places like Old Rhinebeck, one person long ago (very early 1980s) told me the best way to get the best exposures of "in flight" aircraft was to set a suitable shutter speed (say, about 1/500th sec), then aim the camera at a patch of grassy ground, and get the K1000's light meter needle to register at mid-scale with the lens aperture.

With those shutter speeds and aperture f-stop settings "locked-in", when the K1000 was aimed upwards at a flying aircraft, the needle zoomed upwards, but the planned overexposure usually gave a good, bright and very clear image of the aircraft being photographed.

To do the same thing with my K100D, would I best be advised to do the same sort of metering at a grassy area (as before with the K1000) in shutter priority mode to get the desired f-stop, then remember the selected f-stop number, and shift to full manual mode with those settings, to get good "action-style" in-flight aviation photos?

Hoping for some answers...a good World War I RC Scale model fly-in event is coming up in CT on July 8th...and my K100D and I hope to be there!

Thanks in advance,

The PIPE...!

Not sure if this applies to the K100D, but on the K10D, you can set things up in the custom menu so that if you hit the green button in manual mode, it will automatically set the appropriate aperture for the current shutter speed. (Most people do the opposite for manual lenses, but I'm considering "hypermanual" shutter priority at the Binghamton Air Show next weekend if my DA 50-200 gets here in time. )

[Arpe]

You could always use the exposure compensation to "overexpose" the photo, experiment to find the best setting.