[HelenEdith]

I've had my K10D for about 10 days, but the weather last weekend was atrocious, and in between I've been busy working, so today was the first day it really got used.

We went to the Biggin Hill Air Fair and I've posted a picture which came straight out of the camera and has merely been resized. (It's part of the Red Arrows display team, and I shot in best quality JPEG format with my camera set up the same way as my *ist DS is set up.)

It isn't too noticeable in this particular picture, but I've already got two dust specks. I should have dealt with them this evening, as we've got a Truckfest visit lined up for tomorrow. I can try the sensor shake thing first, and if that doesn't do the trick, then it's out with the rocket blower.

I opted not to spend the extra money on the battery grip, and I'm not missing what I've never had. I have an unorthodox way of taking vertical pictures which works for me and which the battery grip wouldn't help. Also, it would add weight, and I noticed the additional weight when I slung the K10D and Sigma 28-300 around my neck compared with how that lens feels on the *ist DS.

Oh, and I left shake reduction turned on the whole time. I'm not sure whether it did any good or not. I used a fast shutter speed for the jets, and 1/125 for the propeller planes - when I remembered! I've got some frozen propellers on the biplanes with the wingwalkers until I remembered to change the shutter speed! I gave up on slow shutter speeds for the helicopters: their rotors are so slow that I never managed to blur them.

Attached Images

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

[LeoTaylor]

Hello,

Another Air Show and another good photo! Do you have a link to the photos of the propellers in various states of being stopped? I have not been thinking about controlling speed to vary how a propeller looks, I just assume you let the camera go as fast as it can to stop motion. It would be more artistic to leave some motion visible.

I'm amazed at how fast my K1x0D cameras are. When using a "not so fast" Pentax 50-200 lens in Auto the exposures are often about 1/1000 second. Stops birds in flight, dogs leaping through the air, etc.

[HelenEdith]

This was taken at 1/1000 and the propellors on the two biplanes are almost frozen. Once again, straight out of the camera, no work done. I will probably adjust this a bit when I've got time.

[HelenEdith]

Same biplane, 1/125. From some angles, this shutter speed rendered the propellers invisible. I don't know if the engines were being revved harder or whether it was just the angle of view.

Attached Images

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

[HelenEdith]

Note that one of these planes is revving much slower than the other three and 1/125 is giving a circle of propellor on the three faster revving planes, while the slower one is giving us a pattern a bit like a radioactivity symbol.

[kskjon]

Very nice pictures!

[Mr Hyde]

Great job. I liked them all

[LeoTaylor]

Thank you for the additional photos. I like the, "Radioactivity Symbol" since it shows shape (three blade prop) as well as motion. I'll keep that in mind when choosing shutter speed in the future. The attached photo taken in my neighborhood with my K110D at 1/350 freezes the basketball in mid-air. Now I wonder if it would have looked better if I took control of the exposure time.

[HelenEdith]

The great thing about digital cameras is that you can experiment and see your results straight away, although in the case of propeller speeds, you probably need to zoom right in on the back panel to be able to observe the effect, especially once you start getting some motion blur.

The same probably applies to the basketball, provided that you can get the neighbour children to go on throwing it. I would think that with a basketball that an effect similar to rear curtain flash would be really good: i.e. You get blur ending in a solid ball rather than just a blur. That might be difficult to achieve in daylight, though.

The four planes in the shot with the "radioactivity symbol" demonstrate that it depends on the plane as to what shutter speed you will require. I would guess that the older the plane, the longer the required shutter speed, just on an assumption that older planes may rev more slowly. I could be quite wrong about that. Maybe there's an aircraft expert on the board?