Fun with RC

The abandoned farm I often visit is located next to a small airfield for remote controlled aircraft. There is some kind of club that uses it for events and practices, and I have only seen people there once. Today was the second time and I was fortunate to encounter one man and his airplane. He was nice enough although he was focused on flying. The good news was that he was perfectly happy to let me shoot some pictures of his aircraft.

One of the challenges of photographing moving objects is maintaining focus. Obviously, you must put the camera in continuous autofocus mode (AI Servo in Canon parlance), but it still can be difficult to focus consistently on a rapidly moving object. This blip provided me with the opportunity to test these skills. I was using my 70-200 at 200 and the camera was configured with center focus point only. (I have a preset where the aperture is wide open and the ISO is set to 400 which ensures the fastest possible shutterspeed.) The challenge was to keep the center point consistently on the flying aircraft. I am quite happy with the results and you can see more of the shots here.

One of the big differentiators between different cameras (and lenses) is the speed and consistency of the autofocus system. I have always been reasonably happy with the 40D's system and after today, I feel more confident. Of course, it does not stop camera envy, but ironically, Canon's new 5D MK II has essentially the same autofocus system as my 40D. Of course, the lens I was using probably helped as well.

I like many of the shots I took and chose this one for a few reasons. I really like the flowers in the background and how they provide visual interest. I also think that the composition is better with the plane on the left since it highlights the left-to-right movement.


Post Processing:
None, this is straight from the camera

COnstructive criticism always welcome