Cessna 182 Rc

[Klacee Sawatzky]

Justlike any landscape photography, good light is very important. Fly when the sun is low -- in the morning and the late afternoon -- but not so low that you can't maintain a fast shutter at reasonably low ISO (at 1500ft AGL, 1/500th or faster at ISO 100 or 200 -- slower shutter is possible at high altitudes, faster is needed at low altitudes, such as during departure and final approach). A fast lens will let you also use a polarizer, which is highly recommended if it's not sunset (but the polarizer also makes everything one to two stops slower). Flying around noon will give everything a flat, cartoonish appearance because there are no shadows, so that's to be avoided. (If you want to do night aerials, you'll need a very very fast lens. I use a 30mm f/1.4 at ISO 1600 and it's still not quite fast enough.)

Wide angle lens is best. Surprisingly, exposure isn't the limiting factor preventing longer lenses from working -- it's the non-clarity of the air. Several thousand feet of air isn't very clear, and will prevent you from getting good shots at more than about 70mm. There's no way around this other than to fly lower or use a wide-angle lens so you don't notice as much. The lens I use most is a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L. Longer lenses will also surpass the resolution limit of the average piece of aged plexiglass, keep that in mind if you aren't opening the windows.

Set your focus point to be the center point, use AI SERVO focus. You can also use manual focus and set your lens at infinity, but this takes practice, as even the best of lenses aren't marked accurately -- what it says as infinity may be a bit off in either direction, which you won't notice until you get home. Best to use servo focus if there's enough light to do it -- at twilight/night there won't be, and you'll have to figure out the infinity point manually. (A fast lens is again useful here -- it will be able to autofocus easier in low light -- an f/2.8 or faster lens will even keep autofocus working with a polarizer on.) I usually use continuous shutter mode and take two or three of every shot, just in case the first ones got bumped by slight turbulence. This is especially useful if you're near the exposure limit for a given altitude/groundspeed. Obviously there are times when you don't want infinity (any time you're less than about 100 feet from the subject), such as during takeoff and landing. In these cases, servo focus becomes mandatory, as you are constantly moving at a rate much faster than a human could ever manually focus.

Use the "Tv" exposure mode, evaluative (full-frame) metering (the default), and set exposure as mentioned above to about 1/500th. If the scene is dark, autoexposure won't give you the results you want -- it will try to way overexpose, probably with an impractical shutter speed. You'll need to switch over to manual mode and just bracket extensively (pay attention to the preview screen).

If you're flying in the right seat up front take the strap off your camera. You can cause major problems if you accidently get that wrapped around the yoke! You don't want to be a pest to the pilot, or worse, induce a spin when you rush to take a photo of that interesting thing you just noticed.

Open the window if you can, but keep in mind it will make it very noisy and windy. A constant 100 knot wind through the cockpit is more than enough to blow away important things like navigational charts.

ages ago(permalink)

Older Cessnas have a little brace that keeps the window from opening all the way. Unscrew one end of the brace, so that the window is free to fly all the way up once it's opened a little bit. The air pressure will keep it there until you pull it closed and latch it.

I'm not a pilot, so I'm not sure about the terminology of this next trick, but a pilot who flew for me recently kept the plane in a slightly off-kilter position while we circled by keeping her foot on the rudder. This forced the strut (under the wing) forward relative to my position, and allowed me more room to look down without getting the strut into the frame. It was really helpful (and apparently fairly tiring, as we circled over one subject for 40 minutes...)

ages ago(permalink)

I have been taking aerials for years, but when digital came along I have had trouble with motion blurs with turbulance. I have a A630 now and I normally have it set to max optical zoom (4x) on many pics. I have been setting it on Landscape setting everything else on Auto settings. Most of the photos are about 45 degees down at about 2,000 - 2,500 feet agl, but I still struggle with the blurs from time to fime. I had a Nikon Coolpix 3200 and it seemed to not have blur issues like the Canon 630 has. Fustrating.

Like Nightflyer, I also fly the plane and I don't have much time to tweek things. So is basically point, hope the camera focuses correctly, and shoot.

However, I will put NightFlyer and Midendian tips to use next time.

Anybody know of the best point-and-shoot camera for aerials? As well as any other tips for working with Canon A series cameras for aerials?

ages ago(permalink)

I dont think landscape mode is the best mode for aerials, as that mode usually uses smaller apertures (so both near and far is in focus) which slows the shutter speed, which then results in a motioned blurred photo. I think you should use something like sports mode so that the shutter speed is faster.

ages ago(permalink)

Thanks Noah. I tried that once and got more blurs than Landscape for some strange reason (family and Pets) There is no Sports mode on the A630. I just bought an Canon A570 IS, but I have not taken it up with me yet. However, my ground tests of camera shake has made me a believer that Image stability on that camera will NOT be the silver bullet for the blurs. I tested the A630 with the same shaking motions as the A570 IS and they are just about the same when it comes to blurs. I was hoping the A570's IS would be the golden ticket for the blurs.

Now when I am not zooming, the A630 works great in aerial pics, but I need to zoom a lot.

I am hoping there is a better Point-and-shoot camera that does better than the A630. I really don't want to head into the Digital SLRs, due to the money and learning curves of those things.

Originally posted ages ago. (permalink)

JW Jets edited this topic ages ago.

JW Jets , I'm in no way an experienced aerial photographer, having only done it once... LOL. I used my Canon A570 IS from a Cessna 172, though I was not the one flying the plane when taking the shot. Here are a couple shots I took with the A570 IS. I'm pretty sure I was in TV mode (shutter priority). Some may have been taken in P mode.

I love this camera. I am very satisfied with the pictures taken from the air, on land and while scubadiving. The IS helps, but it does affect battery life. I keep the IS mode "on shot" to reduce battery use.

ages ago(permalink)

Thanks!

Well I traded in the A570 and entered the DSLR realm. I got a starter DSLR camera - the Pentax K100d Super. Pentax was my first SLR camera, I had good aerial pics with the K-1000 back in the 90's.

It was either getting the new Canon A650IS, or pay a little more and enter the DSLR world.

Since I still have the K-1000 lenses, (the 70-200 zoom in particular) - I am hoping I can really get some sharper shots. The K100d does have Shake Reduction in the body. I know it is only 6.1MP, but I could not afford the K10d. I am hoping that 6 will be enough using the zoom lens.

Now since the southern US is well into Fall, the glamour aerials will have to wait until late March. That will give me time to get the feel of the DSLR with my old zoom lens.

ages ago(permalink)

Hi,

I just joined this group and this thread caught my eye. I recently been on a Cessna because my friend happens to be learning how to fly and he needs the hours in the air. So he invited me and I tagged along for nearly 2 Hours, although I'm scared **** of flying they happened to be the best 2 hours of my life.

I live on an Island called Malta in the Mediterranean, I use a Canon 350D as I just got started and 2 lenses 18-55mm and 75-300mm...

I got some good aerial shots out of it, I kept the ISO less than 400, I used the 75-300mm lens most of the time as I get better picture stability and quality than the stock lens 18-55mm. A 28-200mm lens or any lens in that range Is much better as you can take wider shots covering more land.

The Cessna Plane is a very light aircraft not much of a speedy craft so it's very good to take photos... riding in the back seat is much better than riding in the front as you have the bar holding the wings (sorry don't know what they call them exactly not much into planes), also make sure you clean the windows before you get in.

These are my aerial Photos

ages ago(permalink)

I would emphasize that depth of field is utterly irrelevant from the air, as everything in the viewfinder is quite far away. Thus, don't be afraid to open up the diaphragm all the way to get extra shutter speed (this will definitely help) and keep the gain (ISO) as low as possible for the best image quality. I would set an automatic camera to aperture priority at maximum aperture and minimum gain under most circumstances, light permitting, but try to keep shutter speed at 1/500 or faster if you can, even if it means bumping the gain higher. The only exception is if you are shooting air-to-air shots of a propeller airplane and want the prop to "disk out" nicely rather than being frozen--you need to keep your shutter speed below 1/100 for this, and it makes these shots tricky.

ages ago(permalink)

I've been taking pics from a Cessna and a Piper recently. Using a Canon G9, and Oly 520 the results are not bad in terms of definition but the colors are still a problem (I shoot RAW so I can fix this later in PC).

I think the glass has something to do with it. Shooting from an open chopper is totally different. There is some refraction that grows with the angle. If I shoot perpendicular to the window, sun not directly hitting the window, results are best.

ages ago(permalink)

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