K5 what settings please?

I am a newbie to my K5, and use the auto settings. However having played with all settings with mixed out comes. I am after some advise re what settings for flying in my micro-light. I fly around 1500ft and have a perspex window to focus through and really take landscape shots. Please any advise will be great.
Anita

I assume that if you are flying then you will need a fairly high shutter speed to freeze the movement.
I personally would try ISO 400 and Aperture Priority at F8. This should result in giving high shutter speeds, whilst getting a good performance from the lens.
You may have to focus manually at around infinity, especially if the perspex interferes with Autofocus.
A haze or skylight filter may help with reducing haze in your photos.
A polarising filter may be useful in improving the definition, but may cause problems when viewing through the perspex.

Sadly our flying photographer (aliengrove) has just headed of on his hols. Though he flies something a tad bigger than a microlight .

Maybe looking at the exif on some of his (non Infra-red) photos will help you.

Hi Graham,

Thanks for your advise, weather tomorrow looks good, so I shall hava a go. Your suggested settings of ISO 400 and AP F8 will be a starting point. This K5 is really good, however its certainly has control over me at present. Practice, practise will make all the difference!!!!!
Anita

Despite the superb quality of AlienGrove's images, I'd suggest that my own experience is possibly more relevant than his - since he's working from the flight deck of a commercial jet at 30-odd thousand feet, whereas I, like you, am a couple of thousand feet up, VFR and doing the flying as well as taking the pictures!

Here are a few suggestions:

- First of all, you won't be going anywhere near fast enough to need to freeze the movement by using a fast shutter speed. As you know, from any kind of sensible altitude, there's not much sensation of speed at GA speeds. However, fast shutter speeds are handy for avoiding camera shake in the potentially turbulent environment you'll be working in.

- Take lots of photos - from different angles. Canopy reflections are quite difficult to eliminate.

- Make sure you don't touch the canopy with the camera, else the vibration is likely to cause camera shake.

- Be careful not to smack yourself in the face with the camera if the air is at all rough. Consciousness is always a benefit when flying.

- Don't use focal lengths that are too wide, otherwise everything will look very far away, and there'll be no close foreground to add interest as one normally looks for with extreme wide angle shots.

- Clean the canopy thoroughly, inside and out, before you take off. You'd be amazed how much crap it accumulates that can degrade the pictures, even if it's good enough to see through.

- And obviously, if you're flying as well, keep a bloody good lookout !!!!!

I use a 28-200 for all my air-to-ground stuff, and it seems to be all I need.

Here are a few of mine (not necessarily the whole frame) to give you an idea:

Didcot power station:
[IMG]http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t244/chris5gd/Aviation/AirToGround/IMGP7617-1-smsh-1.jpg[/IMG]

Synchrotron at Harwell
[IMG]http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t244/chris5gd/Aviation/AirToGround/IMGP7615-1-smsh.jpg[/IMG]

Cerne Abbas, in Dorset
[IMG]http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t244/chris5gd/Aviation/AirToGround/IMGP5057-1smsh.jpg[/IMG]

I've read somewhere (possibly on ths forum somewhere) about using a black hood that presses up against a window, thus eliminating back reflections.

I can't remember whether it was in respect of flying or coach travel, but I guess the same problems apply.


regards


Bernard

It does, but adds the risk of camera shake from the transmitted vibrations. Not too bad if the air is smooth and you're not flying, since you can hold the camera very close to the canopy.

Hard otherwise, and as the cockpit is fairly cramped, and you're strapped in, there's only a limited range of movement.