I bought a 1D Mark II N and a 100-400L for mainly plane spotting, but quite a few of the images just aren't quite sharp enough.  I've got plenty of light, shooting usually 1/640th or 1/800th at f8-f10. I'm getting similar results to my old crappy EF 75-300 III, but I didn't spend $800 on this lens (lightly used) for crappy images. Anybody have any hints or tips to help me out?

Post up some example images. We can't really diagnose a problem without seeing it. Settings are meaningless.

And make sure the EXIF data remains intact. (All Adobe software removes the needed Canon specific data when converting to JPG.)

here's one i think is acceptable.



here's one that i think is a little soft.

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I am unable to extract exif information from the pictures.

Looks to me like the United one you either borked the focus or have some type of motion blur happening. Hard to tell without knowing the pertinent shooting info.

focal length, shutter speed, aperture, iso, handheld/tripod/etc

Spirit air looks pretty good.

spirit on the left, delta on the right.  both were handheld while panning.

How are you focusing?  

Also, have you checked your focus on still objects to see if what the autofocus is seeing is spot on?  I believe on the newer Canons you can adjust the focus on specific lenses and keep it in the camera's memory.  I know my 17-40L lens is just a hair off so I have to do this.

1.  Use a tripod or monopod with everything loosened.  
2.  Shoot a smaller aperture, especially on angled shots
3.  Maybe try hand focusing a few times.

My two cents....take it with a grain of salt, because I'm no expert with long glass.

Spirit looks pretty good, which tells me the equipment is capable of getting the job done.

If the planes were 200 feet away, your DoF is large enough that at least some part of the plane should be in sharp focus.  If they are 300 feet away, then the DoF should be plenty adequate.  Looking back through some of my old pictures, I frequently shot jets at f/4.0 to f/5.6.  so I think you have some room to spare, when it comes to aperture.

I'm leaning towards a very slight camera shake issue.  Shooting handheld with long lenses takes some practice and a steady hand.  I'm not so great at it, so I compensate by increasing the shutter speed.  I haven't shot planes (or anything else, for that matter) in quite a while, but when I did, I liked to keep the shutter speed at 1/1000 or faster.  Sure, it can be done with slower shutter speed, but why risk it?  For close up action like horse racing, I would try to use 1/2000 or faster.  Speed is your friend when trying to shoot action, especially with long lenses.  

Of course, the game changes and gets a lot harder when shooting propeller driven planes, and you are trying to get some prop blur. 1/200 or so, seems to be about right, and it takes a talented photographer to pull it off......which is why I don't have any prop plane pictures.

Panning is not an easy task, especially when the distance to the object changes. You are moving, the angle is altering the focal plane, and the object is moving.

For me, I had a heck of a time doing it at a race track. I had a success rate of about 5%. I was looking for the panning shot, with the blurred moving background.

I don't know anything about your camera or whether or not it supports this. I'm a Nikon guy.

I'm able to assign a button on the back of the camera to focus. Set the camera to continuous focus, and then it'll focus whenever that button is held down.

If your camera is set to half-press shutter for focus, it may well be a part of this problem.

If you can use back button focus, it will help you track moving stuff better for stuff like panning shots.

All higher end cameras like yours have the ability to control the "release priority"  . For Nikon , it is found in the " AF-C priority "

For Canon ( IIRC ) is AI servo priority  ( can control both 1st and 2nd image on some Canons )

Most likely you are at default "equal priority " . This is like the Nikon "release + focus "

This essential means it can and will ( depending on AF tracking , movement of object, frame rate ) will release shutter when focus has not been acquired ...ie

If you move it further to "focus " it will not release unless focused" . If you move all the way to  "release" it just bangs away regardless if focused or not

Only caveat is depending on frame rate and the focus speed of lenses , you may see a "hesitation" which is annoying

This , BTW is where your really see the difference between pro lenses and consumer .  When running my trinity pro lenses ( Nikon ) I set to "focus" which means it will never release unless focused . I can bang away at up to 7fps and never notice hesitation

With my travel lenses ( all in one zooms )  the focus speed is such that there is noticable lag depending before it releases....if it releases at all

You should put your AI servo priority to closer to focus . If you find that you are missing shots because it doesn't release , it tells you that your autofocus isn't keeping up

In all the higher end cameras like yours, there is a myriad of setting for the auto focus "continuous tracking " . It is very easy to have one of the settings wrong and the camera tries to outsmart you and chooses were to focus...often it is the wrong spot !

i'm going to see if i can try again tomorrow.  i'll bump up the shutter speed to 1/1000 or 1/1250 and shoot solely with the ai servo setting on.   i'll also use setting 2 for the image stabilizer on the lens and i turned on the back button autofocus.  i've only had this camera for a week so i'm still learning how to use it.

Bring a tripod with you and try it a couple times just in case.

I bought a monopod, should work better when I'm on the ladder.

Speed is your friend, this was on AI Servo on shutter priority. I set the min and max aperture on my 6D, the min and max ISO. I was shooting faster than 1/1000 sec
This was with a super cheap Sigma 70-300. My wife doesn't let me use her L glass or Mark III.
This is OOC with no cropping or processing.

My last trip to the airport was rained out, will try again when weather and time allows.

time and weather allowed me to go out yesterday.  bumped up the shutter speed to 1/1600 and manually focused.  i think i got it.

Getting there..but I'd recommend giving the plane (and other moving objects) somewhere to go.


Just a compositional tip for ya.

when i go to the airport everything has to be very technical, if you will.  i upload to a plane database website where the artistic stuff doesn't really fly for the most part and they're very strict about what they allow.

You have the technical covered.
In the case of closely cropped planes, I like to see twice as much room on the nose as you leave on the tail. You should not get dinged for that.

Just out of curiosity, which aviation stock site do you upload to?

jetphotos.net.  I still have a lot to learn, but each time I go out I get a little better at it.  I think some of the time it's just luck, like when I went the day I forgot my monopod so the shot above was handheld and I still did ok.

Looks good to me.

FWIW, I don't think you need the monopod, if you can keep the shutter speed up.  When I shot planes with my 300 f/2.8 (sometimes with a crop sensor, and sometimes with a 1.4 TC), they were all handheld.  The only thing I used the monopod for, was supporting the camera/lens, when resting.  When I was ready to shoot, I would pick the whole thing up so I could track the aircraft better.  And when shooting something like the Blue Angles, I didn't even attach a monopod.

I hear ya.  I did need some extra support, it was getting a little heavy towards the end.