Plane spotting Logan Airport Boston - EOS R7 with 100-400 ƒ/5.6-8 zoom lens

[FhvnEd]

Delta A320

Frontier A321

American Eagle Embraer 175

American Eagle Embraer 175

[HenrySkil125]

What type of autofocus did you use on r7?

[FhvnEd]

Hi.  Case 2 - Subject tracking - ignore subjects that move in and out of the frame.  For example.  When plane spotting at Logan airport, only 2 locations on airport property are available to you. (you do need a permit). One is the roof of the terminal B parking garage and the other is the roof of the terminal C garage. Terminal B is the most popular because R 22L and 22R are the main runways so the planes are taking off perpendicular to your position either from the left or from the right depending on wind.  However there are 4 light poles that enter the frame as you pan, as well as the rather tall terminal roof the plane disappears behind on north/south takeoffs.  Using any other focus setting will cause the focus to grab the light pole which is 100 feet in front of you and then lose the aircraft as it gets surrounded by sky.   Trust me.  I have many videos where the focus grabs the light poles and I never can re-engage the aircraft again before it flies out of sight. Using Case 2 is great because once I get the aircraft locked on, focus will hold on it regardless of what pops up in front of it.

[HenrySkil125]

Hi! thanks for your reply. I've been thinking getting r7 to go with sigma 150-600 C with a canon RF-EF adapter. I have looked at PDF manuals of R7 and how autofocus works on it, coming from canon EOS 2000D camera it looks very complicated compared to my current camera. which setting do you use for AF area? I've always been using single point on my DSLR camera, since mirrorless autofocus are way better and more complex since my 2000D isn't great in low light while focusing on subjects at high speeds.

[FhvnEd]

I always use 'spot'.  I rarely take it off that setting.  Whether shooting news or sports (my real job) I pretty much use those two settings.  I may change the auto focus setting from 2 to 3 or 4 for sports when the subjects are moving erratically and changing direction quickly. I also use the electronic shutter rather than mechanical.  I may click off 100 frames as the aircrafts leave the runway and 98% of them are going to be tack sharp. Word of advice.  The EF lens adapter for RF lenses works, but you're never going to achieve the sharpness you'll get from an RF lens attached to an RF body. You don't even have to get into the high-end cost RF Lens arena. The Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6 only costs $649.00 and it takes remarkable images. There's an RF 100-300mm f/2.8 for $9000 but the RF 800mm f/11 costs $999.00 and produces excellent results.  Granted you need bright light, but still....