OK me and some friends fly RC helis for fun. I was able to do some video of it as you can see below.

So now I want to take some good pictures of them, but man it's so damn hard to get them in focus. I have a Canon 40D, any pointers would be great.

Now the video

<object width="600" height="452"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2153051&amp;server=vimeo.com &amp;show_title=0&amp;show_byline=0&amp;show_portr ait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2153051&amp;server=vimeo.com &amp;show_title=0&amp;show_byline=0&amp;show_portr ait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="600" height="452"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/2153051">Jose Campos Trex 600 ESP 6s flight</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user897591">Heli_Freak</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.

 

Uhhh... Have him hover REALLY still for a second while you take a picture?

 

Well that would be a boring picture.

 

OK, have him move the copter slowly and do a cool panning shot. Keep the shutter speed slow enough to blur the rotor blades.

 

You'll have to be specific as to what you want to take.

For taking pictures of moving objects, you generally want:
1) Use Servo Mode for focus
2) Use your brighest lens/fastest focusing lens
3) shoot like a crack smoking japanese tourist

In servo, it continually tries to focus. You just shoot whenever it is in focus.
(Yes, easier said than done). Servo is much harder with something that is flying
herky jerky like that - the Predictive autofocus works much better when something is getting in focus/out of focus in a predictive way. (like say, birds, which fly in a straight line)

Servo shots are take fair amount of practice. Whenver I'm out, and I have a chance to practice (on say, a bird, or a plane) I usually blast a few shots out to practice, like so:

http://lishutterbug.com/08-07-26-bal...G_0196-md.html

- Frank

 

Is it me or does that helicopter sound like a F-22 Fighter Jet...Holy crap when it started up I thought I was in the cock pit.

 

It took me at least 30 seconds to realize it was being flown like that on purpose.

And I agree with what Frank said. Get your shutter speed as fast as you can while still getting motion blur from the blades. Play with servo. IIRC, it only works with the center focus point.

 

That's a bad ass little helicopter. Good luck tracking that thing in AI servo mode.

 

I tried AI servo mode but the pictures still came out blurry. I heard the AI servi mode on the 40D sucks.

I guess I will just have ot take a lot of pics and hope for the best.

 

AI servo with the 40D isn't bad. What lens are you shooting with?

You're shooting one fast ass item, it's going to be hard.

 

time for some Excedrin.. brb

 

The 40d's servo did quite well for me in Yellowstone. I really struggled
with the 20D, but I do wonder how much of this is practice.

In one shot mode and autofocus, you can only take a picture when it is focused on something. In AI servo, not so. You can hit the shutter whenever you want.

Go into Burst mode (the fast one), and fire out a burst when you see
the focus is right. You can just shoot like crazy, but you will get a lot lot lot
of out of focus pictures.

Remember that predictive autofocus can only predict focus if the subject is roughly moving in a straight line.

- Frank

 

I would be curious what lens you are using, too.

 

40D kit lens EF 28-135 mm. It's the only one I have.