| A few weeks ago I went with my friends to see | | | | sequence of photos. |
| an air show. The schedule was packed with | | | | |
| acrobatics and many types of planes. The | | | | As time passed my hands got tired from |
| highlight of the show was the blue angles | | | | holding the camera and my stable grip was not |
| with their jets doing dangerous routines. I | | | | as stable anymore. Unfortunately I did not |
| took my camera hoping to capture some good | | | | bring a tripod - and probably I would have |
| digital memories of that show. | | | | not used it even if I had it since it is hard |
| | | | to track airplanes flying above using one |
| I took my digital SLR camera to the air show. | | | | especially when you are with thousands of |
| I put it in my special camera bag alongside | | | | people walking around you. When I looked at |
| an extra battery and lenses. I used an eight | | | | the photos that evening I saw the results of |
| mega pixels DSLR with a 100-300mm zoon | | | | my tired grip - the later digital photos were |
| lenses. | | | | not as sharp and steady as the earlier ones. |
| | | | |
| I decided to shoot as many photos as I could | | | | When I saw the results of my work my reaction |
| knowing from my experience that in such cases | | | | was to go and get those fancy lenses with an |
| the rule of big numbers works very well - | | | | image stabilizer built-in them. There are two |
| shoot as many photos as you can and you might | | | | types of image stabilizer one that moves the |
| be able to find a few photos which are really | | | | sensor and one that actually uses gyroscopes |
| unique. So when the airplanes started to fly | | | | in the lens to move a floating optical |
| around I pointed my camera at them and from | | | | element that compensates for shakings. The |
| that point on I watched most of the air show | | | | latter is more expensive and provides better |
| through my camera's viewfinder. | | | | results. I saw some people walking around |
| | | | with the Canon image stabilizing zoom lens I |
| I set my camera to automatic continuous | | | | am not sure how effective it was for them but |
| focus. I had my finger holding the shutter | | | | it sure did look impressive. |
| button half way down most of the time while I | | | | |
| am moving the camera to track those fast | | | | There are also drawbacks to using image |
| flying airplanes. I could hear the camera's | | | | stabilizers and actually some of these |
| motors working hard moving the optical | | | | drawbacks are very relevant to my air show |
| components in the lens back and forth to keep | | | | photo shooting. Moving the camera erratically |
| the focus right. I also set the camera to | | | | to track an acrobatic airplane can confuse |
| burst mode so whenever I decided the | | | | the image stabilizer that can detect that |
| composition was worth shooting a photo it | | | | movement as being unwanted shakings and try |
| actually shot a fast sequence of four photos. | | | | to compensate for it. If I had an image |
| The idea behind that was first to get more | | | | stabilizer I would have had to use different |
| photos to choose from - with fast flying | | | | practices when shooting my photos like trying |
| planes these four photos were really | | | | to pan the camera on one axis and at a more |
| different from each other - and second to | | | | or less constant speed. |
| maybe be able to capture some motion in a | | | | |