1D-X AF Tracking - Model Plane photography

A mate of mine asked me to go with him to take some pics of a model plane in flight he was doing a review of.

So grabbed the 1D-X and set off in his car. He is a professional photographer so I asked him what setup he would use for this.

400 ISO Shutter Priority set to 1/500th Evaluative Metering. The 1/500th speed was to stop the plane but still showing some motion in the propeller.

Sun was low in the sky so the plan was for some low passes with the sun behind us.

The Model is a BF109 whatever that is. Look it up.

I set the AF to AI Servo.

The 1D-X was attached to a Canon 100-400m L IS F4-5.6. It was the first time out with this combination and I immediately noticed the loss of the 1.6 crop factor from the 7D.

Also set the camera for high speed burst and we are ready to roll.

The thing with Model Plane photography is to try and photograph the model in life like situations. These models are "scale" so you are trying to simulate some realism in the shoot.

Not that easy when these things are buzzing around so fast.

The verdict? The AI Servo on the 1D-X works very well. Its fair to say that this job wasn't an extreme test for the AI Servo mode I shot over 200 frames and most of them were acceptable. With 55 of them printable.

Here's a few of the best.