Nikon

Airplanes

Landing and Take-off (Head On)

Photograph airplanes head on.

Camera settings
Focus mode AF‑C
AF-area mode [Auto-area AF]
Auto capture settings
[Capture criteria] [Motion]
[Advanced: Motion]
  • [Direction]: Upper right to lower left, right to left, and lower right to upper left
  • [Slowest]: [3]
  • [Smallest]: [3]
  • The options listed for [Direction] assume that the subjects will be crossing the frame from right to left. Specifying the direction prevents shooting being triggered by planes moving in the opposite direction.
  • Taking [3] as your reference point, adjust [Slowest] and [Smallest] according to subject speed and size relative to the frame. Users of wide-angle lenses, in particular, will need to choose smaller sizes to reflect the subjects’ smaller apparent size.

Take-off (from Below)

Photograph airplanes from below during take-off.

Camera settings
Focus mode AF‑C
AF-area mode [Auto-area AF]
Auto capture settings
[Capture criteria] [Motion]
[Advanced: Motion]
  • [Direction]: All
  • [Slowest]: [2]
  • [Smallest]: [2]

The chance of the auto capture being triggered by objects other than the intended subject is reduced when the camera is pointed at the sky. This is why the recommended trigger criteria for [Motion] are easy to meet, with [Smallest] intentionally set to a low value to reduce the number of missed shots.