Too Much Noise???

[streets]

I decided that I would attempt to get some depth of field while shooting at 620mm fl (35mm equiv) with my Sony A200, 100-300mm at max, plus a 1.4x teleconverter.The only way to do this was to use an ISO of 1600 at f13 and 1/4000. I think that the noise is acceptable but I need some others to comment before I do this again.

Photos were taken at DFW airport as these aircraft were taxiing to the terminal after landing 13R.

[Lava Lamp]

I think the noise is okay. You could always tone it down with Neat Image or another program. I don't know that you needed 1/4000 for this shot, though. You could have probably gone 1/2000 at ISO 800 and still stopped the action, reducing the noise some.

When I read that you were using a 100-300 zoom with a teleconverter, I expected to see much worse results. These aren't bad, IMHO.

[streets]

I was in manual aperture mode so the camera selected the speed. The morning sun that day was brighter than I thought. I could have used f22. The whole exercise was getting the D.O.F. maximized as the optics setup required manual focusing. Thanks for the comments.

[Photo-John]

They look fine to me, although they also look a bit underexposed. I agree with Lava Lamp about the shutter speed. I think you probably had a stop or two to work with there. The general rule is your shutter speed should equal your effective focal length. So if you're shooting at about 600mm, 1/800th second should be fine. Also, if you had a tripod, you could shoot even slower. Your A200 has shutter-level image stabilization so that will also compensate for camera shake. Next time experiment with shutter speeds a bit and see what you can get away with. I think you probably could have been successful at 1/500th second.

[streets]

P-John, bear in mind that I was panning these aircraft going about 40-50 MPH and using manual focus and, worst of all, I'm 78 years old. I'd rather err on the high side of shutter speed. I will however try to keep the ISO between 400 and 800 and keep the lens closed down as far as the light will allow. Thanks for your inputs.

[Lava Lamp]

... I was panning these aircraft going about 40-50 MPH and using manual focus and, worst of all, I'm 78 years old. I'd rather err on the high side of shutter speed...

Some would argue that being 78 is the BEST of all.

Someone more technical than me can explain it better, but surprisingly, you can catch fast moving airplanes at relatively low shutter speeds. I just pulled this out of my files from last year and it is ISO 800, f/5.6 and 1/640. I could never have manually focused, though...

Welcome to the site, by the way..

[ssa2010]

I think high sutter speed is required for taking the flying aircraft