synchro pair

I really haven't found a good way to capture the synchro pair crossing.
Estimating the crossing point and shooting at a high shutter speed hasn't proved fruitful.
I think I just haven't been lucky.

By panning with one and timing it when they meet, the best I can get is one sharp and the other motion blurred.

Anyone got better than this, and how?

hmm... this is at 1/8000th? Perhaps find a camera capable of 1/16000th. The only one I know of is a film body, Maxxum 7.

Though - getting a new camera simple for 1 stop shutter gain is a silly notion. But its the only idea I can come up with, sorry Paul.

checked the EXIF ... 1/400 sec F11 and ISO 100, seems you have some leeway to increase the shutter speed :)

I think F5.6 ISO 400 would give you over 1/4000 of a sec

you said you tried before and didn't work, I think it has be a combination of your great panning skills and high speed shutter

I find it AMAZING that you got the 2 planes so close together !!

I'm seeing 1/400 in the EXIF??? - Terry

Even the official website press images http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/multimedia/pressimages.cfm don't have the synchro cross.

They cruise at 350kts so I guess at about 200kts display speed.
Assuming 400knots closing speed, that's 675 feet per second.
Plane length = 40ft.
The blur looks consistent with that, 675/400 = 1.68 feet movement.

Push that shutter speed to 1/8000 and keep the camera still, that's 1/2" movement.
Not perfect, but fairly sharp.
On a large print though you will see the blur.

Still I need to predict the crossing point, and frame it accurately enough that I get anywhere from 120feet (two planes plus 1/2 length gap) to 60 feet of space with planes in ... travelling at 200 knots.

I think I worked out why it's not been done :(

I don't know of any shots with both planes crisp, too much closing speed. I use the same method you do (panning with one of them) and the best I ever got was when one plane turned away at the merge (this is a really crappy copy of it as I don't feel like digging up the original :lol:):