A lot of people have been asking me how I get some good video.  Well, here's some tips on getting video as good as mine.  Trust me - you'll want to read these...

Be courteous. I've been to a few airshows where the people behind me yell and scream at me because I'm doing video.  What I've found that works is that telling the people around you that you'll be filming all day makes you look like the better person and who knows - they may want to see the video at a later date.  The last few years I've been doing this, 100% of the people fully understand and approve of it.

Tripod? Well, this is an interesting circumstance. Tripods have their pros and cons. At airshows, tripods are useful in certain aspects of the show, while the other aspects warrant no tripod usage. The best times to use a tripod is if you are filming a ground act (IE. a jet vehicle) or a jet team's ground show. The tripod is good for what's on the ground and not what's in the air, which is where the show is.  I personally will not use a tripod or a monopod because I need range of motion in EVERY direction - something you can't get out of either -pod.  I can imagine if you are situated FAR back from the crowd line, a tripod or monopod will work, but again, I don't recommend one.

Type of camera. This is brand new to the list - a list that hasn't been updated in YEARS because there really hasn't been a need to update it.  However, video cameras have gotten smaller and their capabilities have gotten better - especially when it comes to optical zoom.  Basically the higher the optical zoom, the better.  On the contrary, the more you shake (and even if you don't shake), the more it is magnified as you zoom all the way in.  The smaller video cameras are also lighter, and on windy days, that doesn't help much.  Naturally, you would want a lighter camera if you plan to hand-hold the camera for ten hours in a day.  A lighter camera with a massive zoom is a bad combination for filming airplanes - or anything far away.  I own one camera that is about the size of my hand, weighs less than a pound, and while it takes good video, it absolutely sucks when it comes to filming aircraft.  The camera I use today has a very good zoom (twenty-times optical), is rather large, and is a bit on the heavy side (about four pounds) and I have found that to be the perfect combination for aircraft.

HD or SD?  Right now, HD is the way of the future.  While the HD cameras I've seen come up with some FANTASTIC video, dealing with the larger sized video files can be a pain.  SD is still good and there's nothing wrong with owning an SD camera.

Digital zoom means nothing to me.  My belief is that digital zoom will take an image, and zoom in on the center part, and the digital part will "reproduce" what it thinks that one section of the image is supposed to look like.

I can't tell you whether one brand of camera is better over the others, but I have used Sony video cameras for the last five airshow seasons and I have yet to register a complaint about them.  If I had to pick other brands I would buy, I'd put Canon, JVC, and Panasonic on that list since they all make some great video cameras.  This is not an official endorsement of those brands but I wouldn't mind if Sony paid me for endorsing their Handycam cameras!

Auto Focus or Manual Focus. Auto focus is not recommended for airshows and any action shots - unless it is a very good and fast Auto focus. If you're filming still objects or objects that are somewhat moving (aircraft on static display, graduation party, ceremony), and not using a lot of zoom, you've got no problem with the Auto focus. When you're filming objects in action - and you're a considerable distance away from the object - you'll want to switch to manual focus. Manual focus is also good for situations like at a baseball game, graduation ceremony, pep rally (I filmed my high school's pep rally in the fall of 2000 and used manual focus and it came out pretty good!), or if you want to play around with subjects in a setting (like focusing on a distant object, then the closer object... it takes a lot of practice but the results can be interesting!).

Getting back to aircraft in action... I highly recommend you switch to manual focus and set the focus to infinity. All video cameras have different settings for manual focus and turning Auto focus on and off varies.

Self-Narration. I recommend against this for every reason. Unless this is some other occasion, I recommend against you or someone in your party narrating what you're filming, unless its a static display. It is customary to stop filming and put the camera down and talk. Plus I don't think you'd want to hear yourself in the video, especially if this is going to be around for a long time. Notice that I'm not speaking during any part of my video, unless its during the Blue Angels' or Thunderbirds' dead time (either part of the ground show or waiting for the Thunderbirds to take off). You won't see those videos online, ever!

How to film properly. There are no set rules on how to use a video camera properly, at least none that I am aware of. I learned these from professionals and amateurs and I will pass them on to you. When you're filming up in the air, NEVER be sitting down, unless you have a clear and unobstructed view all around you and you are able to move around freely in all directions. Always use both hands - one hand actually holding the video camera where it should be (usually the right hand, so that the thumb is in the place of the Record button and your index finger controls the zoom) and the other hand holding the other side of the camera. Place your elbows against your body, if possible. Doing that will help you film a lot steadier and it will look much nicer on the bigger screen.

You can adjust the eyepiece to whatever level that makes you feel comfortable. Personally, I shoot with the eyepiece nice and straight, so that I'm actually looking at what I'm shooting and I shoot looking straight ahead and have the eyepiece angled for the camera's lens to be in the air or whatever. I don't prefer one over the other. They both get the job done... its just a matter of how I feel. People say that when I'm filming, I'm not enjoying the show. Not true.  In fact, even though I'm concentrating on the show, I could watch with the left eye and still be able to appreciate every aspect of the show.  In fact, when I'm filming, I can see certain things going on that you normally don't see with the naked eye...

An entire day of filming, like I do, will hurt.  I usually have shoulder problems and a sharp pain in my back - and usually have a hard time sitting down, but it does go away after a day or two.

Eyepiece or LCD screen? That's up to you. It's actually better to film using the eyepiece because it does many useful things. Firstly, its better to use the eyepiece when it's sunny out and you can't view the LCD screen well without shading it. The LCD screen burns more energy from the battery at a much faster rate than the eyepiece does. Also, I believe you get a much steadier video by using the eyepiece over the LCD screen.  However, most newer video cameras have just the LCD screen, so there really isn't much one can do, except make some sort of shade for that LCD screen.

Zooming. I feel that zooming all the way out when an airplane passes your position and then zooming back in gives a decent effect on speed, but it makes you feel like an amateur than someone who knows what he or she is doing.  I zoom out, but I zoom out enough so I can keep the airplane centered in the video and to have all of the plane in the video, taking the entire screen without cutting off any part of the airplane (unless I want to emphasize how close it is flying by).  The only exception to that rule would be if you have a large airplane flying by real close to you and you can only get the entire plane in the video by zooming all the way out.

Background noise. The video camera's microphone will pick up everything around it.  What I tell everyone is that if I can hear it (and my hearing is still very good), the camera can hear it.  There are some exceptions to that basic rule and usually it has to deal with certain pitches of sound that are very hard for a microphone to pick up.

Listen. If you have a scanner and you are able to listen to the Airboss, just hearing the calls "cleared for takeoff, cleared into the box, the airspace is yours, hot target, etc." will tell you that you should be ready to shoot whatever it is that's been cleared.  The Airboss is the person in charge of running the airshow as it happens.  It is his or her duty to hold aircraft, clear airshow airplanes to take off, land, and begin their performance (if it's an air start or being staged from a different place, like a beach show) - basically the entire airshow is in the hands of the Airboss.  Many airshow performers have asked me why I request the frequency and I always tell them it helps me with the video.  And if you're curious to what "hot target" means, it means that there will be jumpers exiting an airplane.  As a word of caution, do not being a transceiver to an airshow.

And finally......

Know the demo. If I were to give you just one piece of advice to filming an airshow, this would be it.  I've been filming at airshows on my own for ten years now and as the years have gone by, the more airshows I've gone to, and the more I've seen certain demos and teams, I've come to learn their routines.  This is, easily, THE secret to my videos.  Sure, there are changes in the routines each year, but I also take that into consideration.  All large-scale aircraft are VERY predictable in their movements and should throw little or no surprises at you.  If you know that a jet team is doing a formation pass from one direction and then a solo pass from either the same or opposite direction, you can work with that.  Listen to the demo narration and use it to your advantage - ESPECIALLY with the jet teams.  If you have the demonstration profiles memorized, you can use that to your advantage.

© 2004-2011 Steven Holzinger