Ye Olde Rocket Forum - Beautiful Day to Fly Rockets

Sunshine and 68 degrees coupled with the kids getting out of school at lunch today added up to a great afternoon of rocket flying. I had my first chance to experiment with the new digital SLR too.

I had mixed results with the camera, all due to my experimentation and lack of education. I left the exposure up to the camera, putting it on a “sport” auto setting. This did jack the shutter speed some, but not enough to get crisp shots like I used to get with my old film SLR. Next time, I’ll use shutter priority or manually jack up the ISO and fix that problem.

This is the first auto focus SLR I’ve owned. I read the manual a couple of weeks ago, but by the time I needed that knowledge today, I had already forgotten most of it. The camera was hard to focus manually with the tiny little focus ring, yet leaving it on auto focus presented its own set of problems. The slightest movement off the center of the rocket caused the camera to refocus behind it. The focus lock worked, but the camera wouldn’t refocus when I let go of the button. My in-flight photos would be out of focus unless I let off the shutter button and pressed it again. Doing that defeated the purpose of shooting in burst mode.

It’s no big deal, though. I’m going to sit down tonight and read through the manual again and work out the details. I always shot my old Minolta X-700 in aperture priority (didn’t have shutter priority) or full manual to keep the shutter speed high enough. I could manually focus the old camera faster than modern auto focusing cameras, which was handy for tracking a rocket and getting a crisp flight photo. The 135mm zoom is the equivalent of a 204mm lens with a 35mm film camera. I was used to the 300mm zoom for rocket photography, so I can’t get high quality high altitude shots anymore. I’ll work through it all and eventually start getting some super shots. Meanwhile, the static image quality is outta sight!

I had a few shotgun recoveries with A8-3’s, including sound effects and damage to rockets the Screamin’ Eagle, but all others survived. I’m out of A8-5’s so the combination of super short delays and magnum ejections stressed the rockets that flew on them. I also had my first CATO in several years. I had already flown one A10-3T from the same pack before this one let go. Luckily it was in a plastic rocket so it only charred the inside. My son had some typical issues with a stiff Quest chute, but escaped with only one detached fin.

Two thirds of my launch crew, Katie and Tiger:

EAC Viper:

Katie and Kody launching Katie’s Code Red:

Katie the Rocket Chaser with the recovery of EAC Viper and her Code Red: