After sitting for a while and chatting with the other photographers around, I decided to take a couple of shots of the aircraft standing there. For some reason, I could not get the lens to go into Auto Focus mode at all. Even though the camera and lens were both set to Auto Focus, the camera reported that it was in Manual Focus. And, indeed, it was. I had to manually focus on moving targets!
I really didn't feel like battling with that the whole day, so, I packed up and went back to the camera store where I bought the lens. They had a look at it, and then brought out 2 other lenses like the one I had, and they all did the same. Between each lens fitting I would first put on my Sony 55-300mm lens with no problems. So, one of the guys there who keeps all the equipment there in tip-top shape asked me if he could clean my camera body's contact pins and the lens' contacts. At the time I had another Sigma lens on (same as above but with in-built Optical Stabiliser). Once he was done, I tried it again, and everything was fine, and has been ever since. I headed back to the air show the following day. I was there even earlier, before the gates opened.
Air Force Base Waterkloof is at coordinates 25° 49.695'S (LAT) and 28° 13.496'E (LONG). This air show is a biennial show, so it is quite big. Two years ago they had an F-16 from the U.S. there and it was simply thrilling to see and hear that machine fly by. Sadly, this year it wasn't here.
Anyway, here are some photographs from the day.
Here is slideshow of the rest of the pics.
Created with flickr slideshow.
