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Nikon Rumors Forum » Nikon DSLR

Lens for Air Shows

(65 posts) (17 voices)
  • Started 3 years ago by ted2001
  • Latest reply from msmoto
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  1. bernard

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    NSXType-R: If you like airplanes, you're my special friend too :o)

    "Aircraft" refers to anything mechanical that can fly (Plane, helicopter, autogyro, glider, etc…). Grammaticaly it is invariable (No "s" at the end in plural).

    From a health point of view, I can see that you are lacking the vital minimum, and this is a very serious disease. To cure it, stop at any airport to get to see as many planes as you can and as often as you can. Start smoothly with local airports, take pictures of the static planes, then move onto flying ones at take-off and landing. As your health gets better, increase the size of the airport and the size and number of planes. Once in a while, try an USAF or NAVY base. When you feel a definite improvement, move onto air shows, again starting with local ones, and ending with national ones with a peak at Oshkosh or, better, Midland (Tx) if you like Warbirds especially (CAF Annual Airsho). Shouldn't that be enough, treat yourself with a flight at an aero-club and ask the pilot to fly over your area so that you can take pictures of your home. That should do it :o)

    Use a 300 mm tele-lens or zoom (Or equivalent depending if your camera is FX or DX), for aircraft taking off or landing. During air shows, try and push that to about 400 mm using a tele converter 1,4 or 1,7. Remember rule number one: With propeller driven aircraft, never use a speed higher than 1/320s, otherwise your propellers will be frozen and that is ugly (I often try 1/90s or even slower, even if the failure rate is high, but when the picture is good it's fantastic).

    Posted 3 years ago #
  2. NSXType-R

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    Thanks for the clarification. :D

    I've heard about Oshkosh, but it's so far away. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere right? I forgot about which state though. But I have been to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum- closest I've ever been to airplanes, but they don't fly.

    Thanks for the tip about the slow shutter- I would imagine it would look really ugly, because the motion shouldn't be stopped.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  3. bernard

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    Oshkosh (Wisconsin) is about 80 miles North of Chicago. Hotel bookings must be made a year or two in advance... The Intrepid is a very nice museum, especially since they refurbished it. I intend to go and see it whenever possible.

    It all depends where you live, of course, but there are hundreds of small airports where you can practice, and many aircraft museums too ! :o)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  4. NikoDoby

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    During my high school years I once took a date to the airport. We went to the end of a runway........just the two of us.........at night........
    To watch the planes take off! What did you think I was going to say? :^)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  5. bernard

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    No idea... I never did that. May be you told her she was as lovely as those airplanes ?... :o)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  6. NikoDoby

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    I told her I could make her fly higher than any plane could 8^)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  7. bernard

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    How romantic ! Did she believe you ?…

    Posted 3 years ago #
  8. NikoDoby

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    No, she kneed me in the groin and sprayed me with Mace :^) But she did eventually marry me so...

    Posted 3 years ago #
  9. NSXType-R

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    Haha, Bernard, I like your little anecdote.

    I'll try and see if I can smush in the time for more planes.

    And NikoDoby, glad things worked out, even though there was a rough takeoff. :D

    Posted 3 years ago #
  10. adamz

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    bernard - thanks for the info, on the proper shutter speeds to have a nice pictures of the propellers, as I'm right now at the Polish biggest airshow, and as it's my maiden one, any feedback is highly recommended.

    BTW: here's a link to one of the most popular polish aircraft photographer Tomasz Pacan (LINK) - this site is in polish, but it's pretty easy to find the gallery (galeria) and airplanes pictures You will find in the "lotnictwo" tab, once You enter into gallery

    Posted 3 years ago #
  11. bernard

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    NikoDoby: You married the right girl !!! :o)

    adamz: Thanks for the link. Nice pictures and unusual airplanes ! :o) I wish I could be with you at this air show...

    I guess there will be mainly jets ? For these, use the highest speed you can. Personally I find that 400mm is the longest lens I can use hand-held with VR. You may be better than this. Another trick I use when I take pictures of airplanes crossing before the public like aerobatic teams often do: I aim at the one coming from the right but I keep my left eye wide open. While I follow the plane from the right, I keep waiting for the left one coming. When I can see it with my left eye, I depress the shutter. The rate of successful shots is pretty high. Higher than just shooting in Continuous High. You might get some kind of headache with this system, but if you take aspirin tablets along with you, you will overcome that problem :oD HA HA HA !!!

    Posted 3 years ago #
  12. NikoDoby

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    I forgot to post this link. Some really great shots.

    http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/in_flight.html

    I especially like the guy who built his own helicopter for $1500US !

    Posted 3 years ago #
  13. bernard

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    NikoDoby: Thanks ! Very nice collection of pictures ! The only thing I would say is that all helicopters have their rotor frozen and seem to hang in the sky by some magic means. Helicopters are the trickiest thing to photograph because the main rotor is very slow (300 to 400 revolution per minute generally), slow enough to stop the blade tip to go supersonic which would be detrimental to the blade structure. Therefore, one needs to use a really slow shutter speed of 1/60s or even 1/30s. Easy to say but not easy at all to do !

    As for the chinese "helicopter", just looking at it, I think the authorities were right to stop this guy. That thing would have never taken off and would have, most probably, killed him (I have a licence on helicopter maintenance). I hope they helped him quit his job as a farmer and do some serious studies to become an aviation engineer... A guy with so much enthusiasm deserves to be trained properly :o)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  14. bernard

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    A friend of mine, Max Haynes, has a good web site where you can see many aircraft pictures: http://maxair2air.com

    You will love it ! Max doesn't just use a camera. He also uses his heart to get good shots :o)

    Make sure you see all his essays.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  15. adamz

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    so I'm back, took some pictures, but unfortunately heavy rainfall terminated the show, only 3 hours after the start, and I couldn't stay for another day; however I'm gonna play a little bit with this what I have and for sure I gonna go for the next show, as it's really amazing.

    as for all my security doubts, there was not a problem with all, You could bring tripod, foldable seats, even unopened drink; as for the lenses, I found out that all the range from 10-340 is very usable, but as bernard wrote, 400 is probably the max (maybe 500) as after that it's getting tough to get the shot

    Posted 3 years ago #
  16. adamz

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    As I've wrote couple hours ago, I came back from the Radom Airshow 2009 yesterday, the show was terminated yesterday due to the weather conditions. Unfortunately, second day of performance was also terminated, this time due to the SU-27 crash. Both pilots didn't make it. This photo below is to honor their memory, and this what they done - saved lives of many sacrificing their own. To the Belarusian pilots:
    SU-27 - In memoriam
    Taken yesterday, just before I've left the airshow.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  17. NikoDoby

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    Sorry to hear about the lost. My condolences to the families. How did it happen? Was their no time to eject?

    EDIT: ITAR-TASS has a brief write up on what happened.

    http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14281943&PageNum=0

    The SU-27 has a horrible safety record at air shows !

    Posted 3 years ago #
  18. adamz

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    Niko - from this what I've heard on TV, after the second barrel they lost control over the aircraft, and to save people on the airshow, they decided to sacrifice their lives and instead of eject themselves took the plane a little bit further, on inhabited land

    Posted 3 years ago #
  19. bernard

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    This is so sad to hear !!! I have seen many crashes during air shows, and every time it makes be really and deeply sad for the poor guys who lost their life, and for their families. These two men deserve our full respect for their decision not to eject. As Niko said, the SU-27 has some very poor record for safety, at least during air shows.

    Also sorry about the poor weather. Unfortunately, this is the only thing no one can control... I hope you still got some good shots !

    Posted 3 years ago #
  20. NikoDoby

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    Their families should take comfort in knowing they went as heroes and died doing what they loved doing the most.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  21. NSXType-R

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    Wow, that's really sad.

    Air shows really are dangerous, huh?

    On another note, would the Nikkor 80-400 VR work as well? Or is the AF too slow?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  22. NikoDoby

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    The 80-400 would be good. At an airshow the reach and quality of the lens is more important since most of the focus takes place at or near infinity anyway.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  23. bernard

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    I don't know the 80-400 but I guess it would be OK, probably heavier which is good and bad. As for the distance, it depends on the air show. In Midland, especially during the days previous to the actual air show, planes do fly-by's fairly close to the ramp, which can be as close as 100 meters. With an aircraft traveling at 200 miles per hour, low over the ground, and right before your nose, you will need quite a fast auto-focus.

    During the actual air show, planes use a greater distance between them and the public, and, as NikoDoby says, you'd be close to infinity.

    I have been to air shows where the planes were so high up in the sky, and so far away, that it wasn't worth taking any pictures. They looked ridiculously small in the viewfinder, even with a 420 mm focal length. When this happens, I go back to the static area and make good use of the fact that the public is away watching the air display to take pictures of the other airplanes sitting on the ground :o)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  24. NSXType-R

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    Didn't want to start a new thread, since the mods are probably all busy culling all the D90 upgrade threads. :D

    Here's a cool article on the logistics of photographing a really old plane with a really new one. So new I thought it'd be almost vaporware. :D

    http://jalopnik.com/5542420/boeings-newest-oldest-airplanes-fly-together

    http://www.antiqueairfield.com/articles/show/593-how-the-boeing-40-787-photo-shoot-was-done

    Posted 3 years ago #
  25. adamz

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    nice finding NSXType-R

    Posted 3 years ago #

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