Air Show Lens

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Donki

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Ian
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Hey guys,

Never have had any rood reason to justify purchasing a big zoom but I will be going to an airshow in September and wondering what I should be looking at a xx-200mm or xx-300mm. I was thinkng the 70-200 L and or 75-300mm IS, obviosly the fixed smaller apperture of the L would be nice but if shooting outside (hopfully sunny) is it necessarry?

Secondly I doulb I will have any great use for the lens afer the show so which is the best sit to get it off, or would anyone on here fancy hiring me one for a week, what sort many is it for a week?
 
Something that can go up to 400mm or 500mm is useful.

200mm is too short, and 300mm is pushing it.
 
With these focal lengths being mentioned, I take it that they do not include crop factor? or do they?
 
It may depend on where the airshow is. Somwhere like Old Warden will be fine with a 200mm lens but Duxford for instance needs 400mm to stand a chance of getting any frame filling shots of the smaller planes (when they're in the air that is ;)), in my experience.
 
100-400L is ideal.
 
Remember aperture is not just about what you actually finally capture the image at, its about how much light the AF has to play with.

Focus accuracy and speed is far greater from f2.8 glass than f4 glass and waaay more than f5.6 glass.

Chuck in that ED elements and nano coatings help with bright sunny days too by creating better contrast which in turn enables the AF better accuracy...

So yes, a f2.8 L series lens will yield better results even on a blazing hot sunny day at an airshow - and thats before you get into detail resolution and CA control etc.

Focal lengths with airshows I've always found to be tricky. You'll usually get something with pretty much any long ish lens and none of them are suitable for frame filling shots of everything that goes on - you just pick and choose your moment depending on what you have stuck on the camera at the time. Every aircraft will have bits of its display when its at different distances from you, so it all works out fine in the end. Go too long and you'll also find haze or heat distortion softens the image to hell anyway.

I'd go with quality over flexibility.
 
Ady Williams said:
Have you looked at these people?

http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/
Click to expand...

:agree::plus1: you would be better off hiring a lens for the weekend.

Most of the larger airshows I go to, you're looking at 300mm + due to where the crowdline is with respect to the display line... health and safety.

Taken with a 300mm + 1.4x TC on a 1D
IMG_7794copy1.jpg
 
I've just looked through my airshow photos and while I can't say I've done a lot of them, I have (reasonable frame filling) shots from 70mm to 300mm. If I'd had 500mm I'd have had shots at 500mm, equally there are shots of things like the BBMF in formation that 70mm wasn't wide enough for.

There is no hard and fast rule for how long you need, however I did run a quick stats check on the couple of thousand aircraft shots I have here and 300mm seems to have been the most popular focal length I've used - even across several different lenses and differing shows. I've very little 200mm and below.

That being said, I always shoot with what I have, sometimes forcing myself to only use one lens by only taking that one lens - makes you more creative that way :D
 
desantnik said:
Remember aperture is not just about what you actually finally capture the image at, its about how much light the AF has to play with.

Focus accuracy and speed is far greater from f2.8 glass than f4 glass and waaay more than f5.6 glass.
Click to expand...

In practise this hasn't applied for me. A Sigma 10-20 - an f/4-5.6 lens - always focussed faster for me than my f/1.4 50mm. There wasn't much in it, but it was still faster.
 
No there is more than aperture to focus speed... for example the non-USM "nasty fifty" Canon 50mm f1.8 vs the Canon 300 2.8 AFS - no competition, but all other things being equal, more light means less mucking around and vagueness from the AF system.

I was just trying to keep things in context and simple...
 
If you're on a full frame sensor, then i'd say a 400mm or 500mm telephoto would be your best bet.

It also depends where you stand... the nearer you get to the VIP/grandstand tents, the closer things will be... if you're out towards the ends of the runway... you'll be struggling even with the big lens for close up shots.. (or at least thats my experience from Waddington at the weekend)
 
I did my first air show last year and used a 40D Canon EF 70-200 F2.8L non IS and a EF X1,4 extender and was delighted with the results.
i was fairly close to the action, some of the shots are in my Gallery on here
 
pete.rush said:
:agree::plus1: you would be better off hiring a lens for the weekend.

Most of the larger airshows I go to, you're looking at 300mm + due to where the crowdline is with respect to the display line... health and safety.

Taken with a 300mm + 1.4x TC on a 1D
IMG_7794copy1.jpg
Click to expand...

+1
Always get good results with the 300 + 1.4 on the 1.6 crop aswell, can even sometimes bounce with between the 1.4x on and off.

Regards,
Jon.S
 
3743353054_4919eea51d_o.jpg


3742561065_dc0a361d75_o.jpg


I think these are 500mm on full frame at RIAT and to be honest I was finding that sometimes that was too big, I reckon 300mm on a crop body should be just fine for all but the smallest stuff.


But I also think you'll want something wider for stuff like this

3743355294_346a0b1b9c_o.jpg
 
Thanks guys for all the imput, its the airshow up in Portstewart NI North Coast, was at it last year and was great just wished I had of had a longer lens. They had that big new Airbus and the Euro fighter last year as well as a beach landing by the SAS.

Ok I think I am going to go as long 100-400L (£64 for the week)? Or would a prime be better (just abit aware of the lack of versatility)?

Having NEVER used a lens over 200mm how stable is it at 400mm handheld?

MarkEvan, Awsome shot of the fighter, thats what I am after.
 
Desantnik,

The wider aperature is something I always forget about, I had read and from using the my friends 50mm 1.4 realised myself.

Thanks
 
The 100-400mm will perform very well in the right conditions.

It depends on the weather, the 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 will struggled if the light conditions start to fall off, you can partially control this with increasing the ISO and palying around with the shutter speeds (prop aircraft 1/320, helicopters 1/200, jets 1/640-1250), but if there isn't enough light, it will struggle to focus. Remember to try and keep the sun behind you when your shooting, otherwise you just capture a grey blob in the sky.
 
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