Cosford Airshow

[Livin The Dream]

Something totally different for me but apart from getting a good soaking and the general contrast being difficult managed a few ok shots. Found my 70-200 a bit limiting to say the least to be honest so maybe I will look at something longer at some point in the near future. Also made the school boy error with the early prop planes with a silly high shutter :nono:

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[Timc]

As a first effort at airshow photography these are pretty good, maybe slightly over processed, don't remember the sky being that blue! But lovely and sharp images all the same. A 300mm lens is probably the minimum you can get away with, that's why the 100-400 seems to be the lens of choice at airshows.

Cheers
Tim

 

[Livin The Dream]

Hi Tim,

I agree the first is a bit heavy on the vibrance which seems to be ecentuated uploading from photobucket [had this before seems to saturate slightly?] but i thought it looked ok with a bit more punch.

Have been looking at the 300 f4 with 1.4 TC but the flexibility of the 100-400 does have it's draw, have you any experience of either?

Regards

Kris

 

[Timc]

Hi Kris,
I actually own both lenses and the TC. If the weather's good I tend to use the TC with the 300mm for singleton aircraft. Have a second body which I stick the 100-400, this is great for the display teams. In bad light I use exclusively the 300 on it's own as the 100-400 tends to hunt a lot in poor light.
I switched to Flickr some months ago because Photobucket compresses the files by a ridiculous amount and doesn't do anybody's images any justice, think you will notice the difference!

Cheers
Tim

 

[Livin The Dream]

That was pretty much my conclusion when i thought about the pros and cons of the lenses; the prime & TC for single shots and zoom for display / groups. I guess i will have to weigh up what other uses i can put a long lens to. I even contemplated the new 70-200 mkII with the 1.4 TC as the comparisons look very impressive [would still lack the reach of 400mm though....]

I have a Flickr account that i do use but for uploading the odd shot to a site i seem to default to photobucket, i'll start using the Flickr in future,

Many thanks

 

[Timc]

Might sound a strange thing to say but I've often taken the odd landscape shot with the 300, does a great job of compressing the background if you want to "frame" a particular element in the picture. You'll find it's quite a flexible lens considering it's a fixed prime.

 

[Livin The Dream]

The more i think about the 300 the more sense it makes as i could use the 70-200 on it's own or with a 1.4 TC for display shots. Is there much difference in quality between a 100-400 at 400m and a 300 with 1.4 TC fitted?

 

[Timc]

If anything, personally I think the IQ is better with the 300+1.4TC than at 400mm with the zoom. I'm sure I read something somewhere that at 400 it's actually only 380mm in reality. I stand corrected on that one though!

 

[Livin The Dream]

Thanks Tim, I think the next purchase will be a 300 & TC,

Rgds

Kris