looking for advice/pointers on a lens/adaptor

Matt L

Matt L

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Matt
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basically my brother rang me last night and asked me if i wanted to go away with him to florida in may to see the last shuttle launch (of this type of craft anyway).

decided to say yes as it would be great to see and would be great to get some shots of it... now my lens collection consists of 17-70 and 50mm :lol: now none of those wil be anywhere near useful for this so i need a big zoom lens (more than likely rent/borrow it tbh if its possible as i doubt ill use it again after)

now original thoughts were 70-300 or something like that and then get one of those adaptor things that makes it zoom in more (totaly forgot what they are called and dont know how much they are lol).

so my question is what would you suggest? the above idea or a slightly longer zoom lens something like 500mm? (would definatly rent that if not too expensive).

Thanks Matt
 
Get a 400mm or 500mm lens if you can afford it.
Forget about the teleconverter on cheap zooms.
Any of these will do depending on how much you want to spend (starting from cheapest, i think!):

1. Sigma 135-400mm
2. Sigma 170-500mm
3. Tokina 80-400mm
4. Tamron 200-500mm
5. Sigma 120-400mm
6. Sigma 150-500mm
7. Canon 100-400mm
 
Was lucky to get a ticket to the shuttle launch last November.

I used my 70-300IS lens and wished I had something longer (like the 100-400L I now own!)

To give you a perspective of the type of picture you will get with a 70-300 see attached photo. This was taken around 40 seconds into the launch! The photo has been slightly cropped, and levels adjusted in PSE and resized for this post.

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in print the photo does look sharper, but the point is, despite being as close as allowed to the launch site, you are still miles away!

BTW, it's an awesome sight and sound, I do hope you get tickets, you will not regret it!

Regards,

Gary
 
yeah im hoping we can too tbh, leaving it all to my brother to sort :lol: i think something 400-500 is needed in that case, cant find anywhere with the sigma 170-500 forsale there is however a sigma 135-400 on ebay for £275 atm and mpb have a canon 100-400 l lens for £670
 
Have you thought of hiring a lens from Stewart @ LensforHire?

I used him for a walk about lens for America. His service was first rate and wouldn't hesitate to use him again.

I was lucky to get tikets last time - it took over an hour for their website to respond to my request. KSC has change the system now to stop people using auto complete software to get them tickets without the need to be physically on the computer. For the launch last month, I was able to buy (but couldn't has I wasn't going to the US) any of the tickets on offer!

Get yourself registered at the KSC website to receive announcements of when the tickets go on sell - they tend to sell out mega fast!

Gary
 
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