Aviation photography - which camera?

[Sardine]

My main focus is aviation photography. I've been using a Fujifilm S8000 for about 2 years now, and I think it's time to bite the bullet and upgrade. Now my question to you is; what's an ideal upgrade? I take photos of static aircraft, as well as some air-to-air, air-to-ground, and ground-to-air. With the ground-to-air photos, I'm normally about 20m-80m away from the aircraft (100m+ when at airshows).

My budget isn't huge, so I can't afford those very juicy lenses all the professional aviation photographers have. I just want something that will get the job done nicely. My knowledge isn't that great either, so I'd like something relatively basic (I am willing to learn though!).

A friend said I must look at a secondhand Canon 450D with a 18-55mm lens. He then advised me to get a Sigma 300mm once the bank balance is in the green. Yay, nay?

I've also been looking at the:
Canon EOS 1000D
Nikon D60
Nikon D3000

Had a look at the Sony A 230 and A 330, but I'm leaning more towards Nikon and Canon.

Please note that I live in South Africa.
Budget is about R6000, R7000 at a push. So, approx $800 or 500 Euro.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wescobts]

Having never shot from the air to ground, but was going to until I heard the price of air time, ouch ! The pilot told me if I had a nice zoom, it would be good, I have a 70-200 which I was going to use. Maybe someone will chime in who knows a little better. I'm a Nikon guy, so I will tell you to go with a Nikon, but other brands are good also.

 

[altitude604]

I started with a Fujifilm S5200 and this Summer I upgraded to my Canon 450D.

Does great for aviation, if you pick up the 55-250mm zoom that works good as well.

You can check my flickr for some examples I've taken while at work.

 

[KmH]

My main focus is aviation photography. I've been using a Fujifilm S8000 for about 2 years now, and I think it's time to bite the bullet and upgrade. Now my question to you is; what's an ideal upgrade? I take photos of static aircraft, as well as some air-to-air, air-to-ground, and ground-to-air. With the ground-to-air photos, I'm normally about 20m-80m away from the aircraft (100m+ when at airshows).

My budget isn't huge, so I can't afford those very juicy lenses all the professional aviation photographers have. I just want something that will get the job done nicely. My knowledge isn't that great either, so I'd like something relatively basic (I am willing to learn though!).

A friend said I must look at a secondhand Canon 450D with a 18-55mm lens. He then advised me to get a Sigma 300mm once the bank balance is in the green. Yay, nay?

I've also been looking at the:
Canon EOS 1000D
Nikon D60
Nikon D3000

Had a look at the Sony A 230 and A 330, but I'm leaning more towards Nikon and Canon.

Please note that I live in South Africa.
Budget is about R6000, R7000 at a push. So, approx $800 or 500 Euro.


Thanks in advance.

Uh....which Sigma 300 mm. You have quite a selection. The best will set you back about $5000

• 300 mm APO f/2.8 EX DG (about $5000)
• 120-300 mm f/2.8 DG ($3200)
• 100-300 mm f/4 DG ($1200)
• 70-300 f/4-5.6 DG Macro for Nikon ($160, but a cpos, imo)
• 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 DG OS ($209, and only marginally better than the above Macro)

The D3000 is probably replacing the D60 soon. I have a D60 and it's a good little camera, but being more recently released the D3000 has a better auto focus system.

I see Nikon is offering the D3000 as a kit with 2 pretty nice (focus wise)starter lenses, the AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR and the AF-S 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G VR. They are offering a $100 instant-rebate.