what lens for airshow?

jl1975 · May 20, 2016

Solarflare said:
The advantage of the Nikon 200-500mm over Tamron/Sigma 150-600mm, aside from higher image quality, is that the Nikon 200-500mm is a fixed f5.6 and can be combined with a 1.4x extender to reach f/8, while the 150-600mm are f5-6.3 and will reach f/9.

Reportedly the D750 can actually still handle f/9, but the D7200, D4s and D810 apparently can not.

That's a good point to consider. I don't think I'll be getting any of those lenses just yet, but the idea of using the TC on them hadn't occurred to me. Thanks

wfooshee · May 20, 2016

My air show lens is my 70-300 ED on a D7000. I do end up cropping the shots most of the time, but not usually by very much. Here are three pairs, uncropped and cropped, with the focal length used. Wildly inconsistent sky tones, but these are from three different shows, in three different years, even.

195mm:

270mm:

125mm (zoomed back because that 720-mph sneak pass is hard to follow, even when you know it's coming, and when and from where!):

Those speaker stands were awful!!!!! They were 30 feet tall, at least, and there was a lot of stuff they obscured. And whoever was running them had no clue how to run a sound board, either! I hope they never use them again; that was my "advice" in the nasty email i sent to them after the show! Anyway, I had to clone it out to get the image.

So a 300mm lens is not going to put you in the cockpit, but it's plenty of reach for a crop-sensor body. Only one of these was over 200mm, so you should have an idea of the reach you'd have.

chuasam · May 21, 2016

Last airshow I shot, I had an Olympus E3 with a 90-250 f/2.8
For a D7100 I would recommend a minimum of 300mm. 200-500 is perfect.

jl1975 · May 21, 2016

Thanks for the shots for reference @wfooshee . I love the shot of the grey F18 with the vapor showing on the wings. I'm really hoping to catch something like that. The show I'm going to will have the Canadian F18 demo team, the F22 demo team, and the snow birds performing.

@chuasam , if I do get a longer lens, I am leaning towards the Nikon 200-500.

chuasam · May 22, 2016

jl1975 said:
@chuasam , if I do get a longer lens, I am leaning towards the Nikon 200-500.

caveat is that I've not shot an airshow since 2008 *LOL* and I had a rather primitive (even for then Olympus E3)
The lens was cracking good though.

I was then the regional sales rep for Olympus Cameras not a photographer.

wfooshee · May 22, 2016

jl1975 said:
Thanks for the shots for reference @wfooshee . I love the shot of the grey F18 with the vapor showing on the wings. I'm really hoping to catch something like that.

The amount of vapor depends on the humidity. I live in Florida, and go to shows in Pensacola (Blue Angels) every year, and the local base (Tyndall) when they have them. Still, even Florida has its dry days from time to time! These two shots are the exact same maneuver on different days.

You probably won't see vapor from the snowbirds, but the F-18 and F-22 are definitely good candidates! (My F-18 was the -E Super Hornet.) Again, depends on the humidity. I don't know where your show is, but if it's in someplace like Arizona, don't expect shots like these.

jl1975 · May 23, 2016

Wow! That's a lot of vapor on the f-22. The show I'll be going to is in Trenton, Ontario at the end of June. Hopefully the conditions will be right for a few good shots. If not, I'll just enjoy the challenge of getting what I can and seeing the jets roar past.

chuasam · May 23, 2016

jl1975 said:
Wow! That's a lot of vapor on the f-22. The show I'll be going to is in Trenton, Ontario at the end of June. Hopefully the conditions will be right for a few good shots. If not, I'll just enjoy the challenge of getting what I can and seeing the jets roar past.

This is what the Thunderbirds Staff photographer was using.

wfooshee · May 23, 2016

I saw one of those, too!

I asked him if he got to keep it after his tour. He laughed.

600mm f:4 on a D3s. Helluva thing to be hand-holding!!

jl1975 said:
Wow! That's a lot of vapor on the f-22.

It was a day that was on and off rain most of the day. During the morning, about half the acts were cancelled due to low ceiling. You can see the water on the concrete in the photographer shot above. The weather broke for good just as the F-22 rolled out, and it was VERY muggy, the old Florida sauna when the sun comes out after it's been raining.
The second F-22 shot was an instantaneous poof of vapor that I was very lucky to get. I was shooting high-speed continuous and it's not in the previous or following frames, just a bit on the wings, similar to the F-18 shot a few posts ago!

coreno · May 31, 2016

I went to an airshow last summer and only had a point-and-shoot super zoom, and I ended up using almost the full range of that camera. I've since upgraded will definitely be bringing my sigma 150-600 on my crop body camera this summer.

Shmelvis · Jun 16, 2016

Don't forget that on a DX sensor body, the 200 end of your 70-200 becomes 300mm which will give you a fair amount of pull for an airshow. If you rented an FX sensor body, it will revert back to the 200mm focal length and you'll lose that little bit extra. I do a lot of airshows with my 70-200 2.8 VR1 and I get a lot of hood shots but I also recently bought a Tamron 500mm mirror lens for next to nothing (about £70) and that works pretty well for the long distance shots. Obviously a zoom is better as when the plane comes towards you there is a point when you need to change lenses quickly but for a cheap fix it works great. Make sure you don't choose too high a shutter speed for piston engine aircraft otherwise you'll freeze the prop! Doesn't look good!