Digiscoping and airshow photography
 

Has anyone tried this? I am tempted to do this rather than laying out for a digital slr to enable me to get closer to the aeroplanes. Also how does the telescope like optical zooming?
Or should i still upgrade to a digital slr? I currantly am using a Minolta Z2.

I was thinking of getting a Nikon d50 and a 80=300mm lens, would that be fine? Do jessops sell the atachements to mount a camera to a Telescope?

Ollie

If as they appear to be, aeroplanes are your main interest then I would forget digiscoping.

An SLR will certainly help to improve your photography. Moving planes with a scope will be very tricky.

Before anyone could make any comment on lenses you will have to give an idea of .......
Camera .... £
Lens .... £
Or total .... £

Will you be taking pictures at the same distances as those in your gallery or are you looking at aeroplanes in flight at longer distances?

Don

I am looking at Aeroplanes at greater distances. I cant get close enough with my currant camera. I have another camera i will use for ground photos.

Ollie, you will definately need an SLR with a long lens.

How much you want to spend will be the key question?

Don

Currantly im looking at £800. Im thinking a D50, comes with a 18-55 lens and then buying a 80-300mm lens for it.

Ollie,

I attended almost 20 airshows in 2005 and I never saw anyone digiscoping. Airshows tend to display small and/or fast aeroplanes so 300mm will be a minimum. Most of my photos taken at Old Warden in October were through a 200-400f4 with a 1.4TC giving 280-560mm f5.6 which is overkill but I did not find 280mm as a minimum a problem. A low cost and popular lens seen at airshows is the Sigma 50-500 or 170-500 costing approx £5-600 and if you want to be thrifty, try obtaining a used copy as you have until May before the season starts again.

Nikon have just launched the D200. I would imagine the used market would have some good examples of D50 and D70(s). I would avoid e-bay as I have only have bad experience but try Jessops/Jacobs/Mifsuds or Grays of Westminster who grade their used items and all allow haggling!

Why not place a wanted here, you might be surprised what comes of it.

I was going to go through jessops as i can get cash back for my Z2. I was looking at getting the sigma 70-300mm lens. Its only £114.99 from jessops. And aparently that works out more than the optical zoom on my z2.

Ollie,

I believe 400mm is average max zoom required for airshows considering 1.5X crop of a DSLR. Approx 2/5 use Sigma 50-500 or 170-500, try to avoid 'cheap' lenses as their optical quality is exactly that, instead buy thrifty on the used market be patient and haggle!

If you sold your Z2 privately it would go for much more, remember Jessops want to sell it on at a profit.

I may list it here actualy. I cant find any reasonable priced lenses over 300mm. I realy dont whant to pay more than £200 realy for a lens.
Also mainly attending old warden i find i dont need a huge lens. I do go to Duxford and other displays but there i tend to take more static, taxing and landing photos.

I agree 100% with Stephen, on looking at my last years images from airshows, I found most of them where in the 250-400mm range, but then most are cropped to approx 2/3rd original size

The attached photo was taken with the Bigma (Sigma 50-500mm) which in my opinion is an excellent lens, especially for shooting aircraft.

Sally B was taken at Waddington with a focal length of 313mm using the Bigma, then cropped to 2/3rd original size.

Harry

How much can i pick up one of these sigma lenses for? Will they fit a Nikon d50?
Just looking in the jessops catalouge i can see a sigme 170-500mm lens.

Sigma 50-500mm will cost you £725 inc P&P from warehouse express.

As an alternative you could go to digitalrev on Ebay and pay £572 inc P&P. You will probably be charged import duties but you will be able to claim this back from digitalrev.

I know a number of people who have used this company, I have also used them on two occassions and found them excellent to deal with.
On both occassions I just emailed them a copy of the import duties paid and my bank was credited with the correct ammount within days.

Yes they will fit Nikon, but you do need to specify what make of camera. Canon, Nikon, pentax etc.

However be warned they are big and heavy. Having said that my 50-500 is attached to my 10D almost permanently and I do not notice the weight anymore.

Harry

Thats way over my budget. What do people think of my choice of sigma 80-300mm?

Sigma produce lenses that fit various camera mounts, Canon and Nikon being just two.

170-500 has been produced for many years and more recently 50-500. I would have thought your Jessops catalogue would have shown both types.

Ollie, do you mean 70-300mm?

I used this lens for 12 months and was quite happy with the results, but on many occassions found the long end to be a little short.

The 300 end of the lens should produce a similar shot to the Sally "B" one that I posted a little earlier.
I posted this one just so that you would get some idea of what 300mm will achieve.

Harry

Yes i ment the 70-300mm. I love that Sally b photo and that is the kind of closeness i would like.

Stephan, no the jessops catalouge does not show both. Or if it does i have missed it.

Jessops online list it 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO MACRO DG (NIKON AF) £179.99. you can get the same lens for £159.99 at warehouse express, so a bit of haggling at jessops + printout from warehouse would be required

Just one point make sure you go for the more expensive APO one.

Harry

Whats APO? If you can provide me a link i will go haggle with jessops.

You can try haggling with Jessops for an online offer, nothing to lose, but you'll be lucky. Jessops recently stopped doing their online price matching policy, it was costing them too much.

I'd seriously look at a 2nd hand lens >300mm rather than get a cheap 300mm that you'll end up getting frutrated with. If it means you have to wait and save up, then wait and save up.

APO means Apochromatic, you'll get much better quality images with an APO lens, especially for planes in flight against a bright sky.

Duncan.

If i could get a recomendation for a good 300mm lens for the d50 and where i can get it from i will wait and save up,

Ollie,

Let me introduce 'lens lust'. Its a condition where the sufferer becomes unhappy with current lens line-up and decides a more expensive alternative often with longer reach or faster performance.

Duncan is absolutely right here, we have all done it - just passing on our experience. For that recommendation a perfect lens for airshows is Nikon 80-400VR but it's costly and not a first lens but with VR (Vibration Reduction) it allows slow shutter speeds for those prop shots.

Second choice is that Sigma 50-500 again, its wide enough (50mm) for those taxy shots at Duxford and has extreme reach (500mm) for those airbourne shots at Old Warden. I reckon 30% of all lenses at airshows are 50-500 or 170-500 but 50-500 is a great all rounder and a 'keep-on' lens.

Be patient and try to get a used copy I believe £350 should be a realistic cost.

eeek. £350 is alot more than i was planning on spending.

Wait and save up as Duncan corrently advises. The airshow season does not start until May.

There is plenty of time - be cool :cool:

I will wait. But i am the kind of person that likes to realy get to know the camera before. And my photography interests dont just lie in aeroplanes.

Fairplay Ollie,

For general photography try a 'nifty fifty' (Nikon 50mm f1.8) they are inexpensive as they are massed produced and very sharp with fast focusing. Everyone should have one.

Check out warehouse express and Jessops but you should able to find one new at £80 and used £50.

Thank you all for your advice.

If you're going to get body + kit lens, the 18-55 kit item will certainly let you get to know the camera very well. By all means buy a 50mm prime too as Stephen has advised, if you can afford it, they are fast, sharp and cheap.

Kit lenses offer fantastic VFM when purchased with a new body and are useful learning tools. They are often slated on forums as rubbish by new users, very often unfairly as the faults sometimes lie elsewhere. Granted, kit lenses aren't the best, but they can produce excellent results if you work within their limitations. With every new lens you buy, there's a steep learning curve to go through.

I have a Pentax 100-300 that cost £460 new in 1994, wish I'd saved up longer and bought something with longer reach for airshows. Lenses cost a lot more in those days and you didn't have the digital "crop factor" to assist you. Just trying to stop you making the same mistakes.

Duncan.

Thank you for your kind words of help.

Question. I plan to leap the pond in September. During my visit I would like to see the "Red Arrows". Any suggestions as to venue? I am presently using a Minolta 7i and have had good luck with it. I am, as others have stated looking for a longer lens. Will be making my choice as soon as the latest 12X "superzooms" have been tested.

Jim

September is at the tail end of the airshow season. July seems to be peaktime with most large shows. September does have some shows however tend to be smaller. Please see link for Red's airshow dates for 2006.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/dates.html

hope it helps.

Hi Jim,

Check out this web site for dates and venues for the Red Arrows.

If you want to get some decent in air shots I would recommend the Minolta 1.5x teleconvertor. This weighs more than the camera and you can't zoom with it attached, but you can get some good shots.


These two were taken with the aboves combination, they have been resized for the web and so have lost some detail, however they have not been cropped.

Cheers,
Steve

Oi Stephen........would you kindly wait while I compose a post offline before jumping in with the same link !!!

;)

LOL, Steve. :p

Your reply is much better :cool:

Thanks for the replies. Have you been to the airshow at RAF Leuchars? This would fit my timeframe.

Thank you
Jim

RAF Leuchars is near Fife Scotland a good way from most other airshows in the U.K. It is a good show as RAF organised due to location I have never attended, but might:eek:

What is the nature of your visit in September and where else will you be visiting.

Main reason for the trip is to visit family and friends. My wife has been involved in genology and we would like to see the areas of our roots, Sunderland and the North East areas.
Since my hobbies are plane watching and photograpy and I haven't seen the Red Arrows perform I thought I might try to work this in.
I live in Comox and watch the "Snow Birds" practice for two weeks EVERY April.

Jim