airshows

going to my first airshow at the weekend advice on what lens to use do I use the 70-200 with a 1.4 or 2.0 converter? your help please

Throckmorton by any chance?

that's the one

My first airshow too.
I'll be there on Saturday.

I'm taking a Sigma 100-300 for the flying stuff in the afternoon, and Pentax 16-85 for the groundwork in the morning.
A friend is coming along with his Sigma 70-200 and Pentax 18-135.

I would have thought the 1.4x converter if needed. You may not get fast enough AF with the 2x converter.

I was close enough to Bristol airport last Saturday to get a few practice shots. I got the best results using shutter priority with fast speeds (1/800th-1/1000th) and spot metering. But I understand the propeller driven stuff is best at around 1,250th. I was close enough that I could have managed with something in the 70-200 range, but given the size of the passenger aircraft and how close I was I suspect at the airshow up to 300 is likely to be more appropriate. I'll probably bring along a 1.4x converter just in case it's needed as well.

I'd welcome any advice from anyone with experience of shooting at airshows as well.

Personally I would not use a TC - as Percy says AF can be too slow for an airshow. I normally take 2 bodies - one with the Sigma 150-500 attached and the other with the Tamron 70-200 and find that I use the 70-200 for about 75% of shots. As I now have the DA300 - I may use this instead of the 150-500 this year.

For prop aircraft - I find it can vary massively depending on the aircraft - 1/250(ish) for fast prop aircraft down as low as 1/60 for bi-planes. For jets - as fast as the light will let you get away with.

....and don't forget to enjoy the airshow

Carl

thanks for all the advice looking forward to seeing the Vulcan and the battle of briton flight

FWIW, the Sigma 100-300 + Sigma 1.4x is not too bad for airshows (and a lot better than the 150-500 HSM!) on the K-3, but I usually have the K-5 +70-200 Sigma non-HSM (and sometimes the 18-135) for closer shots because it focuses quickly as well - and the latter combos can often produce better results if you get it right.

It's all a matter of the distance to the aircraft at the time - and your skill, or not, in using the various combos!

But for moving planes which fill a reasonable portion of the frame - even the entire amount of the frame... Why not just lock the focus and also use debt of field. The planes are always far enough away when they are moving that one would never need anything close than the infinity setting

That's just not true at some airfields!

At Old Warden (Shuttleworth Trust), Dunsfold (Wings & Wheels - and Top Gear!) and Farnborough (Bi-annual International show), the crowd line bulges out slightly near the middle, and so the planes taking off/landing and flying along the crowd line are "curving" around it and are pretty close - certainly too close for fixed focus shooting with a long lens and then to get more than one decent shot off.

Let's put it this way - I was at the barrier in the middle of the crowd line at Farnborough last Summer and I was glad I had the 18-135 on the K-5 because the Vulcan and the A380 pretty much filled the frame on take-off, and were moving quickly (obviously!) and I needed to rapidly refocus and recompose quite a bit during those events.

At other locations (Duxford, Cosford, etc.) the runways and flight paths are much further away from the crowd line and your approach might well work.

The other thing to remember is to factor in some exposure compensation when taking pictures against a light sky...i think i had some decent results with +0.7-1.3 at Duxford last year....
Also your setting of 1/250 is spot on for prop driven planes...
Also you may find you need a bit more length for the static displays, certainly at Duxford the 50-135 is spot on as you cant get too close to the flying aircraft on the flightline.
i used the Sigma 70-200 a lot and a DA* 300, but the DA* 300 is nowhere near as fast to acquire focus on moving targets, so i missed quite a few shots with it....frustrating really...
Wouldn't bother with the TC, i'd just crop the picture in Post Processing....

Hope you find this useful, its just a bunch of tips i have had from other (more experienced) users on here that seem to work well....

Comments:

Re exposure : if possible, shoot the planes against clouds, as opposed to clear sky, as the results can be much better - and the exposure compensation may not need to be so much.

Re shutter speed: 1/250th Sec is OK for fast moving prop planes, but you can go down to 180th for the slower biplanes and similar. OTOH, you need much higher shutter speeds for most jets.

Leave the 2X TC at home - it will slow even an 70-200mm f2.8 zoom down too much, whilst the 1.4x may well work if the distance is not too great. As Andy said, some around 300mm+ is what is needed in some circumstances - but it does need to be a fast-focusing lens - and also leave the 500mm Tamron at home because it (and similar 500 mirror lenses - I've tried mine) has too narrow a field of view to be of much use most of the time (even if you can actually manage to get it pointed in the right direction in a hurry!).

Shoot planes as they are approaching you and try to get the cockpits in view - underside shots are generally just "boring", but you see a lot of people taking those.

At Duxford and other shows, you can actually walk down the flightline for an extra charge if you arrive earlier (get there at least 2hrs before flying commences) and then even a kit zoom could well work.

Also, if the venue has indoor fixed exhibits (Old Warden, Cosford and Duxford do) then you may need the widest lens you have (I would take my 10-20 Sigma for those) because the planes are usually parked very close together, and also allow further extra time to walk around these exhibits.

lots of advice thanks very much all I want now is good weather I will post some results on sunday/Monday
cheers phill

BTW, where are you actually going as people may have venue-specific tips?

Some comments above about exposure compensation - I was planning on trying to use spot metering (something I haven't used much as I usually use centre weighted). Would you still use some exposure compensation with that, or use it instead of spot metering?

I'd imagine that spot metering an airshow would result in some very erratic exposures ... ??

(think of the difference between a sunlit metal aircraft and the underside of one in shadow ....)