buying a new camera!need advice!

[pilatus]

hey!im going to buy a new camera for airshows and what not, but im wondering what would be the best option?i have a budget of 600euro.i was thinking of buying a normal film camera!they are lot cheaper now and offer just as good performance apart from the whole getting the film developed thing!i have a 5 megapixel fuji with 10optical zoom now which is ok for low flying aircraft and static displays but i want something with a bit more bite!any hints and tips on what to look out for on both digital and film such as add on lenses etc?i  would appreciate any advice given!

[warthog]

eh you won't get into the dslr game for that money,you'll get a nikon d-50 new for about 650/700 but thats with a very short range,rather flimsy lens

i'd look at the canon powershot s3 for that money,6mp 12x zoom,it's got an ultrasonic,image stabilised lens

the thing to watch with aerial shots is that unless you tell the camera otherwise it will meter the light levels off the sky in the background,making the aircraft look very dark so set the camera to spot meter in the very centre of the shot and be acurate with getting the aircraft dead centre frame,this is tricky with a moving plane and the lag on a digital,so look for something with a good burst frame rate and a fast focusing lens

ignore the megapixel race it's silly! 5mp is ample once the camera has a good lens in front in the firstplace

[Frank]

The first piece of advice I'll give you is forget buying any camera gear in Ireland, unless you fancy getting screwed over that is.

The second piece of advice is go here: http://www.technikdirekt.de

This is where I bought much of my equipment.

The third piece of advice is go digital, digital slr of possible, forget film.

If you are on a tight budget digital allows you to take as many pictures as you want and never having to spend a penny again on developing, enlargements, prints & posters excepted of course.


Regards,

Frank.

[P.Doff]

How about setting up a thread specifically for advice and chat on aviation photography?? Im sure theres plenty who post to the board who are into it ( sure isnt that what the main site is about!!??). Theres a lot of guys in the don (including myelf) who do it as a hobby so Im sure it would go down well.