Buying a new camera

[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.

[Frank]

Done!

[Irish251]

Thanks for that site, Frank - looks like some very good deals available.  Hope you dried out after the TLP aquatic experience!

[P.Doff]

The only problem with buying a digital SLR is that your not gonna get a lens suitable for ground to air shots with the body. If you go Nikon for example probably the best allround lens for the job would be their 80-400mm/f4.5 which on its own costs the guts of €2000!!! You can of course go for a spurious lens such as a Sigma which would be a lot cheaper but the build quality and overall performance wouldnt be as good. Another option would be to get a shorter lens and fit a tele-convertor to it which would lengthen its focal length at the cost of lens speed and thus possibly image quality. Its a big market out there though, so keep looking, and as Frank said, the net is probably your best bet for a bargain.

[Frank]

SF,

I was still wet getting off the plane in Dublin!

When I got to the hotel in Dublin I disassembled my camera for it to dry out and left my padded eye piece behind when I left!

I carry big sachets of silica gel in my camera bag which helped with the condensation & dampness but I haad to give my 50-500 lens short blasts from a hairdryer to finish the job!

BTW, How did your pictures from TLP come out?

As for the camera prices on Tecknikdirekt, I found them to be very competetive.


Regards,

Frank.

[Irish251]

Hi Frank

I did not take many photos because of the inclement conditions.  However, got a few reasonable ones of landing aircraft later in the day when the rain eased somewhat.  By the time we got back to Charleroi the sun was coming out, which just compounded the disappointment.

Will have to hope for better conditions some other time - maybe mid-winter might actually be better than the supposed summer!

SF

[Guinness]

Frank,

hope to see your Leeuwarden pics soon.

Can you please give me the site adress of this guy in The Netherlands conc. cameras and lenses.

Say hello to Cooley  '>

Guinness

[Lomarticus]

Tagging along with the new camera thoughts what would I need to keep in mind when getting a new lens for a new camera for use at airshows in particular?

I'm a newbie with a new Canon 20D with the cheap plastic lens that comes with it (18-55mm 3.5-5.6) and a Sigma (135-400mm f4.5-5.6) which I got at a nice price for what it is and am a little disappointed with the "soft" results in the photos I got at Salthill'06 (I'm not discounting that I might just be crap at using my camera yet either).

I think that the Canon 70-300mm F4.0-5.6 IS USM (it's been described as an L-series in disguise) is where I need to be heading (as its range fills a nice gap in my coverage and a LOT of lens-changing went on at the airshow last week) but I'm a bit too new to take the plunge and get it without advice.
Any thoughts?

[Guinness]

Welcome on board there Lomarticus

Anyone with experience on the Nikon D70s ??

I'm about to buy one and I was wondering what you guy's think of this one

Guinness

[papa 242]

Hi.All,
I went mad last w/end and bought an Olympus E500 DSLR!
The kit included two lenses..a 14 to 45 (eq. to 28 - 90) and a 40 to 150 (eq to 80 - 300).It takes Compact Flash and XD card,so all the xd cards from my Olympus CZ 750 will work with it.Its a lovely piece of kit!
Off to Duxford this w/end, so will put it (and me!) to the test!!!
Will let you know how it goes!
Cheers.!