You will be attending an air show (Thunderbirds and F-15s) for which you will be renting a lens (shooting cropped-sensor[D7000], for FUN). What do YOU rent?
I"d pick up a 28-300. It's an excellent lens and gives you a zoom range from near-normal to fairly long. A 70-200 would be my second choice. I use both on my D300 for shooting air shows and auto races. Of course, a 200-400 would be nice, but hand-holding one of those monsters at an air show can be very tiring. You really need a tripod and gimbal mount.
If you're gonna rent, get the new 80-400. Plenty sharp and versatile and yet light enough to be fun for the day. You wouldn't want to use the 200-400 at an airshow anyway. Too much sample variation to know if the one you get will be that sharp at airshow distances. I was disappointed with mine. It's wicked sharp wide open for sports, but it's not an airshow lens. The 300/2.8 plus extenders is way better. Erich
Thanks, guys! I'm planning on catching the Wings over Wayne show at Seymour-Johnson AFB in May! I'll let you know what I choose and give you a recap if I make it.
Once you've got your lens and the planes are in the air, here's some advice I heard from a professional aviation photographer: For jets, use aperture priority wide open - depth of field is not a problem and that gives you the fastest shutter speed possible. For props, use shutter priority so you can get some prop blur - start at 1/200th or thereabouts and adjust as necessary. The bigger the prop (and the plane it's attached to), the slower it turns.
No, don't go wide open aperture for the jets. Most lenses are not at their sharpest wide open. Try 1/800-1000 and f/5.6-8. If it's cloudy go up a bit on the ISO, even going to 400 will make a lot more shutter speed available and most cameras won't take much of a noise hit at that ISO. For props, the small high performance aerobatics planes try 1/250th and go lower as the planes get larger. Just make sure to do that for each plane so you get some sharp keepers at the higher shutter speeds as you'll eventually get blurring as you go lower and lower.
You guys answered some of my questions before I got a chance to ask! One I still have is about panning. How much will I be doing and what approaches/techniques have worked best for you guys? Thanks again!
Yes to panning. I always pan, even with the fast jets. As they come around you'll get a different perspective and angle as well as different lighting. Just keep it a relaxed smooth pan and squeeze the release in short bursts. Don't try to just mash down for the whole pass. I get the best results when starting and stopping the pan at least 2 seconds before the first burst and after the last burst. That ensures you're still moving smoothly while taking the photos. For the prop planes as you drop the shutter speed panning is essential, otherwise you have nothing but motion blur instead of a sharp plane with a blurred prop. Again, start fast, 1/250th sec, and work you way to the slower speeds. Expect a low keeper rate at the slower speeds. When I'm shooting to get full prop disks, say at 1/50th sec, I'm happy with one or 2 good shots per pass. It's easy to get caught up trying to get great shots, but don't forget to have fun and just watch sometimes.
The trick to panning is a steady hand and a lot of practice. You want to track the object you're panning well before you want to take a picture and follow it after the shot(s) are fired. It takes a little bit to get used too because as the plane approaches you, it will feel like it is speeding up as the angle between you and the plane changes.
