Need a lens for Air Show

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dickelfan

Senior Member
Will be attending my first air show next weekend and need suggestions on what I should rent. The guy I'm going with is shooting fx and has several lenses and couple converters. I'll be shooting with my d7000 and my tripod. Would like to rent something that I can use the following week that I can use for a couple of concerts I'll be going to also.


This is where I would be renting from side I can pickup in Houston. http://www.photo rental source.com
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I was going to say Lee does well with the Tamron 150-600 but you may want something faster for the concerts,i cant get the link to work.
 
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outlet15

Senior Member
If you are planning on using the same lens for both events, I would say 70-200 either f4 or f2.8 (I believe you can use the converters on the f4) and use a TC-20E converter for the air show. That will put you at over 400mm being that you are using DX and the loss of light will only help you being that you will most likely be shooting lower than f4 at the air show. Now depending on how far back you are at the concert, the 70-200 should work nicely for you. Otherwise, if you are looking for something cheaper maybe something like an 18-300 will work for you. It will do ok at the air show, but you would need to bump your ISO at your concert unless it is outdoors on a bright day.

Good luck and happy shooting
 
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outlet15

Senior Member
I just looked at the site you posted. (should have looked there first) If you are willing to rent more than 1 lens, then I would say get that 80-400mm and if you want more length that 1.7x converter for the air show. as for the concert... you may want (again depending on how far away you are and the look you are going for) to consider the 70-200 f2.8 and/or the 24-70 f2.8 or if its in darker setting... shoot I might be as bold to say rent a 35mm f1.4 or f1.8 and an 85mm f1.4 or f1.8. depends on your budget, but both of those prime lenses in the f1.8 format are cheap so they shouldn't be much to rent for a weekend.
 
nikonpup

nikonpup

Senior Member
check out lee532 in the aviation thread and his flickr site. He has posted some useful info on thread #450 in the aviation thread. If you can find a tamron 150-600mm i would go with that for the aviation shots, rental should be inexpensive (see borrowlenses price).
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
dickelfan, I did my first airshow today (NAS Jax), since I was a little kid. Wasn't quite sure what to expect. My Tamron 150-600 served me well. It was a very bright day so that helped. The 600mm reach was great but I would advice on a lens with a decent range. I found myself all over the place in order to keep them in frame and to track.

BM7_0498 by BMalinis, on Flickr

BM7_1643 by BMalinis, on Flickr

BM7_0914 by BMalinis, on Flickr

BM7_0671 by BMalinis, on Flickr
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
What I was trying to say is REACH is great but you'll find that you're using all different sorts of focal lengths. I was all over the place, like 400mm, 300mm and even 150mm. So when the planes fly up and out then YES you want the long focal length. But when planes fly in and they're close and sometimes hard to track if you're at a LONG focal length. When they fly down low along the runway right in front of you a long focal length will be too much and you'll have to zoom out. I would think an 80-400mm rental would be great.
 
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Hiway

Senior Member
I have had good results at air shows with a Sigma 50-500 with OS on a D7000. Since it is an FX lens the reach at the long end is very impressive. When zoomed out it will still allow wide enough shots to take pictures of the static display aircraft. For the concert it is too much. If you have to use it at both events maybe a 70-200 2.8 with a 2x converter for the air show. An FX lens on your D7000 will give you something like a 105-600 zoom range by swapping in and out the converter because of the DX crop factor.

I see you want to bring a tripod to the air show. I don't think that would ever work for me. The movement is too fast and I think it would be very hard to track with the camera on a tripod. My Sigma gets heavy but it's worth it.
 
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