Message posted by Roadeye on May 27, 2008 at 12:27:53 PST:

If you're going to try that kind of aircraft photography my friend....you're not only going to need a long lens or telescope...you're going to need some high-tech and mechanical help to pull it off at all.

The thing you have to keep in mind when using a "long" lens to track and photograph moving objects is this.
The object you are trying to photograph is moving at 3,4,or possibly even 5 or 6 hundred miles per hour.
And you are trying to keep it framed and focused in a field of view (if you are going for a fairly full framed shot) of a little more than the length and width of itself.
The distance and vastness of the sky plays tricks on you....making the aircraft appear to be moving slowly.
But ask yourself this question....
How long would it take a Boeing 747 moving at 500 miles per hour to travel two or three hundred feet?
So what are the odds of you keeping them in the frame or in focus with a long lens at a distance of twenty or so miles without any frames of reference at all....left to right or bottom to top.
Not good.
That's why you see the motorized cameras and lens platforms that track the shuttle etc when it's down range using radar to track it...and moving at what appears to be much too fast a speed, at least to those of us watching them with our eyes only and seeing the whole sky.

In Reply to: telescope posted by ROGER on May 26, 2008 at 16:06:02 PST:

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