Message posted by Gary Sellani on September 20, 2000 at 23:38:09 EST:
Note all these comments assume a 35mm camera. Generally, except for the warning signs, everything you see will be far away, so get the biggest telephoto you are willing to buy. I use a 400mm f5.6, which was at my threshold of pain. Besides taking photos of cammo dudes, you can use it to photograph planes at airshows, public events where you can't get close to the main attraction, etc. This lens is pretty much only good for outdoor events because F5.6 is a pretty slow lens. If you look at other airplane photos on the net, you find 300mm to 500mm lenses used. The photographer who works with the Thunderbirds generally uses a 500mm lens, but he knows the routine inside out. It takes some skill to "find" the plane with a telephoto lens that is very powerful. Note for handheld use you need to shoot at 1/focal length, so a photo taken with a 400mm lens needs to be shot at 1/400th of a second. This means you need at least ASA 100 film and daylight conditions. The next step down is a 200mm lens. This is still has good magnification, but will be much faster, like in the F2's. Attend some indoor event where the press is working and you will see a 200mm lens in action. I find the 200mm I own gets used the least. A 100mm lens is your standard "headshot" lens that the fashion photographers use, aka portrait lens. The cammo dudes do not model, so the 100mm lens is not very useful around area 51, but is great otherwise. Everybody needs a good fast 50mm lens. This is so you can take the shot no matter what. Maybe it won't fill the frame, but you got something. Of course, you can shoot the warning signs and stuff with 50mm. The lenses above are prime, as in "not a zoom lens". In general, zoom lenses are not as sharp or fast as a prime lens, but they are very handy and much cheaper because the professional market doesn't use them. [There are exceptions of course.] You can get a pretty reasonably priced 100mm to 300mm zooms that are fine IF you don't plan on enlarging the photos much. If you make an 8x10 print, the difference between a prime and zoom will be visible. I've found that zoom lenses don't work well with tele-extenders. [A tele-extender increases the focal length of the lens, but generally is not as good as using a bigger lens. The exception is generally the 1.4x tele-extender, which doesn't degrade the image too much. A tele-extender will accentuate the lack of sharpness in the lens, so they are generally not recommeded for zooms, but of course nobody will stop you from trying.] This shot was taken handheld with a 400mm lens plus a 1.4x tele-extender on Fuji Provia 100F film, then zoomed in: This is the un-zoomed image: Here is another photo done with the 400mm and nearly full frame shot from about 200ft away: This photo was done at around 1300mm through a Meade ETX90 reflector telescope at 0.6 miles: Now clearly this image isn't sharp, but it is better than zooming in 3x on a shot done with a 400mm lens. This kind of shot where you actually see people entering the plane is much more involving than see the same shot with less magnification. I guess it's a matter of budget more than anything else. If your budget is limited, get a 100 to 300mm zoom plus a reasonably fast 50mm lens. If you are willing to spend more and don't mind having a lens that only gets used at special events, airshows, and area 51, get the 400mm prime. I started out on the zooms and went to primes later as I got into the hobby. If you want, you can rent lenses as well. A 400mm lens would be about $50 per day. The trouble with lens rentals is the time involved in setting up the deal, and the fact that mostly pro's who are traveling or those who can expense the cost rent lenses.
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In Reply to: Cameras posted by Groom lake watcher on September 20, 2000 at 18:18:25 EST:
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