hi to everybody i have just registed i have a question i am going to my first air show tomorrow duxford i have a sigma 50-500mm lens on a canon 20d do i need to take a tripod to get sharp images, or do photographers hand hold there cameras.
airshow
- Thread starter bigron
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- Mike
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This is a superhuman forum & eveyone handholds their cameras.
Just kidding buddy, just wanted to say hi & welcome to the forums, will leave the more serious lens question to someone with a little more Sigma experience.
Good luck with the airshow & looking forward to seeing the pics.
Mike.
Just kidding buddy, just wanted to say hi & welcome to the forums, will leave the more serious lens question to someone with a little more Sigma experience.
Good luck with the airshow & looking forward to seeing the pics.
Mike.
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Welcome Ron. 
I'd say the vast majority of users would prefer to hand hold. The thing you'll have to watch out for is that your shutter speed matches the focal length you're zoomed to at any particular time. This is a handy 'Rule Of Thumb' for minimum safe hand holding speeds to eliminate camera shake so it's 1/50th at 50mm and so on all the way up to 1/500th at 500mm.
Note that these are minimum safe speeds to overcome your own camera movement and take no account of any movement in the subject - if you can go quicker you should.
Obviously, particularly shooting planes in flight you'll be using fairly fast shutter speeds anyway, so it 's just a question of panning smoothly with the camera, keeping the subject in the viewfinder, and pressing the shutter smoothly.
On a typical bright day you shouldn't have any problem getting sufficiently fast shutter speeds. If it's dull or overcast then you'll just need to increase the ISO.
I'll look forward to seeing your shots.
EDIT
Set 'Servo' focus on the camera btw.
I'd say the vast majority of users would prefer to hand hold. The thing you'll have to watch out for is that your shutter speed matches the focal length you're zoomed to at any particular time. This is a handy 'Rule Of Thumb' for minimum safe hand holding speeds to eliminate camera shake so it's 1/50th at 50mm and so on all the way up to 1/500th at 500mm.
Note that these are minimum safe speeds to overcome your own camera movement and take no account of any movement in the subject - if you can go quicker you should.
Obviously, particularly shooting planes in flight you'll be using fairly fast shutter speeds anyway, so it 's just a question of panning smoothly with the camera, keeping the subject in the viewfinder, and pressing the shutter smoothly.
On a typical bright day you shouldn't have any problem getting sufficiently fast shutter speeds. If it's dull or overcast then you'll just need to increase the ISO.
I'll look forward to seeing your shots.
EDIT
Set 'Servo' focus on the camera btw.
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Hello and welcome
When I was last at Duxford I noticed a couple of tripods but not many. Most people were hand holding due to the amount of sky to be covered. Some of the more serious looking types had a chest/shoulder brace thing attached to the camera.
There have been threads on air show tips before. Have a search on 'air shows' and 'duxford' etc.
When I was last at Duxford I noticed a couple of tripods but not many. Most people were hand holding due to the amount of sky to be covered. Some of the more serious looking types had a chest/shoulder brace thing attached to the camera.
There have been threads on air show tips before. Have a search on 'air shows' and 'duxford' etc.
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Well shoot at the lowest ISO you can for the best quality images with lowest image noise. If you're not getting a fast enough shutter speed, then up the ISO till you do.
Witch
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Hi Ron - and welcome!
I've always done airshow shots handheld - I think I would find that a tripod wouldn't let me move the camera freely. Fingers crossed for a nice bright day for you then....if you have the kid of weather I did last weekend you'll be well away!
*Makes mental note to avoid the M11 at the time Duxford will be kicking out!**
I've always done airshow shots handheld - I think I would find that a tripod wouldn't let me move the camera freely. Fingers crossed for a nice bright day for you then....if you have the kid of weather I did last weekend you'll be well away!
*Makes mental note to avoid the M11 at the time Duxford will be kicking out!**
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Hi Bigron
Hope you see this in time.Must agree with everything said BUT...
REMEMBER ON YOUR 20D THE CROP FACTOR IS 1.6
This means that your Bigma really becomes a 77-770mm and you should take this into account when shooting hand held.
I learned this the hard way even with my 70-200:bonk:
Enjoy the airshow and please show your pix asap
:bonk: Oh yes WELCOME TO THE FORUM
Hope you see this in time.Must agree with everything said BUT...
REMEMBER ON YOUR 20D THE CROP FACTOR IS 1.6
This means that your Bigma really becomes a 77-770mm and you should take this into account when shooting hand held.
I learned this the hard way even with my 70-200:bonk:
Enjoy the airshow and please show your pix asap
:bonk: Oh yes WELCOME TO THE FORUM
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This is a widely held misconception Anton, but it isn't so. The focal length of a lens doesn't change regardless of the size of the sensor it focuses on. The crop factor is just that... a crop. In other words a 1.6X crop sensor with a 500mm lens would give the same field of view as an 800mm lens on a full frame sensor. Ron's 50 -500 Sigma actually has the equivalent FOV of an 80-800mm lens on a full frame camera, but there's no magnification involved, (it's still a 50-500mm) so the minimum safe shutter speeds remain the same, though as I said earlier, going faster if you can is nearly always advisable.
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This is a widely held misconception Anton, but it isn't so. The focal length of a lens doesn't change regardless of the size of the sensor it focuses on. The crop factor is just that... a crop. In other words a 1.6X crop sensor with a 500mm lens would give the same field of view as an 800mm lens on a full frame sensor. Ron's 50 -500 Sigma actually has the equivalent FOV of an 80-800mm lens on a full frame camera, but there's no magnification involved, (it's still a 50-500mm) so the minimum safe shutter speeds remain the same, though as I said earlier, going faster if you can is nearly always advisable.
Hi CT
OK What you say makes sense and I am not rock steady so it made sense to me to adjust the shutter speed upwards.The way you explained it now really does make a lot of sense if you think about it.....
Well so we learn eh!?:bonk:
thanks for your help went to airshow, spitfires were cancelled due to wind sky was very grey it was great practice for holding and panning a big zoom lens lots of guys there with big zoom lenses. lens was very good considering conditions, lots of the photos lack colour or match grey skys need to use levels + curves in photoshop.
Bassington
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Hi
I go to DUXFORD every year and use a Sigma 50-500. I always hand hold as the aircraft use a lot of sky and people keep putting their heads in the way for some reason? Tripods are pretty useless for flying displays unless you have a press pass or can get to the barriers before the hoards of campers/picknickers who set up a "home from home" at the barrier, with wind breakers/chairs/camping stoves/sleeping bags/winibagos!! No chance for the "entusiast/anoraks"
By the way be careful with using fast shutters speads when photographing "warbirds" - piston engined aircraft. Too high and they look like Airfix models with static props. Learn how to pan properly and use a medium shutter speed to induce a blur to the props and make them look realistic in flight.
I go to DUXFORD every year and use a Sigma 50-500. I always hand hold as the aircraft use a lot of sky and people keep putting their heads in the way for some reason? Tripods are pretty useless for flying displays unless you have a press pass or can get to the barriers before the hoards of campers/picknickers who set up a "home from home" at the barrier, with wind breakers/chairs/camping stoves/sleeping bags/winibagos!! No chance for the "entusiast/anoraks"
By the way be careful with using fast shutters speads when photographing "warbirds" - piston engined aircraft. Too high and they look like Airfix models with static props. Learn how to pan properly and use a medium shutter speed to induce a blur to the props and make them look realistic in flight.