Joy flight lens

[Poider]

G'day, I am taking a small plane ride over the Flinders Ranges, Should I take the Sigma 10 - 20mm f/3.5 or the Nikon 18 - 300mm or both?
What would you take?
Peter

[Colin Southern]

I'd take both.

The first for photographing the inside of the plane, and the 2nd for the view from the window.

[rpcrowe]

Totally agree with Colin.

Depending of course, what type of aircraft you are flying in, using a UWA lens will often include parts of the wing or tail section in your image when you are shooting aerials. I often don't like doing that...

A few tips that have served me well:

1. Do not rest the camera/lens against any part of the aircraft. Isolate the camera/lens from the vibrations by holding it free and letting your body isolate the camera from the vibration of the aircraft...

2. If you are shooting through the window, do not use a polarizing filter. If you do so, you will most likely get a moire effect in your image. If you have the opportunity to shoot through an open window/door a CPL (might) come in handy to cut through haze. Depending on the angle of the sun and if you have enough light (you lose about 1-1.5 stops of light using the CPL) Note: the "haze" filters, which were useful with film, are of no use to reduce haze with digital sensors. If there is a chance that the window or door can be opened, ask the pilot to do so but, keep the camera out of the slip stream of the aircraft and insure all equipment is secure...

3. DOF is not a problem when shooting aerials but shutter speed often is. I will shoot wide open using my 70-200mm f/4L because I know that lens will provide excellent IQ at f/4. I can use a lower ISO to achieve a decent shutter speed. If I were shooting with your gear, I would choose an ISO which will give me at least 1,1,000 second shutter speed. I don't know the IQ of your lens wide open but, that is something to think about. It just may provide better imagery if you raise your ISO a bit to stop down one or two stops. I would shoot in burst mode because sometimes the middle shots in a string are sharper than the first shot because they are not impacted by the movement of your finger tripping the shutter button...

4. There is often a great deal of difference between the quality of an aerial image that is shot towards the sun and one that is shot with the sun in a different direction. As with almost all photography, high noon is not the best time to shoot. But, if you have no choice, shoot away!

5. I would definitely shoot in RAW to have the best chance for post processing success. Additionally, if this is going to be a one time adventure, there is nothing wrong with using auto exposure compensation to ensure that you will bring home well exposed shots. IMO, AEB, is a capability that too few photographers make use of. AEB is really useful if your camera will, when in burst mode, shoot three bracketed shots and then stp until the next time you press the shutter button....

HAVE FUN! And post some images...

[Shadowman]

I was wondering about the use of a UWA lens on a flight, of course if your pilot is a real cowboy, you never know when a loop the loop might materialize?

[Colin Southern]

I was wondering about the use of a UWA lens on a flight, of course if your pilot is a real cowboy, you never know when a loop the loop might materialize?

Any pilot who does a loop that any passengers didn't know was coming deserves to be shot.

Along with this pilot ... (Note: Definitely not for the squeamish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SosnWa100bE

[PhotomanJohn]

Positive g's followed by negative ones is something that most passengers would have a problem with. This is basically what the "Vomit Rocket" does to train astronauts what zero g's are like. One needs to fly like I did in my corporate days when one must not cause the boss in the back to spill his drink!

John

[Colin Southern]

Positive g's followed by negative ones is something that most passengers would have a problem with. This is basically what the "Vomit Rocket" does to train astronauts what zero g's are like. One needs to fly like I did in my corporate days when one must not cause the boss in the back to spill his drink!

John

I think that guy needs to learn a few lessons in professionalism from the corporate boys ... (and taking off the 3 stripes he's wearing until he has!).

Edit: Since I'm way off-topic anyway, one of my favourite F18 cockpit ride videos is this one - showing the "fun" of flying in an F18 Hornet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM9t_bbkeQc

[FrankMi]

Any pilot who does a loop that any passengers didn't know was coming deserves to be shot.

Along with this pilot ... (Note: Definitely not for the squeamish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SosnWa100bE

That's gonna be one heck of a mess to clean up. I hope the pilot gets that privilege!

The closest I came to that kind of maneuver flying commercial was in a Boeing 737 climbing through 18,000' when the pilot received a report of a bomb threat. We immediately rolled over, dove back to the international airport and landed with foam trucks racing us down the runway on either side until we came to a screeching halt.

[Colin Southern]

That's gonna be one heck of a mess to clean up. I hope the pilot gets that privilege!

The closest I came to that kind of maneuver flying commercial was in a Boeing 737 climbing through 18,000' when the pilot received a report of a bomb threat. We immediately rolled over, dove back to the international airport and landed with foam trucks racing us down the runway on either side until we came to a screeching halt.

Actually, the closest I came to doing that was ... pretty much doing that.

I didn't pull negative G, but went about neutral - daughter was wanting it.

[Shadowman]

Any pilot who does a loop that any passengers didn't know was coming deserves to be shot.

Along with this pilot ... (Note: Definitely not for the squeamish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SosnWa100bE

It's like the girlfriend knew what was coming.

[Poider]

Thanks for your suggestions,
I was going to take both but alas after four straight days of 40 degrees plus the only window of opportunity was 8am this morning and as is my luck in these things the rain started at 7 30 in the morning and all we would have seen were clouds and haze. At least the pilot let us get a full refund.
Peter