Lens for a flight in a Dragon Rapide

adrichardson81

adrichardson81

adrichardson81

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Hi all

I've got a flight over Cambridge in a Dragon Rapide coming up and am struggling pinning my lens choice down.

I'll be using an A7ii with either an Olympus Zuiko 24/2.8, Sony Zeiss 35/2.8, or Sony Zeiss 55/1.8 (I've ruled out my 90/2.8 and 80-200/4).

Any suggestions? My temptation is to go with the 24/2.8, as it would be nice to get part of the plane in...
 
I remember reading an interesting series of articles on Aerial Photography on DPreview a while back was quite interesting reading.

Here you go

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6854455191/aerial-photography-part-1-why-shoot-aerials

https://www.dpreview.com/techniques...he-ugly-of-aerial-photography-part-2-aircraft

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/1...e-ugly-of-aerial-photography-part-3-equipment

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6...e-ugly-of-aerial-photography-part-4-technique

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/9...al-photography-part-5-examples-and-comparison

I think personally I would treat it as Landscape photography but high up :)

I don't think you should rule out the 80-200 mm since that will allow you to pick out details on the ground.
 
I'd get a general purpose zoom lens it will give you a variety of focal lengths and at the apertures your likely to be shooting at should produce results on a par with your primes it's not like your going to want shallow dof effects!
 
adrichardson81 said:
TBH I've tried to go prime only since I moved to mirrorless. On the other hand, I'm looking for an excuse to buy an MD 35-70... Would 35mm be too wide?
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TBH, with mirrorless it makes even more sense.tp.gp zoom only to save weight. No need to carry a bag of primes with you everywhere, just the lens on the camera.

I recommend a 24-70mm for everyday shooting
 
adrichardson81 said:
I did look at the 24-70 in the beginning, but it really didn't compare well to my 55/1.8 and 35/2.8. The 16-35 is tempting though...
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Were you comparing the 24-70mm at f8 though which is what you will likely be shooting in this scenario? Most decent modern kit lenses are very sharp at f8 so you could probably buy something cheap second hand and sell it on after wards. I'm guessing you can't open the windows on the plane so any picture you take is going to be compromised anyway.
 
Even wide open a modern zoom is extrmely sharp, the whole prime vs zoom quality issues date back to the 60s and 70s.

This is exactly the scenario where a zoom is perfect, no need to keep swapping lenses over when crammed in to a small plane. You also want to check what kind of gear the pilot will allow in. I've been in a few small planes (2 seaters), and the last thing they wanted was anything loose like lenses in a bag.
 
May be worth seeing if you can get a rubber lens hood for the lens too. That way you can push it against the glass and get rid of any reflections which is the biggest issue with shooting out of plane windows. Also perhaps a couple of alcohol wipes to clean off any smudges.
 
Amp34 said:
May be worth seeing if you can get a rubber lens hood for the lens too. That way you can push it against the glass and get rid of any reflections which is the biggest issue with shooting out of plane windows. Also perhaps a couple of alcohol wipes to clean off any smudges.
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Great advice might be worth cleaning both sides of the window before boarding if you can!
 
Amp34 said:
May be worth seeing if you can get a rubber lens hood for the lens too. That way you can push it against the glass and get rid of any reflections which is the biggest issue with shooting out of plane windows. Also perhaps a couple of alcohol wipes to clean off any smudges.
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Thanks - that's absolute genius!

Just seen the cost of hiring a 24-70 f4 - £270?! A second hand 28-70 would be cheaper (it's the a7 kit lens).
 
a1ex2001 said:
Kit lens would be more than adequate for this scenario I'd say and you can flog it on for very little loss afterwards if you go second hand!
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Yeah - managed to get one for a reasonable price, so hopefully it's not going to be an expensive investment. To be fair, it's nowhere near as bad as I expected and it should be able to deliver reasonable results, but we'll see what happens I suppose!
 
adrichardson81 said:
Yeah - managed to get one for a reasonable price, so hopefully it's not going to be an expensive investment. To be fair, it's nowhere near as bad as I expected and it should be able to deliver reasonable results, but we'll see what happens I suppose!
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Nobody has made a bad kit lens in ten years and if your results are only 'reasonable' in this scenario then it is unlikely to be down to the lens!
 
a1ex2001 said:
Nobody has made a bad kit lens in ten years and if your results are only 'reasonable' in this scenario then it is unlikely to be down to the lens!
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Agreed. Modern kit lenses are pretty comparable to expensive primes in terms of resolution and contrast. Bokeh is normally a little edgy, but then many fast prime are really ugly as well. Main difference with a kit lens is the slower aperture.
 
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