Official Plane Spotting Thread III

[gilcrest]

Managed to catch a glimpse of this rare bird in our skies.

ELY33 - El Al Israel Airlines (4XEAR) Boeing 767-352(ER)

 

[megatok]

Hi

Qantas A330-200 Oneworld livery(VH-EBV)
DSC_1333 by toknimoe, on Flickr

Air France B777-300ER Skyteam livery (F-GZNE)
DSC_1348 by toknimoe, on Flickr

Cathay Pacific A350XWB (B-LRC & B-LRJ)
DSC_1317 by toknimoe, on Flickr

Qantas A330-200 (VH-EBS & VH-EBV)
DSC_1289 by toknimoe, on Flickr

 

[PhilipKr35]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, need recommendations from experts here, I have a 20year old friend who is into anything to do with planes, now he wish to photograph or plane spotting, any camera type, lens recommendations. Also he is looking at $500 budget. Is it better to get a used older full frame better sensor or to get a bridge camera. Thanks very much in advance, I am more into landscape so your input will help a lot.

 

[one eye jack]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, need recommendations from experts here, I have a 20year old friend who is into anything to do with planes, now he wish to photograph or plane spotting, any camera type, lens recommendations. Also he is looking at $500 budget. Is it better to get a used older full frame better sensor or to get a bridge camera. Thanks very much in advance, I am more into landscape so your input will help a lot.

I don't shoot aircraft ,it was a long time ago. RSAF's Hawker Hunter, A4 Skyhawk ( vietnam era) and others you can see them at sentosa's mini air museum.
I don't think $500 can get a used full frame even can it's just a body and you still need a long lens that is expensive,heavy and unwieldy where a tripod is needed.
A bridge camera is practical and can get decent shots, don't have to change lens as it shoot from wide to tele so can shoot anything your friend desire too.
Again at $500 you can only get a used one or new one that has a shorter zoom but if you want better image quality a bigger sensor like apsc or M43 is doable. Best focal reach can be had for M43 with 2X crop factor vs apsc 1.5X so a zoom of 75 - 300mm will give 35mm equivalent of 150 - 600mm at M43 and a maximum of 450mm for apsc sensor.You can still crop with both sensors but I will recommend M43 for telephoto reach.

Now for the practical nitty gritty of aviation photography, the older generations of used cameras are somewhat lacking in ISO performance so ISO 1600 is only
when you have got to have a photo and image stabalisation is only in the lens whereas Olympus M43 has got IBIS ( in body stabalisation) so for the budget of $500 you can can EM5 mk1 as mk2 is out of reach. EM5 mk1(average $250) has 5 axis IBIS and can shoot roughly 4-5 frames per sec. or EM10 mk1 at 3 axis. BTW an EM10 mk1 is on offer now at BnS here for $200 so that leaves $300 for a used 75 -300mm zoom. I think there will be some cash left for a used tripod
or new one.

The are two possible scenes or states for aircraft, first static display or parked in airport or museum and 2nd. in flight which is more glamorous.
I notice singapore's weather is mostly overcast or cloudy most of the year so lighting is rather dull colour wise. Mostly if shot from ground level
it's mostly the underbelly of the aircraft like upskirt.. unless it's making a banking turn. Of course if you can do an air to air shot like most flight
magazines that would be super but this is plane spotting right? So mostly it's commercial aircraft over sg's skies unlike in old days when the british
use singapore as airbase where you can see their top of the line jet fighter like the Lightning. Hope this helps.

 

[PhilipKr35]

Thanks very much for your great details , I do agree M43 is the better in reach, will look out for a 2nd hand unit here.
I am not sure where this friend intend to do plane spotting, but he definitely knows about planes...

Thanks.

 

[robotech]

Lufthansa A340-600 D-AIHF at PVG