Dullesguy From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 247 posts, RR: 1 Posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1172 times:
Hey you all i was just wondering b/c the topic keeps on coming up about these fast lenses. What is the real advantage in aviation photography for having those 2.8 70-200 "fast" lenses? does that 2.8 f-stop allow you to use wide apertures in cloudy days while at do able shutter speeds like 1/500 or 1/250? i never really did any photography at the airprots when the wx was bad mainly because i couldnt afford to take trips out to the field w/o taking pics so I havnt really messed around with my 75-300mm f4-5.6 lense in the real cloudy situations to often. i keep hearing that this lense is soft at 5.6 aperture and longer focal lengths like 200mm. It seems that you can still get some real nice shots with these settings in cloudy weather if you keep a steady hand?? maybee im wrong? Is it the sharpness thats another big issue with those L lenses? Maybee I'm just a newbie when it comes to the upper lenses but it seems to me especially with good lighting behind you, and a steady hand you can get some real nice sharp images with a non L lense that will look pretty darn close to those pro lenses. Now that I have a Digi i will make it out to the fields and do more shooting in the cloudy situations to really test it out, but i wanted to just get everyone elses thoughts as well.
well just some thoughts running through my mind
Stephen
"..the joy of the Lord is your strength" Nehemiah 8:10
Staffan From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 1148 times:
Advantages with fast lenses are that the AF gets a lot of light to work with combined with a short depth of focus, resulting in fast and accurate focusing. You also get more acceptable shutter speeds to work with in bad light.
Hodges From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 138 posts, RR: 4 Reply 2, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 1140 times:
With more light the lens will be able to autofocus with an extender attached as opposed to lenses like Canon's 70-200mm f/4L which can't autofocus with an extender.
Pilothighflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 220 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 1133 times:
I happen to own one of those "2.8 70-200 "fast" lenses" which is the Nikon 70-200 VR. While I would advise against it you could photograph planes with the lens stepped down to 2.8 to get the higher shutter speeds, but your quality will suffer for it.
I only shoot at 2.8 when conditions prohibit any higher F-stop. For Example when I shot my High School's State final Basketball Game at a local College in their Gym which had poor lighting and I was shooting with out a flash.
You are correct in that you don't need fast $$$ glass to get good pictures, it just makes it easier. Alot of a picture's quality comes from the person behind the camera, not the camera it's self, although these D-SLR help
Maiznblu_757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 5112 posts, RR: 52 Reply 4, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 1122 times:
Username: Hodges
From United States, joined Mar 2004, 8 posts, RR: 0
Reply: 2
Posted Thu Mar 18 2004 01:18:46 UTC+1 and read 13 times:
With more light the lens will be able to autofocus with an extender attached as opposed to lenses like Canon's 70-200mm f/4L which can't autofocus with an extender.
Regards,
Erik
Wrong there fella. The Canon 70-200mm F/4L still has autofocus with the 1.4x extender.
Hodges From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 138 posts, RR: 4 Reply 5, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 23 hours ago) and read 1105 times:
Sorry, my bad about the whole extender. I'm not really that familiar with Canon glass. Guess I'm more of a Sigma guy. Thanks for the clarification though.
Ckw From UK - England, joined Aug 2010, 530 posts, RR: 18 Reply 9, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 13 hours ago) and read 1008 times:
And of course the optical quality is usually quite a bit better
Yes, and this is the real difference for me ... the larger diameter lenses required to produce fast glass, and the fact that they are intended for use in situations where the lighting can be difficult (eg. stage lighting), means that the glass and coatings need to be of a very high standard (otherwise that f2.8 aperture is useless).
Ckw From UK - England, joined Aug 2010, 530 posts, RR: 18 Reply 10, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 13 hours ago) and read 1014 times:
Oh, should also add that fast glass can make a significant difference to AF performance. AF capability is in part determined by the maximum aperture of the lens. For example, my old EOS 3 had 45 AF sensors. Of these, the central 7 operated as cross-type (ie. could look for horizontal or vertical lines) when using lenses f2.8 and faster, but at f4 all except a single central point degrade to hroizontal line sensors, while finally at f8 only the centre point works at all, and that in horizontal mode.
In short, AF systems are likely to be faster and more accurate with fast glass.
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