laxspotter1 From United States of America, joined Dec 2011, 1 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 1711 times:
I have a Nikon D3000, I'm looking at purchasing a Telephoto Lens that isn't as expensive as the Nikon 80-400.
I'm interested in a few lenses.
Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF Nikkor SLR Camera Lens ($170)
Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX Nikon Digital SLR ($250)
Sigma 120-400mm ($900)
I've included the Sigma in the List even thought it close to $700 more than the other two lenses, but If I remember correctly, 300mm focal length isn't enough to capture small-mid sized aicraft at Imperial HIll.
JakTrax From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2005, 4121 posts, RR: 9 Reply 2, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 1643 times:
Quoting LGW340 (Reply 1): however, the 120-400mm is an Excellent lens
I hear lots of different opinions on this lens. Some compare it directly to the 100-400L and say that it is only a fraction behind in image quality, while others claim that it's a relatively poor alternative.
I know online tests can be unreliable as it can all depend upon how good a copy of each lens the reviewer possesses, but most of the ones I've seen appear to slate it against the Canon.
Another pointless exercise is comparing images here - it would be much more effective to compare originals as resized/edited versions are bound to look the same.
vikkyvik From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 6499 posts, RR: 29 Reply 3, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1611 times:
Quoting laxspotter1 (Thread starter): I've included the Sigma in the List even thought it close to $700 more than the other two lenses, but If I remember correctly, 300mm focal length isn't enough to capture small-mid sized aicraft at Imperial HIll.
On a crop body, 300mm works fine (My Rebel XS is a 1.6x crop). My telephoto is the Canon 70-300 IS USM, and I only use it out to 260mm. Just about all of my Imperial Hill shots on here were taken with that lens. Actually, a bunch were taken with the 55-250 as well.
For smaller aircraft, I'll have to do more cropping than I'd like, but it still works. Once you get down to business jet sizes, then it's certainly iffy. But I haven't had much of a problem down to 736/A318 sizes.
The spirit of Massachusetts is the spirit of America!
chuck9941 From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 159 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1585 times:
Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 3):
For smaller aircraft, I'll have to do more cropping than I'd like, but it still works. Once you get down to business jet sizes, then it's certainly iffy. But I haven't had much of a problem down to 736/A318 sizes.
I agree. Most of my LAX shots have been with the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR (I believe it's in the $500 range)
For smaller stuff it can depend on how high or low they fly out. You may not get the scenic background but you can get the shot.
AlistairH From Australia, joined Aug 2011, 1 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (4 months 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 1470 times:
I shot at LAX for the first time while visiting the US recently. I only have a 300mm lens as my max and found it worked fine. Would I have found a 400mm useful? Sure. But the 300 works absolutely fine. Let me know if you want to see any pics.
timz From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 6228 posts, RR: 8 Reply 6, posted (4 months 3 weeks 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 1421 times:
If you know where you'll be standing you can measure how far you'll be from the runway centerline on google maps. You know your sensor is 23.6 mm long, so you can calculate what horizontal distance along the runway that will cover, for any focal length lens. Your horizontal distance from the runway will be a bit less than your distance from the aircraft above the runway, but you can estimate that reasonably well too.
megatop412 From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 120 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1366 times:
The 80-400 Nikkor also will not AF on the D3000. Best option is the 70-300mmVR, unless you want to go with 3rd party. Whenever I get my butt out to LAX I'LL be bringing my Bigmos.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Dec 2011, 1 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined May 2007, 295 posts, 
From Australia, joined Aug 2011, 1 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
