Digital Photography

Well, I have sucumbed at last. After much drooling over a decent Digital SLR I slapped my plastic down on a Nikon D70 – came with a 24-85mm lens and a 1GB CF card – so just waiting for the battery to charge before I play around with it. I realise I’ll need a bigger lens so that may be a purchase I make on holiday but initially I am pleased. I did look at the 300D but the finish kind of put me off.
It may be too late for this FL but by the next one I should be able to get the lens cap off.
As I stated in the post earlier the shutter lag was a real bug with me on my first digital camera – that and the slow AF – so I have a month to play around with this Nikon and if it isn’t up to scratch then I can get my money back.

Say cheese….. 😀

The camera came with NiMH batteries

Rechargeables – impressive!

I too have ventured into the digital world with a Sony DSC P1, could be interesting to see what results I can get from that, some interesting tips on here, all being well I will get to have a practice on Saturday morning with it and will post up some results.

The camera came with NiMH batteries but the guy in the shop used ordinary batteries in it to demonstrate it for me.

The instructions say not to use alkaline batteries

What did they supply? I’ll bet they didn’t supply NiMH rechargeables batteries – or didn’t they supply any at all?

If they supplied alkaline, they can hardly complain if they cause damage.

YES!!!:eek:
Might be something to do with power levels and the like; but if the instructions say no then you will be violating your warrenty and will find getting the camera repaired difficult!
Buy a double adapting plug, another charger and some more rechargeable batteries – it would bring less heartache in the long run!

Flood.™

You might want to check about whether your camera can take ordinary batteries – some electrical equipement is designed to use rechargeable batteries (nicads, metal) only, and some will use anything that fits and has a charge.

The instructions say not to use alkaline batteries, but i tried a set and they seemed to work. Could they damage the camera?

I’ve also got 3 sets of rechargable batteries and I’ll be bringing my charger with me to recharge the batteries in the hotel. I’ll also bring some ordinary batteries for emergencies.

You might want to check about whether your camera can take ordinary batteries – some electrical equipement is designed to use rechargeable batteries (nicads, metal) only, and some will use anything that fits and has a charge. Wouldn’t want you to burn out your camera just for the sake of a few quids worth of batteries!
I used to use a very early Nikon F4 that wouldn’t work with nicads…The large sticker on the back was very specific!

Flood.™

Hi Ross,

Having taken colour slides for nearly 40 years, I was VERY dubious about changing to something that I felt could disintegrate into a load of pixels at the slip of a ‘delete’ button. Rather that just buy a point-and-shoot compact digital camera, I have a Minolta Dimage 7i and really am quite staggered at the results it has produced. It has a built in 28-200mm zoom telephoto, which also has a 2X converter giving you up to 400mm, but it is really hopeless on focussing on anything moving fast, so I restrict it to ground and indoor/museum shots, where it knocks the pants off my slide-film SLR.
One day I will take the final plunge and give up taking slides, replacing my Nikon SLRs with a Canon EOS 10D,D60 or something similar, but until then I will continue taking both slides and digital, depending on the situation and conditions.

Thanks Trumper. I’ve got 2 128mb cards and 2 16mb cards. That should be enough for about 350 photos, though i think i’ll get another 128mb card tomorrow. I’ve also got 3 sets of rechargable batteries and I’ll be bringing my charger with me to recharge the batteries in the hotel. I’ll also bring some ordinary batteries for emergencies. I’m still practising with ISO settings and shutter speeds.

Here is a list as i think may help,
1,as suggested,Enough fully charged batteries
2,” ” ” ” Enough memory cards
3, Keep ASA /ISO speed as low as possible to reduce grainy photos
4,Try and keep shutter speeds to less than 250 /th second to keep prop blades from freezing in midair flying shots.
5,Pan the camera if possible with the moving planes to help the camera lock on for focussing
6,Exposure depends on the sky and silouetting ,you can alter photos a bit on your computer but try not to rely on it though to correct the photo.
7,Enjoy it 😀

Nice photos Bob. I guess I’ll need a x10 zoom for decent flying shots. I’ll start saving the pennies now! Maybe by this time next year the prices will come down a bit!

The results from my Oly C700UZ at Flying Legends 02 can be viewed HERE – with the same 10x optical lens as ‘LN Strike Eagle’ has in his C750, you will be pushing some shots with just a 3x lens.

Just don’t get too wrapped up in taking shots of the flying, as you’ll end up watching the show through a viewfinder!! 😉

Happy snapping!!!

I bought a Nikon 2100 specifically for RIAT last year. Marvellous for static shots but fairly useless for shooting anything airborne, tho I did get some reasonable shots of landing or taxiing aircraft. I used my SLR for the airborne shots.

I bought a 128 card which held in excess of 150 shots at RIAT but used at least 6 nicads plus 4 or so ordinary batteries.

I’m now thinkng of getting a Canon D300.

Regards

Chris

I didn’t want to get anything too expensive for my first digi, but if someone could recommend a digital camera with decent zoom for ground to air photography, but not overly expensive, maybe I could have a snazzier camera for next year.

I would recommend an Olympus C-750. 10x zoom (38-380mm equivalent). Nicely priced (around the £300 mark), very capable camera. I shant say any more here incase any more snide remarks relating to what I have said find their way onto these pages, but if you want to PM me I can show you pics I’ve taken on my older Olympus and put you in touch with a C-750 user for some more example photos.

Regards,
Dan

Hi Ross,
I bought a point n’ shoot digi box (Fuji A303) which I use for museums and static, and it beats the pants off my conventional SLR. I’ve also used it for taxi shots at Duxford as the aircraft come past at the Land Warfare hall end; alowing for the shutter lag, I’ve got some acceptable shots. A small tripod allows slooowww shutter speeds inside hangars – not slow enough for Hendon’s night hangar, but otherwise remarkable. For ground to air, I stick to my old SLR; that said, I take v. few now, and just enjoy the shots posted here by better photographers with more expensive kit!

I’d also say that the advice above is all good – the one thing I’d add is to ‘get yourself into a good spot to see a good shot’ is the real trick. The best pics I’ve seen here recently aren’t about snazzy kit, but ‘seeing’ the best – the Spit V sunset from the Lanc and the Hurri / Lanc nose static shot come to mind; the kit being a minor ingrediant in both efforts…

HTH

biggish planes in flight only then – otherwise tiny dots I’m afriad – unless you use the dreaded digital zoom.

Fine for anything on the ground, close too though.

I didn’t want to get anything too expensive for my first digi, but if someone could recommend a digital camera with decent zoom for ground to air photography, but not overly expensive, maybe I could have a snazzier camera for next year.

x3 optical

biggish planes in flight only then – otherwise tiny dots I’m afriad – unless you use the dreaded digital zoom.

Fine for anything on the ground, close too though.

Enjoy – will we be seeing you at the forum meet on whichever day you are going?

Flood.™

Hi. Don’t know if I’ll be at the forum meet, being a shy awkward type, and relative newcomer; but if you see a guy in an M41 field jacket(weather permitting) and P37 bag over his shoulder, spending an inordinate time hanging around the Forts, that’ll probably be me! 🙂 Say hello! I should be there both days.

I guess practice is the most important thing for my new camera (it has a x3 optical zoom). I’ve got a few days to do so anyway, and I’ll probably be at Hendon on Thursday or Friday.

Depending on the conditions this might be as much as one or two stops over exposure; that is why practise is important – Nermal