Finningley Open Days – Query

Possibly a bit tenuous, however, as we have had a picture of a Lightning and it started with the Catalina, how about a picture of a Lightning taken out the cockpit window of a Catalina!

Hi dhfan

Not any significant difference in my Cat, but phil’s looks a bit better – probably the colour cast contrast has reduced slightly (or gamma increased slightly?).

Interesting experiment though, but one that will not, I think, truely show “good” results. This is because, as I see it, the skies, other colours and definition in my photos (here on this forum) are muddied by granularity, phil’s are not.

For a start, the pics I scanned were not on gloss photopaper but semi-matt. This causes a distinct diminishing of resolved definition which, unfortunately, makes everything look “muddied”. Phil’s images are direct from the film stock hence less obvious granularity but also, less exposure latitude (unless adjusted after scanning as you did).

After the OM-1 I got an OM-2S in the states. Awesome camera, for about a year, then the “computer” packed up! Would have cost more than I paid for the kit to get it repaired so I reverted to an OM40 which served me well until 2 yrs back, then the exposure comp went on the blink – bought a Cannon outfit with Cannon glass with which I’m well pleased – still a tad “soft” though, but I blame commercial processing for this. They seem to process films to take account of the harshness given by flash photography as nearly everybody uses cameras that “flash” these days.

Don’t blame you for trying to get genuine Olympus glass, it can’t be beat, except maybe by Nikkor stuff. As for the Sigma, it was all I could afford in those days, not very good glass in my opinion, just a tad better than Vivitar though.

😎

Second one.

Just ran both the Cat pics through PSP and tried automatic colour balance and remove colour cast.

Interesting.
The slides look false, that blue sky looks too good to be true, and a little dark.
The prints look more accurate for the aircraft colours and marking, but with a muddy effect on the sky.
Since 1981 or thereabouts, all my pics have been taken with an Olympus OM-2N and a Sigma 75/250 zoom, sometimes with a Vivitar 2x convertor. I changed to prints around the same time. I’ve noticed over the last few years that I’ve been getting less contrasty prints and a muddy sky. I wonder if it’s mass processing that’s changed over time.
I’m now collecting genuine Zuiko lenses for Olympus and will try next year with a 200mm f:4 and a matched convertor. I might try running some slides through in a spare body to directly compare the results.

Hi dhfan,I did wonder that myself.My pics were scanned direct from slides (minolta dimage dual scan 3).The original slides (fuji) do show a bright blue sky (possibly with polariser? — it was a long time ago! ) Perhaps LesB has a different set up –prints perhaps?
:confused: :confused: :confused:

OK, LesB and philglt, why the difference in colours in nominally identical shots?

I think you`re right LesB –uncanny similarity
😮

. . . and 5 Sqn were there! A Frightning, fast and furious as I recall. Nothing like a Lightning re-heat fly-by to make the kids drop their ice cream. 😉

Well philglt, we must have been standing pretty near each other . . .

That confirms it as 1985 then. My old Air Training Corps squadron held it’s annual camp at Coningsby that year, and the Spitfire and Tornado F2 (yep, it’s THAT old) formation were up doing a lot of practicing during the week we were there.

What with the day spent helping change something on one of the Lancaster’s engines and then sitting inside the fuselage on the main spar while they ran her up, and watching 29Sqn Phantoms scorching off at night, it was quite a week… 😀

An interesting formation from the same show– last one honest:(

Now I know how to do this, just one more like on the start to the thread.

I don`t recall the tornado pass but a German one was there(43+64).Also present was the German starfighter display team.

Was this the show where a German Marine Tornado got very close to the sound barrier, I do remember going to Brawdy about then and seeing the aforementioned. I took a couple of pics including the tornado, it had a superb compression cloud around it and subsequently that flyby pic (not mine but someones who must have been close by) appeared on the cover of a book about the soundbarrier.

Hi, this is my first post although a long time lurker.
I can confirm Brawdy, 1985. A nice day and some good photos. (pre-digital of course) 🙂

OK, “senior moment” troops, sorry. The place is RAF Brawdy! :rolleyes:

Finally asked the wife, should have done that in the 1st place I guess – they always know don’t they. 😉 Couldn’t recall the actual date though so it’s still up to you guys – sometime in the early 80s is best guess.

These pics were mixed up with photos of other air shows. We used to go to Finningley’s Open Day every year as we had friends who were still in the mob posted there in those days.

Here’s another from that Brawdy show, a German doing lo & slow. Just look at the crowd-line! It was a “Families Day”, as we now recall, and, as with the Finningley connection, we had friends who were still “in” at Brawdy.

I don’t think its 1986 as she was out of commision that year having the port wing re-spared.

More likley 1985. I would agree with Dav though it doesnt look like Finningley as its pretty flat around the airfield.

She was based at Barkston Heath in those days.

Are you sure that it’s Finningley? I don’t recall the hills in the background, looks more like Woodford to me…

probably 1986 and this cat used to be resident at duxford untill it had an accident in 1998 when is struck something under water and sank killing i think 2 people. I is now being restored at the fromer naval base at lee on solent along with the ex greenpeace cat too. hope this helps and would like to see some more pictures of finningley if you have any?