Prestwick & Edinburgh visits this week -(LONG)

Hi Fred,

Yes it’s a pretty good camera with a 20x optical zoom it equates to around 600mm in stills camera terms. Not only that, the lens is removeable and with an adaptor you can attach Canon EOS lenses too, with a cropping factor of around 7x you’re looking a pretty good close ups.

I might take a look at you’re Rode mic sometime, I have a Sennheisser which you’re welcome to try, you might get better results.

As for HD, yes they’re pretty expensive, the HD version of my camera which looks just like mine but in an all black finish costs £4500 ! There are cheaper alternatives at around £2000 or less but although HD, they are pretty naff in every other respect, i.e just little handycams for general use. It’s probably best to get one that shoots a full 1080 lines interlaced, a full HD tv screen needs to have a resolution of 1920×1080 lines for full quality. Lot’s of the so called ‘HD ready’ screens on sale on the high street just scrape into HD minimum standard of around 720 lines !

Having said that, I’ve seen some of these plugged into a decent dispaly and the results are a big WOW !!!

renfrew

this sounds like some camcorder you have i must say by the looks of it do you need a crane to lift it it looks very big

and i bet it costs a pretty penny as well

do you not upload to flightlevel 350

regards

peter

That’s some piece of kit you must be able to get great footage with it, a nice sunny day at Prestwick with plenty of Freighters would give it a good runout from the Mound.

I bought a Rode external Microphone for my Hi8 Camcorder but found that it recommends going into the Camcorder software and reducing the VU to about 75% but I don’t have that facility and after some testing at PIK I find the soundtrack too rumbly.

I’m really interested in an HD Camcorder but it’s outwith my budget just now. My Hi8 has 400 lines but the HD ones are 1080 lines, I’m itching to see actual footage from one of these to compare. An item for the future.

Fred.

Hi Fred,

Yes it’s a pretty good camera with a 20x optical zoom it equates to around 600mm in stills camera terms. Not only that, the lens is removeable and with an adaptor you can attach Canon EOS lenses too, with a cropping factor of around 7x you’re looking a pretty good close ups.

I might take a look at you’re Rode mic sometime, I have a Sennheisser which you’re welcome to try, you might get better results.

As for HD, yes they’re pretty expensive, the HD version of my camera which looks just like mine but in an all black finish costs £4500 ! There are cheaper alternatives at around £2000 or less but although HD, they are pretty naff in every other respect, i.e just little handycams for general use. It’s probably best to get one that shoots a full 1080 lines interlaced, a full HD tv screen needs to have a resolution of 1920×1080 lines for full quality. Lot’s of the so called ‘HD ready’ screens on sale on the high street just scrape into HD minimum standard of around 720 lines !

Having said that, I’ve seen some of these plugged into a decent dispaly and the results are a big WOW !!!

Here’s a useful website for those interested… http://www.hdvinfo.net/

I’m definetly tempted to go for one, mibbe on one of those 12 month deals, the 10D is still good though even at 6mp.

Gonna have to finish paying for this baby first though, might catch you on the mound sometime soon Fred as I shoot some moving action…

That’s some piece of kit you must be able to get great footage with it, a nice sunny day at Prestwick with plenty of Freighters would give it a good runout from the Mound.

I bought a Rode external Microphone for my Hi8 Camcorder but found that it recommends going into the Camcorder software and reducing the VU to about 75% but I don’t have that facility and after some testing at PIK I find the soundtrack too rumbly.

I’m really interested in an HD Camcorder but it’s outwith my budget just now. My Hi8 has 400 lines but the HD ones are 1080 lines, I’m itching to see actual footage from one of these to compare. An item for the future.

Fred.

Now now Ren! That IS a camera!

Is there anywhere we can view your footage with that? 🙂

I haven’t really done much aircraft stuff with it yet, but I did do a little test at GLA which can be viewed here…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfrQK-uICBE

And if anyone’s interested, a rock video which can be seen here (or through the night on Scuzz tv) 😀

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-9180660045734292498

Now now Ren! That IS a camera!

Is there anywhere we can view your footage with that? 🙂

Ren the body is much smaller than the likes of a 10D to 30D and looks tiny on a Canon 100-400mm but I’ve had no issues with it adapting to the reduced size compared to what I was using before and it’s my No1 camera particularly with it being 10MP files.

I’m impressed with the censor cleaning it’s very effective. When I was checking out my shots from last Tuesday I found a noticeable dirt spot on one and immediately checked forward a few to see if it was in the ones that followed but it was gone pretty much straight away.

Every time you power off it cleans the censor, it comes up saying “Cleaning censor” on the LCD.
Fred

I’m definetly tempted to go for one, mibbe on one of those 12 month deals, the 10D is still good though even at 6mp.

Gonna have to finish paying for this baby first though, might catch you on the mound sometime soon Fred as I shoot some moving action…:D

Hi Fred,

Do you have anymore of EI-DLE from Tuesday? My friend was in it doing base training.

Yes I shot quite a few of EI-DLE when it was in the circuit for about 3 hours, here is one of it with the derelict white 747 in the background.

Fred.

Very nice Fred, you’ve got me thinking of getting a 400D now.

Good stuff Fred, I almost came out of retirement myself this week. Hmmm… A guy I work with got a 400D last week, seems pretty good, if very small.

Maybe, just maybe… ?

Hello Guys,
DJ when I was thinking of buying a 400D about 4 months ago a friend sent me this link for price comparison which still works, I found it handy to check some places out to see if they had it in stock.

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/prod191.html

Ren the body is much smaller than the likes of a 10D to 30D and looks tiny on a Canon 100-400mm but I’ve had no issues with it adapting to the reduced size compared to what I was using before and it’s my No1 camera particularly with it being 10MP files.

I’m impressed with the censor cleaning it’s very effective. When I was checking out my shots from last Tuesday I found a noticeable dirt spot on one and immediately checked forward a few to see if it was in the ones that followed but it was gone pretty much straight away.

Every time you power off it cleans the censor, it comes up saying “Cleaning censor” on the LCD.

Fred

these shots are really good! i may have to pay a visit to these airports one say, you have some really interesting angles going on there.

any advice on viewing locations to visit / avoid?

Sam

The favourite spot by far at Prestwick is the “Mound” just up from the Control Tower and most of the ones in my Post were taken there (ie North American 767, Tornado, Transavia 737 etc).

In Winter time the sun is good from about 9-30am onwards and before that it is a bit backangled if Runway 31 is in use which is the predominant one.

In Summer time I don’t usually go until about 12pm because the sun starts off right down the Runway and takes longer to get behind you but from then on it is good until about 6pm so you get a long day out.

I sometimes use Monkton on the North side that looks back ito the Terminal area but that is only good if it’s cloudy otherwise the sun is in front, that spot is also better for water spray shots on a rainy day.

Both ends of the Runway give good angles and if you go to the Runway 13 end for 31 departures there is a Railway embankment with raised ground to stand on and shoot departures, heavy 747 departures are excellent from there and you get a really nice action shot from that spot.

The embankment is also good for lineup shots on Runway 13 although you can go across the road and shoot them from closer at the Crash gate.

Prestwick is a great place to go if you time it knowing that you will see some Freighters which is where keeping an eye on Flight Tracker comes in handy.

Fred.

Some cracking shots there, Fred. 🙂

Fantastic shots there Fred 😎 How long is PIK and EDI runway?

James

Good stuff Fred, I almost came out of retirement myself this week. Hmmm… A guy I work with got a 400D last week, seems pretty good, if very small.

Maybe, just maybe… ?;)

nice shots there fred sunshine at last i thought we would never see it 😀

peter

Very nice Fred, you’ve got me thinking of getting a 400D now.

Super shots, I really enjoyed viewing them.:)

Hi Fred,

Do you have anymore of EI-DLE from Tuesday? My friend was in it doing base training.

these shots are really good! i may have to pay a visit to these airports one say, you have some really interesting angles going on there.

any advice on viewing locations to visit / avoid?

Sam

Mainly the Canon 100-400mm on a 400D and for everything less than 100mm I use a 28-105mm short lense.

The 400D helps a lot on the long distance shots it opens up new angles because you can crop more heavily into the images and still get a decent quality picture.

Fred.

Great shots there Fred, they are superb 😀 Last few 747 shots are my fav. What lens do you use? 🙂

My final visit to an Airport in the good weather was another trip to Prestwick on Tuesday 6th where there was clear skies all day.

This was a slow day after the departure of an early morning North American 767 and it wasn’t until 3-50pm that a 747 Freighter arrived followed 40 minutes later by another, both were Atlas ones.

Fred.

Due to the high inner fence at the Mound I prefer to go for tight cropped angles on taxiers or nothing at all as lots of fence at the bottom of a photo ruins it for me.

A friendly wave from the Crew.

This Transavia 737 came over from Amsterdam for the day and did hours of ciruits.

A Ryanair 737 being de-iced before training in the circuit, it did 23 touch and go’s. Pity I just missed the wings being de-iced which I think would have made a better shot.

A visiting Tornado vacates the Runway and heads to Apron Golf for parking.

Departing from Runway 31.

The first of two Atlas 747’s arriving in late afternoon on a perfect clear sunny day.

TOuchdown woith a nice swirl of burning rubber.

A very long distance shot of the 747 vacating the Runway. You can clearly see the ripple in the Runway half way down in this one.

Was surprised the Runway lights were not on by this time at sunset, I got the Piano keys reflected on the rear of the 747 in this one.

Smoke erupts from touchdown.