A mate of mine has a Canon 35-350mm. He uses it with a 400D and gets great results. It’s his main lens too. He’s got hundreds on airliners.net which answers your question about quality. Check out:
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?photographersearch=Steven%20Gray&distinct_entry=true

It’s getting old now though so you’d have to pick up a 2nd hand one.

HTH
Alex

Thanks Alex

Your mates images look nice and sharp….i have seen a couple of the lenses for sale around £900 dont know if this is a good price?

Cheers

Steve

I’m not sure spot metering will help as you’ll only expose for a very small part of the scene (or aircraft) you’re trying to shoot. I accidentally took 3 or 4 shots in spot when I bought my 30D and the results were frankly disgusting and un-usable. Shame, as I was shooting a Qatar A330 departing MAN in stunning light at the time!

Maverick_11… Which focus mode and point are you using? Certain areas of your shots seem to be more in focus than others, which could possibly point to inappropriate use of focussing modes.

Paulbarry quite rightly points out the 1/focal length guide for shutter speed which is always very useful to bear in mind when shooting hand held, although I can see no reason why you shouldn’t get reasonably sharp shots in the conditions the shots you’ve posted were taken in. The Easyjet shot was taken at ISO 1000 (which does seem rather high) and f5.6 giving a shutter speed of 1/800, so in theory at least part of your shot should be sharp. Bear in mind though that depth of field gets shallower the higher the focal length so if you focus on, for example, the front of the aircraft at 250mm and f5.6 you’ll probably find the tail is out of focus. If I find I can’t get a good enough shutter speed without dropping below f7.1 it’s usually time to go to the pub!

Maybe check your focus point (I always use centre for standard aviation shooting and one-shot focussing mode) and try keep your f/stop as high as possible while still giving you a shutter speed at least equal to your focal length.

Paul

Thanks Paul

I have been using centre for my focusing point…i must admit i am new to DSLR photography but some of the points you guys have given me are excellent and soon as the weather improves a bit i will get out there and give them a try…again thanks to all that replied keep up the good work guys really appreciate the help

I’ll be in the minorty then! 😀

I have the 28-300mm lens as I already use a 400mm prime lens on another body and there was no point having another 400mm that doesn’t quite reproduce the quality of the prime and is so long at the short end.

It is a very, very good lens and I would say slightly better than the 100-400mm in terms of image quality throughout it’s range. It’s a heavy beast like the 100-400 though it slightly more modern being a newer design with a slightly different IS set up etc. If you are looking for a very versatile lens for capturing the odd flying shots as well as taxying and static shots then the 28-300 is brilliant. A lot of photojournalists use it as it goes from standard focal lengths to telephoto without the need the change lens.

If you want predominatly flying shots, then the 100-400mm is probably your better option thanks to a slightly longer reach. From what I’ve seen of that lens it does tend to go a little soft over 350mm. The 100-400 is also a fair bit cheaper than the 28-300mm lens though both will last a very long time.

If you want a little of both, then I would suggest the Sigma 50-500mm HSM DG lens. It doesn’t quite have the same brilliant USM focussing as the Canons, though it’s image quality is very good and it is slightly sharper at 400mm than the Canon. I used the earlier RF APO version of this lens for a number of years and was very pleased with it and still keep it as a back up lens.

Thanks again excellent feedback now im confused…i am looking for a versatile lens that i can capture static shots, taxing, flying..i like taking close up shots of the noses/cockpits of aircraft when taxing..also love those landing shots with smoking wheels….on the 28-300 as anyone tried a 2 x converter?…it will increase the range but do these decrease the quality of the image?

New or used?

New – its a reasonable as an import price (assuming it includes delivery and duty / VAT) if a UK retailer then it’s very good.

Used – Check the age and any service history. There is an issue with barrel seizures on older units (2 years old or more) but recent units seem to be much better. Get a warranty for at least 6 months if it’s from a retailer.

Jeff

As an asside, watch out for the 17-85, they distort badly at the wide end.

Thanks for the info…yes it was £799 brand new and includes delivery and comes with a Canon warranty…so sounds a good deal?..