Hi Phillip,

Who would you be selling these images to?

I’m current;y burying my head in a business plan for a coffee shop… a service based business with low over heads based on a commission only income can yield high returns, but you need to ensure that you have something that the market wants – pictures of the lastest RAF fighter with it nose bent after a bump on a runway, air-to-air shots, or rare and not that often seen overseas flyers or relics.

As an enthusiast, that’s what I personally would shell-out for.

Good luck!

APC104

I’m in India at the moment – and while this thread is very imfomative, the BSc in Economics I blagged at Uni, allied with fact that I have to walk down roads in India with open sewers, can’t have a shower because there’s no water and 9 out of 10 days there is a power cut leads e to one conclusion

INDIA IS BROKE!

The Prime Minister has announced a multi billion dollar system to provide the rural population with a guarenteed public job and income. This I think, will see the defence budget squeezed.

As I write this email I can hear the Mirage 200’s and Jags that have been written about taking off from the Jodpur base!

I recently read a book – “The Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin”. It stated that Concorde was specifically designed to fly London – New York. Full, it could not fly Frankfurt – New York, and the need to increase wing area to accommodate more fuel and a greater aerodynamic lift was inpractical due to the constant need to “push the boundaries” with regards to materials and production methods. A bomber, therefore, would only have been capable of firing stand-off missiles.

In short, concorde as a bomber would only have been practical if the target was in Western Europe ( assuming a UK basing).

As a recon model… cool… but not really needed. By that time NASA was offering the UK free recon.sat. launches, and the images, while not 100%, mean’t that the RAF no longer needed to fly death-wish missions over the USSR to keep the US happy. The CIA also always shared what they knew with SIS, and in turn one would imagine the RAF would also benefit.

As regards air-to-air refueling, again, I think while it sounds really nice.. the engineering and practicalities would have been a pig – reference the SR-71 KC135 relationship and the need to have a massive tanker network exclusively available.

Another what if… 🙂

I’m using a D70s. Great camera. I’m travelling at the moment, use it everyday for everything from pictures of vultures and paragliders to darker-than-hell indian temples and have had no problems with the results so far.

I read in a number of reviews that the menus on the Nikons are supposed to be hard to use. I read the manual ( takes a while) and can find my way around no probs. There are a lot of button short-cuts that by-pass the need to use the rear screen and therefore save power. On that point, the battery last a long time, while a few Canon users I have met ( birders) have commented on the need to carry several spare batteries.

I’ve met alot of other people on the road using mainly the D70s or 350D, and the main differences are the megapixel count, size (can be an issue when your in down town Beijing and don’t want your camera to get knicked) with the D70s having eaten all the pies, and the performance of the AF-S function – cheak this out as you will be using at the airshows.

Some one on this forum was gave me wise advice – budget not for the camera, but for the lenses!

Good luck!

Merry Christmas Phillip!

I’m in India at the moment… great place but they seem to have forgotten about Christmas over here… no Noel Edmonds on the telly.. can’t even put a couple of quid on whether or not it might snow… and no turkey!

Take care over the holiday every one!

APC104 🙂

“Chavs” mostly reside in Essex…. can’t miss that bit out!