35mm SLR Camera
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Camera and Equipment

For aircraft photography you really need a 35mm SLR (Single lens reflex) camera. This type of camera is very versatile and can give some good results. What you see through the viewfinder is actually what appears on the film. You can buy various lenses from wide-angled up to telephoto. Some lenses are better then others and this is reflected in the price. Other accessories include filters such as a polorising filter which is useful for illiminating reflections from an aircraft canopy for example or just a UV filter to protect your lens. Different film speeds can be used, so a slow film (ISO 50) is useful if you want to enlarge a print because it is less grainy then a fast film.A faster film (ISO 400) is useful for taking pictures of aircraft in the air with a long telephoto lens. This is because a faster film is more light-sensitive and so needs less exposure. Most SLR's give you full control over the exposure by letting you manually set the shutter speed and/or the aperture.

Canon EOS 1000F Camera body & lenses
Lockheed P-38 Lightning

North American P-51 Mustang

35mm SLR Camera & Lenses

You can buy a 35mm SLR camera for £200-£300+ or considerably less if you buy second-hand. Modern cameras usually come with a range of features including autofocus. Some people use auto-focus all the time but others, like myself, rarely use it and prefer to manually focus the lens.

More important than the camera body is the lens. A good lens can cost more than the camera and its a good idea to have a few lenses from wide-angle up to telephoto. I prefer to use zoom lenses as it means carrying less lenses. When you purchase a camera it will usually come with a standard zoom lens (usually 35-80mm). A wide-angle lens with a focal length of about 24-50mm is useful for taking pictures of static aircraft by cutting out the crowd and also for museum pictures. For taking pictures of aircraft in the air a lens with a focal length of 300mm or 400mm is required. A 50mm lens gives about the same picture as the human eye, so you can divide the focal length of the lens by 50 to find out the magnification, so a 400mm lens would give you 8X magnification. You can also buy a lens converter, i use a 2X lens converter on a 75-300mm zoom lens which converts the lens to a 150-600mm lens. This helps you to get closer to the action and fill the frame with the aircraft but unfortunately the converter can result in some loss of image quality.

You will often find that there are several versions of a particular focal length lens. The difference is their 'speed', that is the size of their maximum apertures. A fast lens will allow more light into the lens through the wider aperture but will cost much more than an equivilent slower lens.

Using an SLR Camera

The modern 35mm SLR camera usually has a number of Exposure programs. The Exposure is the amount of light that reaches the film which is governed by the Shutter Speed and the Aperture. The Shutter Speed is the length of time the shutter is held open and the Aperture is a multi-bladed iris diaphragm in the lens which can be opened up or closed down to restrict the amount of light entering the film.
These are some common Exposure programs on a typical SLR:
Automatic program - This mode works like a compact camera and will automatically set the Exposure for you.
Shutter-Priority - This mode is useful when you are using a long telephoto lens and need to set a fast shutter speed to eliminate camera-shake or if you need a slow shutter speed so that propellers can be seen to be rotating. The camera automatically sets the correct Aperture.
Aperture-priority - Manually setting the Aperture is useful because setting a small Aperture results in a greater Depth-of-Field. If you wanted to photograph an aircraft but have the aircraft in focus and the background blurred then you would set a wider Aperture. The Shutter Speed is automatically set by the camera.
Manual Exposure - In this mode you have complete freedom to set both the Shutter-Speed and the Aperture to determine the correct Exposure.

The SLR camera comes with an in-built Exposure Metering System. The Metering System will automatically work out the correct Exposure by taking an average of all the tones in the complete image. Some cameras also have additional Metering Modes such as 'Centre-weighted' and 'Spot-Metering'. These modes work out the Exposure by averaging the tones in only part of the image, usually the centre.

The diagram above shows that a wide Aperture (F/4)
gives less Depth-of-Field then a small Aperture (F/11)


The Aperture of a lens is variable and restricts the amount of light reaching the film. Aperture size is represented by F numbers so F/4 is a wide Aperture and F/22 is a small Aperture.

Below are the lenses that i use:
24-50mm
Wide-angled zoom lens
35-80mm
Standard zoom lens
75-300mm
Telephoto zoom lens
2x Converter
Doubles magnification by 2
I use the 2x converter on my 75-300mm telephoto zoom lens to convert it into a 150-600mm telephoto lens. It gives me more magnification but the exposure and focusing become fairly critical.


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Tips on using an SLR camera at Airshows

ISO 200 is generally a good Film Speed to use at airshows because its not grainy and is usually fast enough for arial shots, alternatively you could take 2 camera bodies loaded with 2 different film speeds, ISO 100 for static aircraft and ISO 400 for arial shots and low-light conditions.
Wide-angled lenses are very useful for taking pictures of large aircraft or in a museum but they can distort the natural perspective of the subject.
Using a long telephoto lens can cause camera shake, to eliminate this it is a good idea to set the shutter speed to the focal length of the lens. So if you use a 300mm telephoto lens then you would need a shutter speed of a least 1/300 second.
If you need a fast shutter speed then you will need to open the aperture wider but you should be aware that a wider aperture means less depth-of-field and so focusing becomes much more critical.
When taking pictures of aircraft in the air against a bright sky the cameras metering system can be fooled into underexposing the actual aircraft so it is best to set the camera to overexpose by 1-2 stops.
A lens hood is very useful on a sunny day because it prevents sun flare and protects the lens if it rains.

GLOSSARY

ApertureIris in lens which restricts amount of light reaching film
Depth of field Distance between nearest and furthest point which are in focus
Exposure The amount of light reaching film controlled by the Aperture/Shutter speed
Film Speed Sensitivity of film to light (fast film is more sensitive)
f numbers The aperture setting is measured in f numbers (eg. f5.6 is wider then f11)
ISO International Standards Organization / Film speed
metering system The cameras in-built meter which sets the exposure automatically
Overexposure Too much light has reached the film resulting in a burnt out image
Shutter speed The amount of time the shutter remains open and the film receives light
Underexposure Not enough light reaches the film resulting in a dim image


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