RAF Waddington International Airshow

F16 Turkish Airforce - Nikon D200 with Sigma 120-300mm F2.8



Over the weekend of 6-7th July I had the opportunity to attend the International Airshow at RAF Waddington. I'm not an aviation photographer, but enjoy viewing the aircraft on display, both in the air and parked up on the static line. As well as two full days of flying action there are many interactive exhibitions and attractions to wander around, including a fun fair and a multitude of flight simulators.

Plenty of hands on interaction

You can even buy a new car from one of several manufactures if you so wish, although why this should be on your shopping list at an airshow is anybody's guess. Most importantly perhaps, there are a number of bars dotted all over the airfield just in case you were to get rather dehydrated. Watching aircraft and ambling around looking at craft stalls can be thirsty work.



F16, Dutch Display Team - Nikon D200 with Sigma 120-300mm F2.8



F16, Dutch Display Team - Nikon D200 with Sigma 120-300mm F2.8

There are many guys who photograph these events on a regular basis and their work is exquisite. You can see some great images at www.airshows.co.uk, much of the work showcased there is truly astonishing. I took two cameras along with me to the show, as it's always a good idea to have a bit of a practice with your kit whenever you can. A Nikon D4 and my trusty old D200 were in the bag along with my Sigma 120-300mm F2.8. Right from the off I knew the D4 just didn't have the reach when photographing planes flying high and in the distance. It utilises a full frame ( FX ) sensor, whereas the Nikon D200 sports an APS ( DX ) sized sensor. This is probably the one area that a DX sized sensor camera trumps an FX model, and is favoured by wildlife and sports photographers who don't have deep pockets and can't afford longer focal length pro lenses that can run into several thousands of pounds. It provides a magnified image equivalent to a 450mm focal length on a 300mm lens, where the FX sensor retains the focal length of 300mm. This is caused by the crop factor of using a smaller than 35mm sensor with any given focal length lens. In Nikon's case this is 1.5, so a 300mm lens becomes 450mm ( 300 x 1.5 ).

F16, Dutch Display Team - Nikon D200 with Sigma 120-300mm F2.8

I really wanted to use the D4 because of its amazing tracking ability, which I talked about in a previous post entitled 'How I nearly won £1000'. Unfortunately though, everything was just too far away, so out came the D200. Boy, could I tell the difference. It felt really sluggish in comparison, its tracking was noticeably slower and although no slouch at 5 fps, it felt somewhat pedestrian in comparison to the D4's 10/11 fps. I quickly adapted to the new 'limitations' though, and got on with snapping away, and once set up what great fun I had. From the off I knew that the predominantly bright sky would cause the camera to under expose. I added 0.7 E.V. to offset this, and a couple of test shots and checking of the histogram confirmed that this setting was about right, the LCD showing the graph pushed to the right side of the display but not clipping. The camera was set to ISO 200 and an aperture of between F5.6 - F8 dialled in. Not so much to avoid depth of field issues, the subject was just too far away to make much of a difference in this regard. Really it was because the lens becomes razor sharp stopped down a little from F2.8 and I had plenty of light to allow me to do this. This resulted in a shutter speed of around 1/1000th of a second, fast enough to capture the jets whizzing around the sky and freeze the action. I wasn't taking many pictures of prop aircraft on the day but after studying the www.airshows.co.uk website it would appear that a much slower shutter speed should be adopted when doing so. This is to counter the chances of freezing the blades and give the impression that the plane may be static, particularly when it's in the air, ( not a good look ). I did take one shot of the Breitling wing walkers though, and although the prop blur isn't great, it's not too bad.



Breitling Wingwalkers - Nikon D200 with Sigma 120-300mm F2.8

After a long hot day, where I got burnt to a crisp and my legs finally started to brown, ( very important for a road cyclist ) I packed up, pleased with my days shoot and thinking that I would quite like to do this a bit more in the future, as it was becoming quite addictive. I truly wished I could have used the Nikon D4 instead of the D200 ( great camera as it is ), and decided that there was only one answer, buy a Nikkor 600mm F4.....  Anyone got a spare £7000.
  
This is the link to the airshow's website where you can check out all the latest news, www.waddingtonairshow.co.uk