Jan-Arie wrote:
Nooo were not dead the season has to start jet my first is not until june and to much work and no time for other things
I think Nick & Jan-Arie are right. This just isn't the time of year when there are a lot of exciting/interesting/unusual aviation activities going on. Give it a month and I'll bet the activity level goes up exponentially.
Sorry, I haven't had much to post either. Been swamped with work, taxes, and assorted paperwork.
On Sunday evening we were surprised by a flock of cedar waxwings in the yard. Not particularly rare, but I had never seen them around the house before. They were there Sunday, and they haven't been back.
It's amazing how good our gear is these days. This guy was high up in a tree, so I slapped the 100-400II+1.4xIII on the 7DII and cropped heavily. Not bad, considering.
brian_sp wrote:
a year ago Jim kept encouraging me to work at getting a contact at my local airport to get me out on the tarmac, he was right, i talked to people and they have seen me enough that i now have a nice guy that'll take me out,
Thanks Jim for encouraging me to get it done
some shots from the last couple days with the D850
Feel better Nick! I'm not too concerned about the political climate, those folks didn't have any problem dropping by for the last 8 years when they had all the marbles. Life goes on and "it is what it is", as they say. Weebeeseee
Nice work Mark! That 100-400 Series II is really a great lens. One of the sharpest Canon makes, guess they learn a thing or two from the Series I. The 200-400 with the 1.4 built in is another great lens........but it ought to be given the sticker.
The 200-400 has become one of my favorite lenses for still and video, the FS7 loves it. This clip of the Global that I grabbed yesterday afternoon is captured with it.........
By all accounts the new Nikon 180-400mm f4 with the built in TC is every bit as good as the Canon version, but as you say, for $5,400 more than the old version it darn well better be. These new lenses may be fabulous, but I can't help but think they're pricing themselves out of range of more and more customers.
I think you're right Erich, especially if you factor in new releases from manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron that cost a fraction of the OEM glass. I've never been a buyer for aftermarket lenses, but I sure can see the rationale, especially given the advances in over all quality.
Truthfully, I have no idea what the business model is now, for years the camera companies said the working pro was really superfluous in the big picture, it was the point and shoot consumer market that funded everything up the food chain. Well, the iPhone has destroyed that market so where are they now? Canon has so many other profit centers that they can easily pool funds and mask what's really going on, but Nikon doesn't and their quarterly P&L has been on a downward slide for a number of years. Not a rosy picture for sure, and it's anybody's guess where it goes from here.
Your supposition can be applied to the medium format manufacturers as well. I find it difficult to believe that Phase One and Hasselblad are selling enough $50,000 cameras to cover R&D, much less all the ancillary necessities that are involved in bringing their products to market. Expensive cutting edge gear is wonderful, but a visit to the medium format forums gives one some interesting impressions, lots of frustration compounded by they fact they paid dearly to be in that circle.
I'd add one more element required for these perfect images James, you behind the camera! Beautifully done! Those look like they should be originals in oil. What was your photo platform?
This is nothing special, but I'm tweaking vantage points and technique in preparation for an assignment to catch several iconic aircraft on the grounds of DFW, in perfect light,
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I'd add one more element required for these perfect images James, you behind the camera! Beautifully done! Those look like they should be originals in oil. What was your photo platform?
Thanks Jim, the first 2 were with the Canon 1DX + 70-200mm f2.8L IS and the last one was with the Canon 5D IV + 24-70mm f2.8L II
Then a fair bit of post processing in Lightroom and ON1.
futurshox wrote:
Very nice James. What were you flying in, to keep up with the Spitfire?
A De Havilland Dove, which was surprisingly comfortable with very large windows, unfortunately we struggled with windows misting up though, so it was a battle between wiping the windows and getting the shot.
