topic Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography in EF & RF Lenses

EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

Stoney10 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:00:28 GMT

Hello I would like to start plane spotting and aviation photography and wonders what good lense under 150 would be good I have a cannon T7 #T7dslr

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

kvbarkley — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 22:00:00 GMT

What lens do you have?

About your only option is the EF-S 55-250, and that is $300. And even that is probably too short.

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

Ron888 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 02:31:58 GMT

Do you mean under $150? Most aviation photographers use maximum focal lengths above 400mm.That won't be possible with a new lens. The EFS55-250 kvbarkley mentioned would be your best option.A used one would meet your budget.
As for longer lenses the only cheap ones will be fully manual.That is ,you'll need to focus and even set the aperture yourself.And these are optically 'ok' ,not great.They would be a notch or two below the 55-250 mentioned above.
Avoid the 420-800mm superzooms,they're utter trash

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

wq9nsc — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 15:06:34 GMT

As KV and Ron noted, it takes a pretty long telephoto unless you are at an airshow shooting planes on the ground. Your best bet lowest cost lens that will do what you need is one of the 150-600mm "super zoom" lens from Sigma or Tamron but even used they are going to be well over $150.

The first 5 photos below of the crop dusters were captured with an EF 800 f5.6 on a 1DX III body, around the equivalent of a 600mm focal length on your "crop sensor" T7, the last two were when my daughter went up in an ultralight last summer and were captured with a Canon EF 200-400 f4 with integrated 1.4X extender providing a 560mm focal length. This is equivalent to a 350mm focal length on a crop sensor and you quickly end up with the target being a small spot on the sensor as it moves to a normal distance away.

You need as much focal length as possible for this sort of activity.

Rodger

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

ebiggs1 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 15:17:11 GMT

"... what good lense under 150 would be good I have a cannon T7"

Sorry, there isn't any. You need to save up quite a bit longer. The best all around lens for this type work is one of the 150-600mm super zooms but even used one of them will far exceed $150 which is a totally unrealistic price point. These were shot with my Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports Lens.

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

ebiggs1 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 15:27:34 GMT

"... (using an) EF 800 f5.6 on a 1DX III body, around the equivalent of a ~~600mm focal length~~ on your "crop sensor" T7, ...", would yield an equivalent FL of 1280mm. 🙂

However, I personally never consider "equivalent FL" any longer since post edit cropping yields basically the exact same results. There may have been a time it made some sense but with today's cameras and post editors not so much to none. I never liked it, though.

For kicks and grins my Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports Lens equivalent FL would be 240-960mm if a person cared which I don't.

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

Ron888 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 21:04:54 GMT

Off topic: It amuses me they wrote 'experimental' on the plane.Maybe it's a requirement for certain types?
Anyways it cant do much for the passenger's confidence😅

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

kvbarkley — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 21:30:01 GMT

Experimental means that it is a one-off, not a "type" like a Cessna 172 or Boeing 737 that have been certified by the FAA.

These are usually home built.

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

Ron888 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 22:00:37 GMT

Ok,thought it must be something along those lines

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

wq9nsc — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 22:51:30 GMT

Pretty sure it is a requirement 🙂 On commercial aircraft, they only label it experimental after it turns out it wasn't quite production ready.

Rodger

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

ebiggs1 — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 16:23:20 GMT

Amateur built are always experimental, but experimental is not always amateur built. FAA regs for home built airplanes state you must have a visible placard near the cockpit identifying the fact to would be passengers of the airplane origin.

Re: EF lens recommendations for aviation photography

ebiggs1 — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 16:43:21 GMT

And interesting but sad story concerning my father who was a USAF fighter pilot for 33 years occurred at our lake cabin in the mid 1970's. My father retired from the Air Force at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama in 1970, yes, after 33 years and several wars including WWII, Korea and Vietnam twice. Anyway most folks in the area knew this and him. One day a guy brought a home built to our Lake Jordan cabin.
The design was for a sea plane. One that can land or take off on water. The guy was not a pilot so he asked my dad to try it out. Well against his and my better (you would have to know my dad) judgment my dad tried to fly it. It was a short flight. When my dad returned and landed it, he told the guy to never try to fly it as it wasn't airworthy and was a death trap especially for a novice person.
We didn't give it much thought after that. However, several weeks later he happened to see a story in the news paper that a man had been killed in an experimental seaplane crash on a different area lake, Lake Mitchell, which is near Lake Jordan.

If you are going to get in one of these "experimental airplanes" you better know what you are letting yourself in for.