The Bridge Camera in Aircraft Photography

[viking9]

For over thirty five years I've used SLRs for aircraft photography, buying new bodies and lenses to achieve longer ranges and better photos. About four years ago I bought a Canon 100-400mm telephoto and about a year ago I upgraded to a Canon 7D DSLR body. Aged 73 then, I considered that to be my last major purchase as I now had a superb combination of camera and lenses. How things can change!

I've suffered from ostoeoarthritis in my limbs for some years now but recently I was shocked to discover that I was unable to support the combination of my SLR and 100-400mm telephoto above chest height for more than a few moments without extreme pain. It became very apparent that I was not going to be able to continue to indulge in aircraft photography unless I found something much lighter. But what?

I started to take a closer look at the reviews of other camera systems in photo mags online - dpreview.com is one of the best. I had looked at so called 'Bridge' cameras before - those that look like DSLR but have a wide to telephoto lens built in - but had not been impressed with the quality of photo.  Now I found there is a number of interesting models on the market with large telephotos (one of them up to 1000mm) and CMOS sensors which give superior picture quality. Some them also do superb HD video. I'm not going to discuss at this time why I chose the one I did, the Panasonic DMC-FZ150, but that's what I went for and having realized over £3,000 in sales of my secondhand camera kit I have plenty of dosh to buy something else later :-) I'm happy of course to answer any questions.

Yesterday I visited the Manchester Airport Transport and Aviation Fair and had a chat with the guys from PlanePlotter. I took the opportunity to take some shots with the FZ150. Here are a few:






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[Anmer]

Thanks Tom for an interesting bit of feedback.

First of all I'm not a serious photographer.  I used to be in the days of film and developing my own but not any more.

I have an old Canon D30 and a collection of lenses, the biggest being a 100-300mm Canon IS which my youngest son has "borrowed".

I found the weight of all the gear was the problem, lugging around a camera bag stuffed with camera and lenses.  Then one year I bought a compact Ixus and was surprised by the quality of the images, even blown up.  I stopped lugging around the D30.

For a year or so I've been contemplating a "bridge" camera, looking at the Canon SX30 (now superceded by SX40), the Fuji FinePix HS10/HS20 and the Panasonic FZ150.

I've held off buying one as I hadn't seen any feedback from aviation enthusists but had read some poor reviews about focussing on fast moving objects.

I may take the plunge having read your "review".  As you've mentioned, one gets a lot of bangs for one's bucks.

Thanks for sharing.

[catrolo]

great photos Tom.i agree with you the fz150 is a good camera thats why i purchased one after reading countless reviews.not done any fast shots yet ,but looking at your aircraft pics the fz150 looks as though it can produce the goods.

[viking9]

Thanks for your comments Guys. There's a huge (largest I've ever been in) PC World with a similarly huge Currys next door on a trading estate near Lisburn. I spent three days in a week - the stores were very quiet - getting the staff to let me try the cameras. Amazingly, they only had display stock, none to sell. I had to help them find the batteries and chargers and help hook them up. Luckily I had an SD card in a little Panasonic TZ8 belonging to my wife, they didn't have one to test with. The manager was also very apprehensive the first time about letting me go out on to the main road to photograph passing cars to check the focus tracking of each model. Actually it was the security man that gave him hassle, until I noticed the Parachute Regiment badge tattooed on his arm, then we were away. 

The only real niggle I have with the FZ150 is, as a spectacle wearer, there is no rubber eye cup on the viewfinder (only the Canon SX40 has one), so I sometimes have to cup my left hand to it to prevent the sun entering and prevent me seeing the viewfinder properly.

Of course the quality is nowhere up to the standard of Canon or Nikon APS-C sensor cameras but I have printed some A3 pics on my trusty Canon iX6550 that are very acceptable and means that good pics are within the reach of the average person on a budget who wants to takes nice aircraft pictures.

This thing shoots superb movie, best I've seen, so the next thing I want to do is some AVCHD movie of aircraft in flight.

BTW, catrolo, have you come across the excellent series of video tutorials for the FZ150 by Graham Gough on Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41NJJ3Nc0BE

Tom

[catrolo]

Hi Tom,no i hav'nt seen the tutorials but i will take a look.Currys seem to have a problem with fz150 stock.my local did'nt have any for the 3 weeks i was looking(altough they kept saying they were getting them in).I had to travel 15 miles to currys in Nottingham to buy one.And yes you can't swicth them on in store and try them ,they only had the one connected to that flipping alarm thing.

[Anmer]

Where's Wallace Heaton when you need him?

[Smudger98]

Not a bad price either.. £300-ish on ebay..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ctg/Panasonic-DMCFZ150-121-MP-Digital-Camera-Black-/109474166?_refkw=Panasonic+FZ150&_pcatid=802&_pcategid=31388&_dmpt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN

[viking9]

This camera just continues to amaze me every day. It's terrific value for money. I took a video of our lifeboat crew practicing the other evening and the quality is stunning. I've just picked up a used Jobo PhotoGPS geotagger on eBay, so I'll be trying that out today. Never a spare moment when you're retired. 

[Anmer]

Not a bad price either.. £300-ish on ebay..

Grey import from Hong Kong.

Let us know if and when you receive it and need a warranty repair. 

[catrolo]

Viking9,Tom. Just watched first tutorial by Graham Gough as you suggested.Very good Tom learnt quite a bit already.Thanks for putting me on to them.cheers.

[viking9]

You're welcome.

Glad you liked it.

Tom

[viking9]

Panasonic have just announced the successor to the FZ150, the FZ200. Main differences are a better ELV (electronic viewfinder) and max aperture across the zoom range of f2.8 instead of f2.8/f5.2.

Don't expect it in the shops in the UK for a while.

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/News/Latest+News/Panasonic+LUMIX+FZ200+%E2%80%93+pushing+the+boundaries+of+high-speed+super-zoom+photography/10140721/index.html#anker_10140723

[Keef]

Hi,

Thanks Tom for posting your experiences.

I have a Lumix FZ38 which does OK for most things but I've always been a bit disappointed by it's low light capability (think British summers and Farnborough International Airshow!) and speed of focus lock. Reading your posts made me think an FZ150, then an FZ200 might be a reasonable upgrade.

Googling around it seems the FZ200 will be available end of August of beginning of July, Jessops will let you pre-order now so it can't be far off...

I may well get an FZ200 in my grubby mitts when it's released.

Thanks again for the information,

Cheers,

Keef.

[viking9]

Hi Keef,

Thank you for your comments. I know what you mean about the low light probs.

I've just bought the DMW-LA5 Lens adapter and the DMW-LT55 1.7x lens converter which gives a 35mm equivalent of 1020mm. I'm amazed at the sharpness at that magnification, better than my Canon 100-400mm L IS lens. Here's an unretouched pic straight from the camera:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reachspotter/7720793870/in/photostream

Tom

[Keef]

Hi again Tom,

Thanks for the link. I agree that's good quality, especially when you consider the cost of the equipment.

I've got a DMW-LA3 adapter and DMW-LT55 tele converter for use with my FZ38 but the results have not been as good as I would have hoped.
I think that combination pushes the limits of the OIS and there's obviously a hit on the f numbers with the extra glass in front.
That said it's not been bad but I hope the FZ200 will give me that bit extra I've been wanting...

Cheers,

Keef.