Those lovely L lenses

[hotspur]

I was out in the observatory yesterday,going through my equipment,getting ready to sell some due to lack of use.When I noticed a plane going right over head,I had my camera bag nearby and took a few quick images of the plane with my 400L and 50D-what an amazing lens this is-those L lenses are worth every cent,when a image of something so far away come come out like this.

The detail on the plane is good,all registration letters and numbers can be seen,not sure what airline,I think the plane could be a Boeing 777,it looks larger than the A 330's that fly over.

Thanks for looking-Chris

1=iso 250 speed 800,AV 8

2=1so 250 speed 100 AV 8

[leon]

Hey Chris you sure love these planes and why not top shot mate, :thumbsup: now what L stuff are you flogging. :question:

Leon :thumbsup:

[bloodhound31]

pushes Leon out of the way to get to Chris's L sale....

[koputai]

I don't think Chris is likely to be parting with his L's !!

Cheers,
Jason.

[gary]

Hi Chris,

Here you go. This particular aircraft, B-2056, is apparently a China Southern (http://www.skyteam.com/about/carriers/chinasouthern.html) Boeing 777
painted in Skyteam (http://www.skyteam.com/) livery -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmylwh/5481013782/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualpilot/3797575065/

[koputai]

Another great aircraft resource is Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net)

You can just put in the rego, or aircraft type, or whatever and search.

Here (http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cx=partner-pub-8297169501225184%3Aa05n2n-tzky&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=B-2056&sa=Submit&search_active=1&search=&sheadline=&search_field=datedesc&submit=&siteurl=www.airliners.net%2F) is their images and info on B-2056

Cheers,
Jason.

[hotspur]

Thanks Chaps

Not selling any L lenses,ever!-I had a mount in the corner of observatory that I had not used for a while-that is what I was referring too,as I may sell it as its gets little use.But after using it for some wide field last night,It worked so well,I think I will start using it a bit more.

The plane,yes-my son played around on web and found those sites
here is another of the very plane.


http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cx=partner-pub-8297169501225184:a05n2n-tzky&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=B-2056&sa=Submit&search_active=1&search=&sheadline=&search_field=datedesc&submit=&siteurl=www.airliners.net/


So sorry chaps if I gave a bum lead,as I would never sell my L's they get so so much use-I am looking around old sheds on propertyy etc,at things to sell off,to buy more!

Cheers Chris

[Octane]

Airliners.net has the most insanely highest quality criterion to submit images.

If your image isn't sharp enough -- fail. If your image has a colour cast -- fail. If your image doesn't follow the rules of composition -- fail. If your image isn't white balanced correctly -- fail. If your image is oversharp -- fail. If your image is crooked -- fail. And so on, and so forth.

The end result is that every single picture on that web site is jawdroppingly awesome.

H

[troypiggo]

But those are all my favourite attributes that I try and succeed to achieve in all of my images... :D

[koputai]

It's amazing isn't it. If your horizon is 1 degree off horizontal you get refused! 1 degree!!

Cheers,
Jason.

[hotspur]

Yes,I think its quite difficult to get an image on there,my son tried 3 or 4 times,but failed every time.We soon figured H's above comments.

They did send my son,A very long lists of reasons and suggestions of why the image failed and how to go about improving images etc.I did not have a good read of the reply.But I saw enough to know that a real person with pro level approach critiqued the images.This is not all bad,because if someone who really wanted to do well (and had LOTS of time,may be a retired person,and had a 600 mm L) might be able to get their images up on that forum.

I do'nt think even 'moon/plane' would meet their high standards,which I say with no disrespect for 'airliners',all the images are as H says-'jaw dropping impressive' and its great to have a quick look there from time to time,but I think if the average amateur photographer got an image on 'airliners',it possibly would be even a higher gong than apod.

I do'nt even try,I am just happy to own this lovely 400L lens take a few passing images of an aircraft from time to time,and be able to read the livery and rego numbers-is enough to make me happy.

Cheers Chris

[gary]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the link to the resource.

It was fascinating to search for some of the more "interesting" aircraft I have flown on
which brought back fond memories :lol:

Nairobi to Lamu.
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Kenya/Douglas-DC-3.../1589404/L/
Prior to take off, the cabin attendant hands out boiled lollies to suck on because
the DC3 is not pressurized and even she seat belts herself in firmly and doesn't
get out of the seat as the aircraft bounces across the equatorial thermals.
You reassure yourself that this model aircraft was the "workhorse of World
War II" and you pass the time counting the thousands of rivets that hold together
the wing. Upon arrival, you disembark, go to the cargo door and they throw your
luggage to you. :lol:

Rangoon to Dhaka.
Dhaka to Calcutta.
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Biman-Bangladesh/Boeing-707-351C/1122431/
The 707 had generous overhead lockers but the cabin attendant was angry with
two Burmese passengers sitting across from me in the aisle for bringing on board such
large suitcases, despite the fact they fitted in the lockers. The attendant pulled
the bags from the lockers and thrust them into the laps of the two bewildered
looking passengers where the bags remained for the rest of the flight. The top
of the bags came up at around face height and when their meals arrived they
had to eat from plates perched on top of their bags.

When we stepped off the 707 in Dhaka, there was this big reception party
on the tarmac with a huge banner, saying words to the effect of "Welcome to
our distinguished guests from the Burmese such and such". Turned out the
two distinguished VIP guests were the guys the country's national carrier
had just thrown their bags at. :lol:


Gilgit to Islamabad.
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Pakistan-International-Airlines/Fokker-F-27-200-Friendship/1111146/M/
The runway at Gilgit is short and the town itself is surrounded by towering mountains.
The runway faces a mountain and whilst you are waiting at the shed that acts as the
town's air terminal, you start to pick out the remains of various planes that have crashed
and are littering the side of the mountain like bugs splattered on a windscreen.
The pilot stands on the brakes and revs up the Fokker Friendship's engines
for all they are worth until they are screaming. You go barreling down the runway
and hope that he manages to turn the plane in time before it reaches the mountainside.
You glimpse at your seat belt and notice it has "Airlines of NSW" engraved on,
giving you that reassurance that a plane this old hasn't crashed yet. :lol:

[koputai]

Cool stories Gary. I've been looking through finding aircraft I've flown on, though most I have no idea of their rego etc.

I hope Chris doesn't mind me posting images in his thread, but his shot got me outside today at work where I snapped these few.

The first one, this aircraft was overflying at around 30,000 feet, so I estimate from the angle I took the photo, it was about 18km's away.

94817

This next one was probably 2000 feet up after takeoff (I'm working over the hill from Canberra airport). Who'd have thought prop planes could leave contrails too !! Check out the helical contrails from the propellors!!

94818

A boyd.

94819

Another boyd.

94820

All shot taken with the Canon 7D and 70-200mm f/4L IS, with Canon 1.4x Tele-Extender.
The two aircraft ones are straight from the camera, 100% crops.
The boyds were sharpened in Gimp. Does anyone know how to get decent looking sharpening in Gimp? These are the best i could get, and they're terrible. The originals look better. The reds are way too intense too, though that's straight from the camera.

Cheers,
Jason.

[rcheshire]

That's a great shot of the Q-400. Unusual to see the vortex generated by the propeller tips. Low pressure in the core causes condensation under the right conditions.

Not sure which sharpen you tried in GIMP. Sharpen (Smart redux) and the sharp tools found in the fx-foundary plugin are superior. EAW Sharpen is another good one. If you're using Linux you may need the gimptools-dev package to run 'make'. No install required.