Old Warden Season Premiere (non-DSLR) - Updated

[Hatstand]

A beautiful day at Old Warden - hot and sunny but with a cooling breeze. The pushed-back display lines were a small disappointment, but I didn't find the displays that different from a spectating point of view, and I generally enjoyed the displays a lot.

Photography was definitely affected though, and my 400mm-equivalent lens felt a lot more limiting than it used to. I fear that's the last airshow my FZ1000 will be seeing - I'm planning to bring 600mm+ in future...

Eh well, here's a few of the photos I took. I'm dipping my toe in the 1600px water this time, but not sure I'll stick with it in future since the images at 100% are taller than my browser window unless I switch it to "full screen" mode... :-/ Meh

1. P40 coming in to land


2. P40


3. Harvard


4. Storch


5. Lysander


6. Lysander


7. Ryan ST-A


8. Ryan ST-A


9. Red Arrows


10. Red Arrows


11. Red Arrows


12. Hawker Demon


13. Hurricane


14. Hurricane


15. Hurricane


16. Hurricane


17. Calidus


18. Bristol Fighter


19. SE5A


20. Global Stars


21. Global Stars


22. Global Stars


23. Blenheim


24. Anson and Blenheim


25. Blenheim


All taken with my trusty old Panasonic FZ1000 (non-DSLR bridge/superzoom). Red dot sight fitted as usual.
Hope you saw something of interest! More to come later, from the ground displays...

EDIT: More added below

[woody]

Hi

Nice pics there, especially the Reds above the Calidus Gyrocopter. Been thinking about a FZ1000 for a while now and certainly impressed with your results. Have a FZ200 along with the teleconverter so debating the upgrade at the moment and to be fair I mainly use it for video work with which I am quite impressed with it. Any how I digress. Again nice pics; I may have to post some of mine, once I have worked through all 800 of them.

Best Regards
Steve

[Slinger65]

Some top panning and different perspectives, great work. Hurricane takeoff shot is

[sdad]

Did you know that if you cut your image size down to "medium" (9.5MP), you automatically have a 560mm f4 maximum rather than 400mm f4? That's without i-resolution or digital zoom.

[Hatstand]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

woody: if you're thinking about the FZ1000, and you do a lot of video - bear in mind it's a couple of years old now, and we may be due for a new model. Panasonic's latest M43 camera (GX80) comes with 5-axis IBIS, which works in tandem with the 2-axis OIS in Pana lenses, for outstanding stabilisation... and that stabilisation still works when recording 4K video... I'm guessing there's a chance that those features will appear in a successor to the FZ1000, or indeed you might want to consider the GX80 yourself - its starting price is comparable to a new FZ1000.

sdad: Thanks, yes, I know... but I am already cropping heavily into many of the above photos, which gives the same effect... :-/

[woody]

Hi Hatstand,

Thanks for that info ref new models. Will investigate further. No need to hurry! Saving up the funds.

Again

Some nice really nice pics.

Steve

[johnr]

Very nice pics. Regarding the Demon passing the tower I have one of the B2 about to crash into it!
Can you please enlighten this ignoramus - what is a 'red dot sight'?
John

[Hatstand]

Here's a few more from the ground displays etc...

26. Control tower


27. Sopwith Pup


28. Storch


29. Bristol Scout


30. Bristol Scout


31. Harvard


32. Hurricane


33. Comet


34. Ryan ST-A


35. Wolseley


36. Polikarpov PO-2


37. P40


Have a nice day!

[andygolfer]

all very nice, I really enjoyed looking at those - well presented, thanks.

In no.35 is the driver using a hand held mobile phone of 1930s vintage?

andy

[Hatstand]

Very nice pics. Regarding the Demon passing the tower I have one of the B2 about to crash into it!
Can you please enlighten this ignoramus - what is a 'red dot sight'?
John

Hi John,

A red dot sight works like a heads-up-display: you mount it to the camera's flash hotshoe, and as you look through it (no magnification) it shows an LED targeting reticle over the spot where your camera is pointing. The way it works, even if you move your head around and look through it from different angles... the dot will always appear over the same spot that your camera is pointed at.

This lets you instantly point your camera right at your subject... without having to zoom out and hunt for it, then zoom back in to shoot. For non-DSLR's with slow-refresh viewfinders or blackouts after taking a shot, you can also continue panning with a plane using the RDS.

If you use it as I do, it also lets you watch an airshow with both eyes and a near-full field of view, while still taking photos - instead of spending half the show looking through a restrictive viewfinder. I use the RDS as my viewfinder, only glancing at the camera's rear screen occasionally to check zoom/framing. It lets me enjoy an airshow more, and it makes it very easy to predict when planes will cross over, pass some interesting scenery, clouds, moon etc.

Requires a change in technique though - instead of using my face to help steady the camera, I hold the camera out with both hands, and keep the strap taut against the back of my neck, to make a "tension tripod". Works well enough, I get pleasing results even at 1000mm+ equivalent focal lengths with IS turned off. I find it helps with my panning too - just keep the red dot on a chosen point on a plane.

NB. It is not a laser pointer, no danger to planes!

[Airwolfhound]

You've achieved some really lovely results here, great shots

[PanamaMan]

Great captures as usual!
Looking forward to seeing what you achieve with the GX80...

[johnr]

Thank you for the info about the red dot sight, especially as I was able to find your much earlier post about it. It was most interesting. The reason I did not find it myself was that I was looking for it assuming that it was part of your camera system and not a general sighting item
John

[tichla]

Excellent pictures... I'm having no luck in getting prop blur with my FZ1000, was at Old Warden yesterday..... can I ask what settings and any filters you are using?

[Hatstand]

Excellent pictures... I'm having no luck in getting prop blur with my FZ1000, was at Old Warden yesterday..... can I ask what settings and any filters you are using?

Hi tichla - Superzooms do not have a very wide range of lens apertures available... and unlike DSLR's, "stopping down" is often a bad idea, since diffraction will start softening your images. So, to get slow shutter speeds on bright sunny days, and to avoid closing down the aperture too much, I normally have a neutral density filter fitted.

These days I use a variable ND filter. On a sunny day, I set it to about 3 stops if I'm trying for a full-disk prop-blur... 1 or 2 stops for "regular" prop blur... 0 stops for jets/gliders. Hope that helps.

You can find the various other settings and techniques I use with the FZ1000 in THIS POST over on dpreview.

[tichla]

Many thanks.. great info.... one question, I did try a variable neutral density filter a while ago, albeit a cheap one, when using maximum zoom most shots were slightly out of focus, but with minimum zoom, most pictures were focused and sharp, are there any tips to using an ND filter successfully with the FZ1000?

[Hatstand]

Many thanks.. great info.... one question, I did try a variable neutral density filter a while ago, albeit a cheap one, when using maximum zoom most shots were slightly out of focus, but with minimum zoom, most pictures were focused and sharp, are there any tips to using an ND filter successfully with the FZ1000?

Don't use a cheap one...! :-D

I've used Hoya Pro-1 Digital filters a lot - they seemed a good balance of quality and price. My current variable ND filter is also Hoya (the one I linked in my previous post above).