Gear advice needed please!

Valvebounce

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Hi Folks.
I am going on this event https://www.timelineevents.org/product.php/494
A morning on a boat to photograph HSL 102 a WWII RAF Rescue Launch through the London Camera Exchange.
I have never done anything like this and I have no idea if I’ll need an EF-S10-22mm or a 100-400mm! I don’t know if I want to carry all my gear on board just in case!
If anyone has done anything like this (or maybe this event) any guidance you can give will be gratefully received.
Don’t worry it may be Sony sponsored but I have no intentions of defecting! :) I will happily accept their free SD card though!

Edit.
I did check and was told I could bring Canon gear, I’m glad I got on the LCE/Sony sponsored trip as the next day it is over twice the price.

Cheers, Graham.
 
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Valvebounce

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Hi PBD.
I used
Canon 100-400, 70-200, 24-105, and believe it or not, 10-22 (and couldn’t get the whole boat in on some passes)
Sony 100-400 and 24-70.
As for what focal length was used most, I have no idea yet, I haven’t done more than move the photos off the camera cards and clean the gear for the next day, (a small amount salt spray on some gear!) then have a quick look at the first folder and grab a few to post here, I know there are better shots, I just haven’t got to them yet! :)

Cheers, Graham.
 
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Valvebounce

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Hi Wiebe.
The weather was better than quite good, sunny and smooth sea, apart from when HSL 102 passed close or we crossed her wake, then it was hard to stand without support! :)
I really did have a great time taking these shots (I think everyone else did too) thank you. I’m so glad I did the morning shot as the afternoon got really cloudy and windy a bit further along the coast so it was probably not so nice for the afternoon boat shoot!

Cheers, Graham.
 
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Valvebounce

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Hi Folks.

Well, I threatened to bore you with some more, and following the advice a couple of you gave me I did borrow some Sony gear and these are from that gear.
Please don’t rollock me for the dirty sensor, borrowed gear and I have done my best to clean up the shots. I was initially really upset about finding the sensor so dirty and nearly junked the whole series but the shots were a bit different from those taken with my own gear and I have had the odd spot on my sensors. :rolleyes:

I inadvertently took a sensor check shot.
DSC00026_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr

Now some of the boat.
DSC00017_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr

DSC00065_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr

DSC00073_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr

DSC00149_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr

As for the gear, I had to get the expert to find stuff in the camera menu for me, I’m sure given time one could get used to the menu and terminology, no time.
I was not and am not convinced by the smaller is better argument, I kept starting the video whilst trying to use the AF ON back button, which garnered a big warning message which was confusing, something about class10 card, not you tried to start video! Then I was pressing the exposure lock button because I shortened my reach too much but I guess that was a muscle memory problem, plus I have quite large hands and thus prefer a larger body anyway.
I was not overly impressed with the EVF it seemed to flicker a bit, but I did like the implementation of the level in the viewfinder, I prefer that to the (less intrusive) Canon version. For those who don’t know, the Sony is similar to the Canon version in live view.
Reviewing the pictures on the viewfinder was novel and slightly easier than a sun swamped screen but useless for anything other than composition, for instance I couldn’t see the dust!
I thought the lenses were nice, but the zoom goes the wrong way! Most confusing when I was flipping between systems! There was not a lot to choose between them for weight and usability, but I guess a 100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS lens weight and size is basically down to physics?

BUT, if all that $#!+ on the sensor is what I had to look forwards to for not having a mirror, give me a mirror every day!
I think Canon may have borrowed a Sony camera and found the sensor dirty, hence their implementation of closing the shutter during lens change, or they just kept the line from the DSLR firmware that closes everything if you start to remove the lens in live view! :unsure::)

Cheers, Graham.
 
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Thanks for the follow up, it looked like a nice trip.

Regarding dealing with dust in post, if you do one image in LightRoom you can copy those spot removals to all the images, it works well when you have lots of sky, you do need to go back through each shot and delete some of the individual spot removals if they happen to be on a contrasting part of the scene, overall it is a huge timesaver though.
 
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Valvebounce

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Hi PBD.
Thanks, yes it was a fabulous trip, a fabulous way to spend a morning, one of the organisers had the best time, he got to ride on HSL 102 due to numbers limit on the chase vessel, not great for taking photos of her but :unsure: I might have really enjoyed that! :)

Yes I did something similar in DxO, used the ‘accidental’ shot and cleaned it up, coppied the corrections and used that on all then adjusted as needed, around the rigging gave the worst results, plus I had changed the levels to clearly see the dust rocks on the sensor and this left me with some artefacts from the dust removal, by which time I was over it, done, fed up couldn’t be arsed with it any more! :(:cry: Sorry!

Cheers, Graham.

Thanks for the follow up, it looked like a nice trip.

Regarding dealing with dust in post, if you do one image in LightRoom you can copy those spot removals to all the images, it works well when you have lots of sky, you do need to go back through each shot and delete some of the individual spot removals if they happen to be on a contrasting part of the scene, overall it is a huge timesaver though.
 
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