lenses for aerial photography

[john_dixon5]

From what I can gather, (unless I'm wrong) most people seem to stay

away from using zoom lenses for aerial photography, is this because

of the danger of camera shake ? Am I better off using my 80mm lens on

my Mamiya 645e and cropping?

 

Thanks

 

John

[tor_kviljo1]

In aerials - You need all the speed you can get from Your lens (to be able to use both high shutter speed & fine-grain film) + best contrast/resolution (due to the nature of the subject - being at least a fair number of acres = lots of detail) + least as possible to go wrong on distance setting (tape lens at infinity position - zoom lenses have two possibilities for messing things up here as parfocality is not necessarily perfect..). Using a f 5.6 MF zoom lens with 14 elements is a bad idea if you can shoot roughly the same scene with a 6-lens f 2.8 prime. However, if cropping is absolutely mandatory, you re using a very high quality MF zoom lens (scneiders are good...) & 100 asa film is OK, You ought to get about 1/500 sek f 8 (i.e. at least 1 preferably 2 stops down) with about 1/2 stop (acceptable) underexposure - that ought to work out OK. I would never go under 1/500 sek when in the air & using less than 150mm lens (MF speaking), shorter shutters speeds of cource when going up in fl. I wouldn't HATE to have the variogon 70-150mm available for aerials when using my 6006/6008's...

[thomas_breazeale1]

You are correct in your assumption that an 80mm will probably give you better results than say a 150 unless you can hold your lens absolutly still.I shoot from helicopters,use my 80mm at 5.6 with good sharp results.The longer the focal lenght,the smaller area you are zeroing in on so the slightest movement is much more noticable.Be careful of wide angles though because of the distortion factor,especially on horizon lines.

[john_dixon5]

Thanks everyone.........just what I thought. I should stick with my 80mm lens.

 

 

Thanks

 

John