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Current Photography Kit
Camera
Sony Alpha 580
Lens
Sony 11-18mm f4.5-5.6 DT AF
Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM
Sony 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G SSM
or
Sony 70-400mm f4-5.6 G SSM

Camera Bag
Lowepro Pro Runner 300 AW Back Pack

My last camera before my first foray into the world of Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) photography was a Konica-Minolta Dimage Z3, 4 megapixels, 12x-zoom digital camera. Following a compensation pay out in 2006 for an injury sustained at my place of work in 2004 (Yes it took that long to settle the claim); I decided to upgrade my camera and make the jump to DSLR photography. I didn’t really fancy following the crowd and buy a Canon or Nikon and they were a bit out of my price range anyway. I was well impressed with the Konica-Minolta Z3, having also owned a K-M Z1, and with Sony acquiring Konica-Minolta, following a joint venture with Minolta before hand, I purchased a Sony Alpha A100/10.2MP camera, with an 18-55mm & 70-300mm lens not long after the payout. I was hooked on the Sony Alpha range. After a couple of years getting to grips with DSLR photography with the A100, I upgraded to a Sony A350/14.2MP camera. Having to change lens for static and flying shots was not proving very satisfactory and I was missing photographic opportunities so I bought a Sony A450/14.2MP body. The A350 I used for small lens and the A450 for the large zoom lens. My A350 was damaged in an accident at Duxford and with the insurance payout from that I bought a Sony A550/14.2MP body. The A550 is basically the same as the A450 camera but with live view and a tilt screen, which I didn’t need for the A450 with a long zoom lens. It also used the same batteries as the A350.

Sony Alpha A580.
The reviews I had read about this recently camera have been very good so I have taken delivery of a Sony Alpha A580. It has a 16.2MP new generation Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor and a BIONZ processor with dual noise reduction and able to shoot 5 or 7 frames a second. At 5fs the image is refocused for each shot where as at 7fs it will only focus and lock on the first frame and the other 6 are all at that setting. It also uses the same battery as the 450/550 so a cost saving there. It has the articulated LCD screen on the back suitable for the type of low down or high up monopod shots I like to do, and in camera anti shake. It also has a full HD 1920x1080 video recording feature, which I probably won’t be using, but what I will be is the in camera HDR along with the in camera panorama sweep software although they only work in Jpeg and not RAW.

Not being a car driver I have to carry all my photography kit with me in my Lowepro Pro Runner 300 camera bag, be it strapped on the back of my motor bike or carried on public transport. To cut down on the weight and seeing as the A580 is a 16MP camera as opposed to 14MP for the A550, I’ve reverted back to using one camera body this year, to keep the image sizes the same, and keep the other two bodies as spares. Packed along with the A580 is the Sony 11-18mm Wide Angle for the close up hangar shots and the Sigma 18-270mm zoom for static and airfield shots. For normal Duxford visits I use the Sony 70-300 G SSM for airfield/flying images and for all air shows the rather heavy Sony 70-400mm G SSS M lens for that bit longer reach.

Initial A580 Impressions.
27Mar11
I have used the A580 once and I am greatly impressed with the image quality of the test shots I’ve taken so far both inside the hangars and outside at Duxford. It has a slightly larger body than the A450/550, which I now find easier to hold in my hand, and the controls are basically in the same place so no hunting around for them. Although the autofocus speed on the A450/550 was fast, the A580 seems a lot faster. As for the panorama feature, once I had worked out how to use it, I had great fun with it despite the looks from museum visitors as I was holding the camera at arms length, in portrait mode, while panning left to right and the camera rattling off the images like a machine gun. It instantly processes those multiple images to make one panoramic image. Downside. It did eat up the battery a bit.

06May11
Wow, is a good word to describe this camera. Having used it extensively at Duxford over the last few weeks and at the Shuttleworth air show, I am greatly impressed with the quality of the images I’m coming away with. The 5 frames a second feature, where each frame is re-focused for each shot, is not quite as advertised but that might be down to me. Not every frame was in focus but the majority was and compared against the A450 fast frame feature, the A580 produced more keep than delete shots. A bit more practice and I might be able to achieve 100% keep rate. The auto focus is very quick, although the usual bit of hunting does occur when trying to focus on dark aeroplane against dark clouds. Apart from that, once it locks on it holds and you can feel the vibrations in the lens as the AF tracks the aircraft. I’ve not used the HDR feature yet but the Panorama tool takes a bit of practice to use properly. I found it doesn’t work very well when mounted on a tripod and rotated around a fixed point but did work well when hand held at arms length. It could have something to do with the way the software processes the image in the camera. Being a slightly larger body, the A580 is more comfortable to hold and feels better balanced when I have the 70-400mm G SSM lens attached than it did on the A450. With the 16MP sensor I’ve found I can crop an image a lot more in post processing, and not get jaggies* due to the cropping, than I could with the 14MP sensor. The only down side I have come across is the positioning of the Movie/Video Button. It’s on the back of the camera next to the eyepiece and is very easy to press without knowing it. A few times I’ve gone to take a still image and found it recording a moving image.
(*Jaggies: The nickname for images on a computer screen that have jagged or stair-stepped edges along what is supposed to be a smooth, curvy, or diagonal line)

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY HINTS & TIPS

I’m often asked what special things I do to get the apparently impressive images I post on the various aviation forums. As far as I’m aware, I don’t do anything special but every time I go to Duxford I do practice, and sometimes experiment, with different camera settings and photographic techniques. Some work, a lot don’t and are subsequently deleted. Having expensive equipment doesn’t make you an instant photographer who gets perfect images every time. It takes a lot of practice and knowing what your camera equipment is capable of achieving and working around that. What follows is a basic guide of settings and techniques I use over the years with my Sony Alpha camera during my frequent bimbles around Duxford.

The Imperial War Museum, Duxford is a unique museum in the fact that it has hangars and buildings with static exhibits inside and outside of them but it also has an active airfield with a grass and hard runway. This allows part of the site to be used and occupied by a variety of war bird owners and their aircraft in keeping with the museum’s theme. Having an active hard runway also attracts modern military aircraft ranging from Tutor trainers, where the crews generally stop off for lunch, to Apache helicopters from Wattisham practicing landing and take off techniques around the airfield and even USAF MC-130 Hercules from Mildenhall using the black asphalt to practice short landings and take-off’s. Because of all these different attractions, a variety of camera settings can be used around the site depending on where you are and what you are photographing.

HANGARS.