We’re back!
After eight years without a blog post, I decided it’s time to start this thing up again. And what better way than with a new camera, a new (to me) monster of a lens, and lots of cool planes?
For the last several years I’ve been shooting with my tried and trusted Canon 6D Mark II and a few EF lenses. Just recently (two weeks at the time of this writing) I finally joined the mirrorless world and got a Canon R6 Mark II camera. It seems like a great mix of everything I care about so it should be a good fit. However, I didn’t want to jump into buying new mirrorless (RF) lenses so I’m using my existing EF lenses with Canon’s EF-to-RF mount adapter. So far, it seems to do the job correctly.
Now, I did mention a monster lens… so let’s briefly talk about that before I go into the pictures and why I think this event was a failure, even if there were great pictures at the end.
Shortly before buying the R6 Mark II, I had an opportunity to get a Canon 500mm f/4L IS Big White prime lens for a very good price. So after some research where I was told it would take splendid images (it does) but it would be heavy (it is), I decided I could live with the weight and bought the lens.
In previous shoots, I’ve used the Sigma 150-600mm C lens to great success. Check out “FARA Race of Champions 2016” for an idea. I still have that lens and I thought of bringing it, but I was too excited to try the 500mm Big White and seeing what it could do.
For comparison, the Sigma weighs 4.03 lbs / 1830 g and the Canon weighs 8.54 lbs / 3870 g…so the Canon weighs slightly more than twice what the Sigma does. Don’t get me wrong, the Canon is a superior lens in every aspect…autofocus speed, sharpness, clarity, and of course a larger aperture for usability in lower light. But the difference in weight is noticeable. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed borrowing Canon’s 800mm lens and thought this would be a piece of cake by comparison.
Anyways, on to the event.
I attended the first day of a two day event put on by Hyundai in Miami Beach, Florida. I hoped to watch and photograph the entire show, but after hour two I called it quits due to the weight of the combo. For most uses of this combo, I have a carbon fiber monopod by Leofoto and a monogimbal head by Wimberley. They work great and take the weight off my body. But with the planes I didn’t know how high they would be or how sharp the angles would be and so I decided (here comes the failure) to just try to handhold the combo the entire time I would be out there.
The R6 Mark II did an amazing job. Set to AF Servo, 1/2000 shutter speed, auto aperture and auto ISO and set to the fastest shooting mode, it was literally as my wife calls it a “spray and pray” situation. I took about 1,750 photos in the span of two hours…and I’m only sharing about 50. Granted, several hundred are great photos in their own right, just repeats of the ones I’m sharing. But several hundred more are pictures of planes cut in half, or nothing in frame…because my hands would shake so noticeably that I would have to take a burst then stop and rest, take another burst, rest, etc. It was frustrating and pretty embarrassing.
Now let me take a moment to talk about focal length for an air show. I was debating bringing the 1.4x Mark III teleconverter (which would put me at 700mm) but since I would be at the beach with winds and sand and salt spray, there was no way I would be swapping it on and off. It was either going to be on or off the entire time. I am glad I left it at home. At 500mm some things, some times, were really far away. For example, my favorite plane of the day was the B-2 Bomber “Spirit of Ohio.” And some of the angles I wanted to get were only possible from a distance as it would then turn and come sideways in front of the beach (while I was hoping for a head-on shot). So you have these immensely cropped shots that are not printable that perhaps at 700mm would have been better. But at least I got the angles I wanted:
But then I had the problem that at 500mm many shots were missed because the planes were too close (I won’t bore you with pictures of half airplanes)…
This gives you an idea of how tight things were with some of the planes.
There were other cool things, including some demonstrations by the US Army troops jumping out of helicopters and the paratroopers doing maneuvers in the sky.
I’m sure they were other planes and other displays that I missed by leaving early but I physically couldn’t handle it by the time I left. So to tie it back to the title of this blog post, that’s the failure – I will never try to handhold the 500mm + camera combo for any other events. I will make do with the monopod.
Given the range of lenses available for mirrorless cameras (like the 100-500mm and the 200-800mm), the likelihood is that I will be going that route in the near future. Yes, better glass is better, but it’s not better if I’m missing half the shots because of a limiting fixed focal length or an impractical weight.
For more photos check out our online gallery: https://gallery.aragon.photo/seaandairshow2024/
Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @aragon_photo, Facebook @YemilAragonPhotography and on YouTube at @aragonphoto305.
Until next time.