Help with G5 lenses for Airshow

Avid reader but first time posting. I have to say that I love my G5. I have had some excellent results in my opinion, the color and sharpness have been great...of course maybe I am just easily impressed???

Either way I have been reading a lot of posts about the different teleconverter lenses (canon, tiffen, olympus, raynox all seem to lead the pack) but am still unsure which is optimal for say an airshow (and of course general use but then the LCD comments below wouldn't apply).

I went to an airshow recently and shot a lot of photos all stock setup at highest res. and was maybe lucky enough to fill 25% of the screen with an airplane. At 100% on a monitor though they look great!!!, just a whole lota blue around them when viewing the whole frame.

I tend to use the viewfinder more in this situation... (1. it's so darn bright out to use the LCD and 2. it's easier to follow the action as they pass...at least for me but don't get me started about the LCD being closed with MF) ...but am worried that the lens will block even more of the view. I have read a few posts that mention 80% - 90% blockage!! Also I want to be able to zoom out at least a little bit from full zoom to capture the ground in some of the low pass shots but avoid the dreaded vignetting.

Suggestions, comments, experiences with these lenses and the viewfinder would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all!

Stephen

I use the Canon tele TC-DC58N, it does block out about 3/4 of viewfinder. The best way I have found round this ( I never use LCD when taking shots of anything fast like planes) is track the plane and I keep both eyes open and shoot so aircraft is just off centre (top right) in viewfinder.

You can zoom out a little but not much before it vignettes.

You could look into getting some kind of sight or viewfinder that will fit into your hotshoe.

And when you've come up with a good solution, se sure to post back and tell us what it is!!

Rich

Biko - Have you used the TC-DC58N at an airshow before? How did it perform? Also would you say vignetting starts at 1/2 zoom or 3/4 zoom or beyond that?

Rich_F - Thanks for the suggestion Rich. I have been searching the web and camera stores online trying to find one but have only seen a picture of one in a review of the G5 with no information about the viewfinder. Will keep looking though...that could solve most of the issues.

i took this pic this summer at an air show in KC.

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We get vintage aircraft - Spitfire Lancasters flypasts. The TC-DC58N performed fine I did not pull back on zoom (I was using the viewfinder) as was not confident at where it would stop which I would estimate as about a 1/4 back from full zoom.

I should have had a slower shutter speed to blur the props here, the Spitfire pic is at 1/250 which seems about right

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Nice pics! Gotta love the F-15 and vintage aircraft are always impressive to see! I've been trying to find out if my account with my ISP has a few megs to put some pics on to show here.....???

I love the stock images that I got with my G5....similar to the F-15 pic above. They look great at 100% on a monitor at 72 dpi but want to do some prints. Now obviously I wont get a full 8x10 unless they are close but was curious about getting that little extra edge in zoom. That extra WOW factor in you shots.

Ok...so I got the whole image thing figured out....well at least the storage part...now lets see if I can post them.

This was taken with a stock G5 full zoom. As I said earlier that at 100% they look good...thanks to the 5 megapixel...works for wallpaper and such...
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reessp nice aircraft pics you got there.

I see your point about the whole frame, if there is any other way such as taking a pic of an object from a set distance happy to try

Hey Biko.....quick question. I just got the TC-DC58N (wow...hard to picture the size of the lens until you actually get it) and haven't had much chance to test it yet. Although I REALLY need to since the airshow is this coming weekend. Thing is, when I tried it out really quick at the house across the street the MF distance appeared to be a few notches below infinity. The house is more than 50ft away and without the tele infinity works fine...do you know how much the tele lens changes the optics with regaurds to MF? Maybe I just need to try it on more things....but wanted to check with your experience.

Thanks!!

Sorry no I don't know how much it changes the optics and MF.

I have always set the camera on 5.6 and then set the focus so it is about halfway in line with the no 5 works for me with aircraft.

here are some shots with my original G3:

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