Equipment for upcoming air show

[Prosecutor]

Next weekend there‘s an airshow with modern combat planes. Not sure what to take with me, since I don‘t know how far away the planes will be.
Bigger sensor for better crops vs. more focal length?

 

[Quentinquirelino]

S1RII with 150-600 would probably be the most versatile option. I don't think the faster 70-200/2.8 would be necessary and the 500/5.6 maybe not versatile enough.

 

[Prosecutor]

But weight is a topic. I would prefer to use the lighter 70-200 at 400mm if more focal length is not required.

 

[CharlesH]

If I was headed for an airshow right now, I would take the Lumix 70 -300 and use the S1R II with Hybrid Zoom up to 600mm. Plus, I'd take the 24-60.

(I had mentioned in a post sometime back that my 70-300 was working poorly and it was going out for repair. The result was Panasonic said it was not repairable, but they did sell me a new one with a nice discount. Since then, I have been working with the replacement 70-300 and am pretty impressed with it.)

 

[pdk42]

If I was headed for an airshow right now, I would take the Lumix 70 -300 and use the S1R II with Hybrid Zoom up to 600mm. Plus, I'd take the 24-60.

(I had mentioned in a post sometime back that my 70-300 was working poorly and it was going out for repair. The result was Panasonic said it was not repairable, but they did sell me a new one with a nice discount. Since then, I have been working with the replacement 70-300 and am pretty impressed with it.)

I guess hybrid zoom only works in JPEG mode?

 

[pdk42]

I always thought back in my Canon days that a 100-400 on FF was the ideal choice for airshows. So, my vote is the S1Rii with 150-600. It'll be by far the most versatile. And you get a lot of cropability too. But it's a heavy lens.

Second place (and lighter) would be the S1Rii with the Sigma 70-200 (with or without the TC). With the cropping potential, it might be enough reach for you. The shots I posted earlier of gliders are with the S1Rii and the 70-200 f4 without the TC. With cropping, the reach is just about enough.

 

[CharlesH]

I guess hybrid zoom only works in JPEG mode?

Nope.

Use RAW + JPEG with hybrid zoom, and only download and edit the RAW in LightRoom. Then in the Development mode the RAW comes up cropped to the hybrid zoom setting. But the nice thing, the really great thing, when you select the Crop & Straighten tool you see the entire original RAW image, with the hybrid crop highlighted. Now you can move the hybrid crop around with little hand symbol to reframe the image, or resize the crop to any size you want. And of course all the RAW adjustment functions are available. This is an ideal workflow that as far as I know only the combination of Lumix S cameras and Lightroom have. You really should try it. Anyone can PM me if they have questions about this workflow.

(And this works with RAW + HEIF as well, and again, just download the RAW, not the HEIF.)