Nellis had their annual air show, so I made the pilgrimage from San Diego to Las Vegas to see it.

I just picked up a 7D the Tuesday before the show, and decided to take a chance and bring it to the show as my primary camera. I haven't even opened the manual and there were probably shots that didn't turn out because I didn't know how to get all the settings right, but it was enough like my other Canon cameras that I was able to get some shots.

I also finally got to meet Dave "Top Gun" O'Brien in person as well, as brief as it was. Dave, I'm glad you could make it, and you'll have to take a trip out for El Centro to get away from the cooler April weather back east .

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Great Pics, I hope to make it there one year for a show....

Those are some phenomenal shots! I love the last one with the 4 other Thunderbirds just out of focus

Great pics! The angle you captured the F16 from in #7 looks fantastic!

In all the shots I have seen of the F22, the canopy coating makes it look sort of funky. Looks a bit like it's straight out of a simulation; somehow it looks digitally created.

I've been to that show before when I lived in Vegas and it rocks. I wanted to make it this year but couldn't. Notice the roundel on #7.

Jason

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Here's a few more:

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#18 - This one's kind of interesting to me because even though it looks like it coming right at me, it wasn't - it was crabbing somewhat due to the high winds.


#19 - Not the clearest shot, but check out the warp on those wings from the g load.


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Great shots Ken, what a great show they had this weekend. To bad they couldn't have done something about that wind, brrrrr.

I'm glad we hooked up and were able to meet in person even if it was for just a short time. I would love to get to El Centro and will let you know when I can make that happen.

Hope to see more of yours.

Thanks Dave, and yeah, that wind was cold and was even blowing my lens around.

Looking forward to seeing your shots, too!

Great shots Ken.

Shot #22


Wheels

Gorgeous pictures. Yeah that #22 shot is crazy. Seeing the Viper's wings flex like that too is something else. Thanks. Also a question about #4. Does that Skyraider have multiple seats in it? From that shot it almost looks like a two-man cockpit but did the Skyraider ever have a version like that?

The A-1E and G had side-by-side seating. Off the top of my head those were the only side-by-side versions, the others had a single bubble canopy.

Great photos!

If I ever make it out to California, I'm going to have to catch that for sure.


That's Czech, isn't it? My bad, it's actually Dutch. Those two roundels are very similar.

You take the best pictures of F-16's (especially the T-Birds)!

Gopher, I was about to make the same mistake

Did the Dutch fly at Red Flag by chance? I'm not sure they'd send a single display Viper over just for fun, short on cash as all EU countries currently are.

Nice shots Ken, so that's a 7D full frame chip on what lens? I'm surprised you wanted more after the 1D MkII you have.

Great shots Ken. Glad you and Dave were able to meet up.

#22, I couldn't help but remember the line from "Top Gun", "You just flew through his jet wash! You just flew through his jet wash!"

We sure do have some top notch photographers here at SimHQ.

Thanks for sharing your work Ken. I had to close my eyes on #22. Thought we were gonna crash.

Thanks again everyone.

RS, the 7D is a new Canon 1.6 crop camera. It's like a 50D on steroids, for the most part, kind of a different approach for Canon, and I think designed to go head to head with the D300.

I originally decided to pick it up to replace my 20D, since I wanted to pass it on to one of my brothers who has a new kid he has had problems photographing with his point and shoot because the kid runs around so much.

I like the new viewfinder, and was really drawn to the fact that it can control a remote flash, a first for Canon dSLRs as far as I know.

I decided to use it for this show because it is 18MP and has 1.6 crop (vs. 1.3 for my 1D Mk. III), so I thought I might get a little more detail from shots where the aircraft is farther away. It does 8FPS, so it's not quite as fast as the 1D, but still plenty fast enough. I'm still doing some analysis, but the images do seem a bit noisier than the 1D, which probably isn't a surprise, but I haven't done a lot of detailed comparisons.

I used the same 100-400L lens that I used on the 1D, but get a little extra reach because of the 1.6 crop.

For all you techno-pixel-peepers out there, here are a couple of 100% crops from similar shots, the first from my 1D Mk. III last year at Nellis, and the second one from the 7D this year:

http://www.techflyer.net/images/nellis09/1U8P4825.jpg

http://www.techflyer.net/images/nellis09/IMG_0849.jpg

We did fly at Red Flag with 12 Vipers and are currently at Green Flag with those,

but this two seater is actually from our training detachment at Springfield, Ohio, where the main activity is the initial F-16 qualification for new upcoming Viper Drivers after completing training at Sheppard AFB. (I should be going there myself next june )

What equipment did you use?

Canon 7D with Canon 100-400

great shots Ken, and you know what im going to say about ur prop blur

i'm hoping to upgrade to 7's next year, all things going well

That last shot is pretty tits!

Way too windy to go much lower, you risk losing way to many shots. Winds were blowing 20 mph with gusts up to 40 both Sat and Sun! It sucked and made it so cold I was even shivering on Sunday which made it worse.

I raised my shutter for less blur but more keepers as well ;-)

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one that got cold, Dave . I was even shivering a little bit Saturday afternoon, too, and felt the wind actually pushing my lens around. I thougbut someone had bumped into it, I felt it pushed so hard, but found it was just the wind catching the hood.

Thanks for the comments Bob, and yes, I knew what you would say .

I have noticed that with many shots with lots of prop blur, frequently the nose of the plane looks sharp, but the tail is blurred, which I assume is from some curved motion of panning. Personally, I prefer a little less prop blur and a sharper overall fuselage. I don't think that would be an issue with air-to-air, as panning wouldn't be required, but from the ground I see that both in my shots and those of others. Does that sound possible?

The Sky Raider is an AD-5 (A-1E).

I can't believe no one's commented on #10.

That Phantom is the prettiest thing I've ever seen. Totally stunning.

Awesome photos, Ken.

The Phantom is definitely an awesome looking bird.


Wheels