dkeysser Loc: Minneapolis

My sons bought me a helicoptor tour of the North Shore (Minnesota) for Christmas. Should be fantastic. My question is: what focal length lens would you recommend? I have a 70-200 mm (105-300 on my APS-C camera). That is my longest lens. Do you recommend that? Anything shorter? Thanks for your advice.
Don

Quixdraw Loc: x

Never done a helicopter up there, but the scenery is grand - I'd probably use the 70-200. You might want something wider along if you have the space. S/B clean enough in the 'copter to change lenses.

Machinedoc Loc: Yorktown Heights, NY

From my limited experience (a heli tour of Kauai a number of years ago) you will see a vast scenic panorama so a shorter to medium focal length zoom lens would serve you better. Unless of course you're specifically looking for wildlife. Have fun and enjoy the ride!

BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

Have fun and please post pics after your tour!

Blues Dude

Bring a wide range of lenses so you're ready for any photo opportunity.
You should also google "aerial photography" to get some tips from experienced aerial photographers.
Have fun and definitively post your images.

dkeysser Loc: Minneapolis

Thanks, everyone, great suggestions

Fly cessna Loc: Hemet ,Ca

I use a 18-135mm on my T8I from my 172 most of the time

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

As a helicopter pilot, I can tell you that long lenses and helicopters aren’t a good mix. There are vibrations you don’t experience with an airplane, no matter how smooth the helicopter is. Also, there is limited room in the helicopter, and likely there will be others in there with you. I would recommend either a 50mm lens or something along the lines of a 24-70. Longer lenses can reward you with blurry images due to the vibrations a helicopter makes. And a whole array of lenses will be difficult to work with. If you have the ship all to yourself, that would be a different story.

Bill_de Loc: US

Contact the tour company. They have the most experience for their particular tour.

Any time I shot from a helicopter I used an M16. I don't think the tour company will recommend that.

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larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I am not an expert on helicopter tours. But I've ridden in helicopters several times. Different models and sizes of aircraft deliver quite different ride experiences, but all I've been on produce a lot of vibration, so I'd choose an image-stabilized lens. There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about the safety of "doors off" helicopter rides, so I'd find out whether you will be shooting through the aircraft windows or not. If so, leave your polarizing filter on the ground. Shooting through Lexan or Plexiglass or whatever will ruin your photos, because all of those materials have polarizing properties.

Again...different aircraft provide different environments, but in most civil aviation helicopters, space is at a premium. I would not plan to change lenses while in the air. There is not likely to be a place to safely and conveniently secure your big lens when you dismount it, and loose items in the cabin are a big safety concern. If it is an open aircraft, you could find one of your lenses practicing its free-fall technique on the way to the ground.

Your best bet here is to contact the tour operator instead of asking us. He is the one who will know what he plans to show you from above, how the aircraft will be configured, whether it will have doors, and what he will allow you to do, and probably a lot of additional interesting and useful information.

Edit...Looks like Wingpilot beat me to a lot of this. He types faster than me. Pay attention to what he says.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

During two doors-off helicopter tours of Oahu I used a 24-105 on a full frame body. Served me well, although for several shots I would have liked sonething a bit longer. On an APS-c body your 70-200 may end up being not as wide as you might like. A lot depends on the altitude your pilot flies at (probably 1000') and how close the pilot flies to various points of interest. Changing lenses is not practical. Can't carry anything extra during door-off, and, even with doors-on the pilot is not likely to hang around a particular area while you make the change. On my flights a 24-105 on an APS-c body would have been near perfect.
There is a lot to be said for limiting your camera usage. While on Oahu I did a 2nd, identical flight 2 days after my first so that I could get some shots I had missed but primarily so that I could spend less time shooting and more time just enjoying the sights. I also bought the video taken during my first flight. In some ways it is better then looking at the photos I took.

dkeysser Loc: Minneapolis

Bill, I can ask the tour company about the M16, but my hunch is same as yours - it will be strongly discouraged.

dkeysser Loc: Minneapolis

Wing, good comments; hadn't thought about the vibration perspective. I have a 24-105 f2.8 (ff equivalent) that should be perfect. If there is room (only two of us on the flight) I will bring along a second body with the 105-300 f4 (again, ff equivalent) but you are probably right that it may not be very useful. I could try shooting it wide open with a high ISO to attempt to reduce the vibration effect. And both lenses and bodies have vibration control. Either way, should be a great ride. We will go in early Fall, when the colors are at their best, and it should be very beautiful.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

The most useful advice I got before the one doors-off photo flight I took - probably 30 years ago, to get overall photographs of a large civic event (several hundred thousand in the area we were covering) from the air - was to bring some duct tape. Explanation: use it to tape the seatbelt buckle closed once you're strapped in, because there's a risk of your camera strap catching on it and pulling it open while you move around to get a shot. I thought you'd have to be pretty careless to let that happen, but I brought the tape anyway and used it as directed. And yep - my strap caught on the buckle at one point during the flight. Made a believer out of me.

As for equipment - it was long enough ago that I was using Nikons and Ektachrome (provided by the event) and almost certainly a mid-range Nikon zoom as they were interested in the overall crowd, not small details from above. It was a sunny day and I had polarizers, but even with one my recollection of the slides is that everything looked hazy, compared to the shots I took on the ground during the rest of the event. Perhaps not surprising given it was St. Louis in the summer, next to the Mississippi River.

Dat Quach Loc: California

I agreed with Wingpilot, he has many good points. Vibrations, space limitation, plexiglass reflections, and tour company policy restrict the fun a lot. I’d use the fastest fixed lens you have and would not use any focal length longer than 50mm to cover the vista and counter the ride’s inherent vibrations. I did many copter tours in Alaska, Hawaii, and for work. Some companies restrict the total length of camera+lens because they don’t want the combo to scratch the plexiglass. A copter tour company in Hawaii limits the total length to 6”. Lastly, if there are only two of you, I would sit in the back, you will have more room to maneuver and there are no window curvatures to worry about reflections. Another recommendation: wear black or dark colored clothing, it shows less in photos if there are reflections.

I lost a lens hood during a flight because I stuck the lens out of a tiny opening in the back window.