shooting from helicoptor (Page 2): Great suggestions; thanks.

dkeysser Loc: Minneapolis

Great suggestions; thanks.

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

dkeysser wrote:

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

I recently did a helicopter 🚁 shoot. My 24-120 (full frame body) lens was perfect. You won’t be going over 2000’ in altitude. And you will definitely want the wide angle for cockpit interior shots. You will want the same setup for your hot air balloon ride too.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

Speaking as a (former) helicopter pilot, I’d be very surprised if you get wall-hanging quality pictures on a tour flight. The best bet is to use a single zoom lens - the common 24-105 comes to mind. Image stabilization may help, high shutter speeds certainly help, along with high ISO settings to keep the shutter speed way up there.
As travel mementos, the pictures may be great - don’t forget to shoot lots before and after the flight! In the air, tour pilots are concerned with keeping things moving along, showing lots of different things of interest to multiple people, and leaving little time at any one site for photographer’s concerns.
My personal prejudice would be to look around a lot, enjoy the flight, and buy commercial photos that are usually available.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

You've gotten good advise so far! I would just add that you should not brace the camera or your arms on any part of the airframe because the vibrations will get to the camera! It's also bad to shoot through curved plexiglass, so avoid that if able. Use high shutter speeds and all focus will be at infinity(I used to gaffer tape the focus ring at the infinity mark).

thomas Loc: ottawa canada

I did a helicopter tour of the grand canyon once. The lens I brought was a 70-300 and I shot almost everything at 70mm. For me it was too much lens.
Even found 70mm not wide enough.
If I ever do it again I would bring my nikon 24-70 or 28-300 lens.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

You're dealing with lead, lag, flutter, and flap (along with directionals). All of this produces vibration which is transmitted down the mast to a collection of nuts, bolts, washers, cotter keys, safety wire, etc. flying in close proximity to each other. This induces vibration into any occupants sitting within this collection of hardware. Long focal length lenses will be affected by all of that.
--Bob

dkeysser wrote:

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

MTDesigns Loc: Corryton,Tenn.

I took aa helicopter tour of the Glaciers in Alaska. I used 18-300 Tamron and had very good results.Increase speed and you should do well.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

I would always side with Wingpilot, he always gives good advice and this is really in his area of expertise!!!

KindaSpikey Loc: English living in San Diego

Fly cessna wrote:

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

Wow, sounds like great fun. How do you fly and shoot at the same time? Perhaps you could pick me and my T7i up and demonstrate! Lol.

KindaSpikey Loc: English living in San Diego

Bill_de wrote:

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.

---

LOL!

videogrape

I haven't shot stills from a helicopter yet but have shot video for TV News for over 30 years. I can tell you that vibrations are the killer condition when shooting video from inside the chopper. (That's why most videos shot from helicopters today are done with fixed cameras- which were built in when the chopper was made. BTW gyroscopes are used for image stabilization.) HOWEVER, I think I may have a solution for you. Years ago, before these specialized choppers were around, I got around the vibration problem with a bungee cord. If the pilot allows you to shoot with the door off - do so. Then stretch the bungee across the door frame and hook it securely to each side. You now have a highly effective vibration damper! An S-hook or some other means of securely attaching your camera to the cord is the last step. Happy shooting!

cdayton

I did a small plane tour (pilot, my wife & me) of mid-coast Maine in 2019. Because of its size (I was shooting out the pilot’s open window as he drove from the co-pilot’s seat) I carried my Sony a6000 with a 55-210 lens and was very happy with the combo. I shot at 1/1000 to minimize shake. I think this should be similar to your helicopter ride. As others have mentioned, air tours are a bit of a crap shoot and of the 2 I have taken (1 helicopter, 1 small plane), neither yielded decent shots. Fight for a good seat.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

dkeysser wrote:

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

When I fly I generally use a 24-105mm on a crop sensor.
300mm would be good for a closeup of a lighthouse though.
Remember there is a lot of vibration in a chopper and the longer the lens the more difficult it could be.
Have fun and enjoy the ride away from the viewfinder.
See something truly wonderful take the shot then sit back and enjoy the ride with your eyes and senses.

ELNikkor

There won't be any wildlife because of the "whup!-whup!". If I was going up, I'd take only my 24-120 on my D750. Longer tele not necessary.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Maybe you could find some locations where you could take some scenics at a similar distance to your expected flying height to get an idea of what your coverage would be.