Here are some pictures I took today at Airpower Over the Midwest, an air show at Scott Air Force Base in Southern Illinois. I was using a manual focus 70-210mm Sigma lens I got on eBay for $18. I had lens envy seeing so many 2 foot long lenses the Canikoners were using, but for IQ/dollar, I think i win that ratio. BTW the entire day, out of the probably 1000 photographers I saw, only one man was using a Pentax besides me. This lens takes some amazing photos. Even though I can't shoot at 8fps like most of them were, I still got some good ones. I hope you enjoy. To see full gallery, go to link below.

Airpower Over the Midwest 2010 - rynwohld's Photos

[montman]

Great shot of the A-10! I love that plane.

[BillM]

Hi Ray, love those shots, almost went over there, seen the B-25 headed that way.

It was a great show, even though there were a few delays. First the weather and low cloud ceiling, and secondly when the A-10 came in for a landing he blew out a tire, so all planes after that point had to take off from a different runway not visible to the spectators. Purely for that reason I am going again today.

[WPRESTO]

I like the second shot of the Blue Angels. The telephoto compression enhances the the feeling of tight formation, high skill - but high risk - flying by top notch pilots. How can they be so close without touching?

[Sailor]

Neat shots, for sure. I thought Scott had been closed down, and part of it had been used for that boondoggle airport east of East St. Louis.

I grew up about an hour and half east of Scott (Mt. Vernon) and remember my Dad taking me there on public days in the '50's - a special treat.

Jer

[BillM]

Tried to get over there and catch up with you Ray, has to be 200,000 folks there.Hope you made it, got us all some more.Gave up, came home

[pickles]

FANTASTIC shots...the first image (silver jet fighter...Mig?)..looks like you were right next to it!!!!....You took these photos from the ground?
What sort of camera/lens/settings....aperature/shutter speed etc were you using?
Cheers, Pickles.

WPRESTO: Well, I just refer to them as robots. Humans can't fly with that precision

BillM: Yea there were a TON of people there. I was as far right as a person could go and just sat as close as I could to where the planes taxied back to there parking spots. I only saw one Pentax again today, a guy my age(20ish) with a K100. The rest were Canikoners. And a Fujifilm.

pickles:Was using a 70-210 F4.Sigma lens I bought off ebay. It's not great, it was $18. Good enough though. Had it set at F5.6 for most of these shots at 210mm. 200 ISO. There is a picture of my lens on my smugmug site.


Well went back today, except today I used one of my primes. It's a 135mm Sears F2.8 I got on ebay for about $20. Set it to F5.6 and it took some sharp pictures for sure. I wasn't able to zoom as much, but I could crop a lot more. Took a lot less pictures this time, by about 800 less. Hope you enjoy these.

And here are some more. All of the F-18 Blue Angels.

[SJM]

Saw the Blue Angels at the Cleveland airshow last weekend. What a show..

[BillM]

Thats fabulous Raylon, tried, got as far as south-east corner just east of school, right at base, guy in pickup jumped out, stuck a sign in the ground said "parking $20", I said "yikes" sort of... came back west. Gotta say, your shots next best thing to being there.
Cheers,
Bill

P.S. to my friend pickles, mig-19, way cool ,huh?

Thats fabulous Raylon, tried, got as far as south-east corner just east of school, right at base, guy in pickup jumped out, stuck a sign in the ground said "parking $20", I said "yikes" sort of... came back west. Gotta say, your shots next best thing to being there.
Cheers,
Bill

That is a total bummer. Yea my friend(who came with me yesterday also) and I got there at about 10 to get the good viewing spots. Because of that,we were only about a half mile walk from the airstrip, so we got excellent parking spots.

[pickles]

An $18 lens....and a $20 lens.....and you end up with some of the best shots I've ever seen....especially the "2nd series" with the second lens.....super sharp.....as another member said....almost like being there! What shutter speed?
Any Mustangs there?
For anyone interested in aircraft, these are awesome shots.
Cheers, Pickles.

An $18 lens....and a $20 lens.....and you end up with some of the best shots I've ever seen....especially the "2nd series" with the second lens.....super sharp.....as another member said....almost like being there! What shutter speed?
Any Mustangs there?
For anyone interested in aircraft, these are awesome shots.
Cheers, Pickles.

Nope no Mustangs, that was disappointing. I tried to keep the shutter speed over 1/400th and the aperture to 5.6. Also tried to keep the ISO to 100. I am extremely impressed with the Sears lens. When I bought it I wasn't expecting much, but it works awesome. I can't wait till I graduate and get a real job so I can afford some DA* lenses. Hopefully by then they will have some new models out! Thanks for the comments.