I know of nobody who has used a P67 for aerial photography and am wondering if any of you know what mistakes to avoid. Altitude? Lens mm? Film? Shutter speed? Filter? Aperture?

-- Douglas Pollock (dpollock@worldnet.att.net), October 25, 2000

Answers

The P67 (or 67II) is just great for aerial photography. The problems actually are mostly coming from the vibrations and the fact that you have to shoot handheld, I try to use following rules:

High shutter speed (sounds stupid to say, but I still tried at slow speed many times because I wanted the shot but hadn't enough light. Hum very small percentage of sharp images). Never below 1/250 whatever lens I use. The best film I found for that is Fuji RDPIII pushed to 200. It has fantastic small grain, and beautiful colors with not too high contrast at 200 iso. Sometimes I even have to shoot full open, but normally I try to close at least one or two stops. No filter (for me).

Do not touch any part of the plane, just sit down, the body absorb a lot of high frequency vibrations from the seat to the hands. But if you touch the plane frame with your bend or shoulder, it looks like you gain in stability, but the high frequencies are almost totally transported by your bones to the hand and they will blur your picture even at high shutter speed.

Avoid the wind blast. It is very difficult to achieve a perfect sharp picture if the camera is exposed to the wind.

I also usually tape the focus ring at infinity to avoid worry about the focus and check it all the time.

I normally do not use MLU, only if I still want to a try at low shutter speed. I'm sure the wood grip would help a lot, but I haven't it yet.

My preferred lens are the 55 and 105, I never tried with the 200, but it should be no problem. With the 200, you will need to focus and this is not easy.

For the altitude hum, I like it low or close to the mountain and not too fast, it's easier to compose. Since my friend is the pilot in command, he decides (he is a little crazy sometimes which helps). Anyway at too high altitude (>1000m from ground), the colors becomes unsaturated from the atmosphere and the final picture usually doesn't give a sharp feeling even if it's sharp.

I fly sometimes with a friend in a Piper L4 (from 1940). This is a great aircraft, it's slow, quiet and you can open the door and window giving you a good and undisturbed angle of view. Enough for wide angle with a little freedom for movement and last but not least the Piper makes less vibrations than other Cessnas at low power setting. Actually the L4 is a fantastic and legendary aircraft (like the P67?...). I tried with other aircraft where you couldn't open the window and the results are not very good, mostly depends on the quality and shape of the plexiglas and reflections are also difficult to avoid if you do not shoot perfectly perpendicular to the glass. For air to air pictures, cessnas are better because they are faster (still very slow) and can also open the window or even take it out.

I think the P67II is almost ideal for aerial photography, if it just were easier to reload...

So hope it helps and good luck

Colin

-- Colin Barschel (colin@barschel.com), October 25, 2000.

Try a helecopter. I am not an expert at airial photography, but I have rode in planes and helecopters and heleos are usually smoother, fly slower, and more agile. On the other hand they may cost more per hour.Good luck.

-- John Carney (carney@northcoast.com), November 05, 2000.

Hi, I have done lots of aerial photography work. Everything that Colin has said is right on. The only thing where I differ is in the use of aircraft. Helicopters are great if you have an IMAX budget. I prefer high wing aircraft (like Cessna 150, 152, 172, 182). The wing is out of the way of your shooting (unlike the pipers) and they are a fraction of the cost of helicopters. Thanks. I hope this helps.

Jamie

-- Jamie Heath (terrasaurus@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.