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by hari ari on Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:52 am
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Gooday and trust all are keeping well.  The question I have is aimed at folk who have been involved with aerial recon.  During the lockdown, spent time with utube watching docus of air warfare over Vietnam.  There very interesting accounts from pilots who flew photo recon missions with fast jets.  How dos a camera manage to take sharp and detailed pictures when the ground speed is 400+ mph at 500 ft high.  The film is developed and prints are ready to be perused by the intel specialists in about 30 minutes from the aircraft being parked.  Similarly with recon pictures taken by satellites, the camera is some 200 miles in orbit, travelling with an estimated ground speed of 11,000+ mph, captures sharp and detailed pictures of road signs and people.  Resolution of the glass and shutter must be top notch and higher to produce such pictures on what is essentially auto focus on 'P' mod.  I have taken pictures from the window from10,000ft up wards, with Film and digital slr, RUBBISH.
How does this work.....
Thanks
 

by Lensmaster on Wed Oct 20, 2021 11:35 am
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the further away you are from the subject the slower the shutter speed can be a shot I took of ISS  17,000 MPH at 1/800 sec
Rob.

Image
DSC09144 a by Robert Hardy, on Flickr
 

by Jeff Colburn on Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:22 pm
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Hi,

Photographers taking pictures from planes often use a camera stabilizer. It's a gyroscope device that attaches to the bottom of the camera.

Have Fun,
Jeff
Fine Art Prints and Stock Photography of Arizona www.JeffColburn.com See my ebooks in the NatureScapes Store.
 

by SantaFeJoe on Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:48 pm
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Jeff Colburn wrote:Hi,

Photographers taking pictures from planes often use a camera stabilizer. It's a gyroscope device that attaches to the bottom of the camera.

Have Fun,
Jeff
I’ve often wondered if that is still necessary with VR/IS cameras and lenses. I used to know someone who used to make the gyros in the early 2000’s. 

Joe
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.  -Pablo Picasso
 

by Wildflower-nut on Thu Oct 21, 2021 6:12 pm
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Jeff Colburn wrote:Hi,

Photographers taking pictures from planes often use a camera stabilizer. It's a gyroscope device that attaches to the bottom of the camera.

Have Fun,
Jeff


never used one from a plane but have from boat and train.  Big help.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Thu Oct 21, 2021 7:41 pm
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Jeff Colburn wrote:Hi,

Photographers taking pictures from planes often use a camera stabilizer. It's a gyroscope device that attaches to the bottom of the camera.

Have Fun,
Jeff
Pretty rare these days now that you can get great dynamic range and image quality at higher ISO and with in body image stabilization in addition to wider lenses that are stabilized.  
 

by E.J. Peiker on Thu Oct 21, 2021 7:52 pm
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hari ari wrote:Gooday and trust all are keeping well.  The question I have is aimed at folk who have been involved with aerial recon.  During the lockdown, spent time with utube watching docus of air warfare over Vietnam.  There very interesting accounts from pilots who flew photo recon missions with fast jets.  How dos a camera manage to take sharp and detailed pictures when the ground speed is 400+ mph at 500 ft high.  The film is developed and prints are ready to be perused by the intel specialists in about 30 minutes from the aircraft being parked.  Similarly with recon pictures taken by satellites, the camera is some 200 miles in orbit, travelling with an estimated ground speed of 11,000+ mph, captures sharp and detailed pictures of road signs and people.  Resolution of the glass and shutter must be top notch and higher to produce such pictures on what is essentially auto focus on 'P' mod.  I have taken pictures from the window from10,000ft up wards, with Film and digital slr, RUBBISH.
How does this work.....
Thanks
10,000 feet up or two miles plus the lateral distance since you can't shoot straight down means you are usually shooting through as much as 25 miles or more of atmosphere - that is a lot of atmosphere to shoot through especially when shooting through crappy aircraft plexiglass.  Shots like that need a lot of post processing as they will be very blue and very low in contrast.  Just eliminating the plexiglass would massively increase image acuity which is why most of us that shoot aerial prefer a helicopter with no doors or an airplane where you can either remove the cargo door and shoot through that or have a window that you can flip open like on some Cessnas.  Generally we do not shoot from 10,000 feet but rather 1000 to 2000 feet up.

But, even with that said, it is possible to get decent shots, even with a phone but you will have to color balance out the blue and do some massive contrast adjustment.  The lower the altitude, the better...

Now let look at satellites.  First, they shoot straight down which you can not do from an airplane with windows that.  Second, the camera lenses are on the exterior of the satelite, not behind glass.  Third, the amount of image processing done on them is very heavy.

Oh, before I forget, if the aircraft you are flying on is a Boeing 787, forget even pictures with your cellphone.  The auto dimming windows are two polarized layers that will destroy the image.

BTW, I wrote an article that is here on NSN on photographing from helicopters years ago that might also be helpful.  It has also been published in some aviation oriented magazines:
https://www.naturescapes.net/articles/t ... hy-primer/
Hope that helps.
 

by hari ari on Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:37 am
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Thanks folks, I attempted to take pics fro m L1011,B747, 757,767, 777 and from Airbus aircraft. Attempts wee from pax and flight deck windows.
Pics of deserts from height were ok as landscapes but did not have much detail. Pics from a few hundred feet, from a balloon were ok.
My curiosity is on the f stop and shutter speed requirements for a camera platform travelling at 400mph at 500 ft to capture sharp prints.
 

by SantaFeJoe on Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:38 am
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hari ari wrote:........
My curiosity is on the f stop and shutter speed requirements for a camera platform travelling at 400mph at 500 ft to capture sharp prints.
Let us know how that turns out!!!

400mph=586 feet per second ground speed. You certainly are not pointing straight down or you couldn’t possibly compose a shot at that speed. How far off is your subject? You should be able to shoot wide open with most lenses you would likely be using and still get enough DOF. Then it is a matter of ISO to get your fastest shutter speed available on your camera for that aperture. Hopefully, your lens is sharp wide open or you will have to stop down.

Joe
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.  -Pablo Picasso
 

by E.J. Peiker on Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:06 am
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First of all, it is not legal to travel at 400mph at an elevation of 500 feet anywhere on the planet ;) In most cases at that elevation you are traveling at 200MPH or less unless you are in a military fighter aircraft. Airliners at that elevation will be traveling in the neighborhood of 130-160MPH unless you are in a Concorde which no longer flies :D

As for camera settings, wide open, ISO 400 in aperture priority mode will work well for what you are doing. Additionally, if you have a rubber lens hood that seals against the window you will eliminate most reflections, wearing black also helps. The problem with airliners is that you have two pieces of high impact plastic that are separated by about an inch so even the frame, which is almost always white, will cause internal reflections which cut contrast and acuity dramatically.
 

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