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Birthday for GF - Camera Lens - Nikon D3300 - Helicopter photos


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3 replies to this topic

#1
FlMikey

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Hello and thanks for reading my post!

 

My gf's 30th birthday is coming up, and I'd like to take her on a night time helicopter tour to check out the Chicago skyline.  She has a Nikon D3300 camera. 

 

I've done some Googling on the topic, but I don't know much about cameras.  I was thinking about buying the Nikon AF-S FX Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8G lens.  We will be visiting Chicago, so I was trying to find a lens that will take great pics of us during the day, scenic pics of the city in the day, and also high-quality night pictures from the helicopter. 

 

I'd also like the lens to be transferable to another camera if we decide to upgrade her camera in the future (maybe her next bday haha).  Is the lens I'm choosing a good choice, and if not, what are other "budget" friendly options which would considerably upgrade picture quality for the scenarios I mentioned?

 

 



#2
FlMikey

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I ended up choosing the NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G as it appears this will be the best general purpose lens.  It looks like we'd be able to use it for portraits using F 2.2 - 2.8, and also can use it for more scenic pics of the buildings using f5 and up perhaps?  

 

I'm also planning on taking pictures of fireworks one evening.  I saw some pics of the lens taking nighttime pics which seemed to come out nice.  I read I'll have to adjust the shutter speed for best pics.

 

For the helicopter pics, what would be best?  The 35mm f/1.8g or the NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens?  What would be recommended settings for night time aerial photography?



#3
Fletch

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That 35mm lens is equivalent to around 52mm on the 3300 and at 1.8 is fast. As to settings everything depends on lighting in the area your shooting. I've shot fireworks at 15 seconds down to 8 seconds and always manual focus.  Practice using it at different settings and see what works best for you.



#4
TBonz

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But please don't think you can hand hold the camera for 8-15 seconds and get a usable photo of fireworks.  Typically fireworks photos are shot from a tripod.  As far as photos from the helicopter, it really depends on brightness.  The wide end of the 18-55 might make for some nice views, but you will probably have issues with the aperture...based on that I'd go with the 35 1.8.  Hard to say what kind of options you would have, but I'd raise the ISO up and try to use a higher shutter speed to stop the movement of the helicopter.  Kind of general, but that's one of the nice things about digital photography...try something and you can always modify settings until you get it where you want it...