 There is not much to include in this post in the way of photos, after the previous catch-up. |
But there is a most definite line in the sand between that post and this. I still remember the day, in the middle of December, 1986, when I was standing in a camera shop in Lucky Plaza, on Singapore’s Orchard Road. It was there that my brother bought his Nikon DSLR and, in so doing, thrust his Cosina CS-1 at me and said something like “There you go.” It was my first SLR camera. |
From memory, it had a 70-210mm Tokina lens. Importantly, the CS-1 used the Pentax K-mount system for lens mounting. A dozen years later, I made it into Pentax proper with an MZ-50, along with Sigma 28-80mm and 100-300mm lenses. In 2005, I got my first DSLR, a Pentax *ist DS. Then followed more Pentax bodies — K10D, K-5, KP, and finally K-3 III. The lenses changed, too. The Sigma 100-300mm was replaced with a Pentax 55-300mm ED, then 55-300mm WR, then 55-300 PLM. Quite recently, I added a Pentax 150-450mm. I’ve had a motley collection of shorter lenses, too (from Dad’s old M 28mm to the latest 16-50mm PLM) but the longer lenses are the ones that pertain to this site. |
In June of 2026, very nearly 40 years since I inherited the CS-1, I bought a new body that was not Pentax. In order to fund this, I sold the K-3 III, 16-50mm PLM, and 150-450mm, but I still have (and will keep) the KP and 55-300mm PLM (a configuration that is responsible for a lot of my aviation photo portfolio). |
The replacement gear (so far… I have no illusions of it stopping here) is as follows: |
- Canon R5 Mk II
- Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM
- Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM
For the moment, I intend that the KP and 55-300mm PLM will still serve aviation duties — the reason for the change is, in fact, my bird photography. But having just today bought the 200-800mm, I thought I might try it out at the airport. |
I picked an… interesting… day to try it. After a day of weather disruptions, there were still diversions going on today (27-06-2026). I had heard five flights attempt approaches before I actually saw one try to land. But some got in and several got out. It was clear the pilots were working very hard and had plenty of decisions to make on whether to proceed. Even a Sounds Air Cessna Caravan was quite circumspect with a takeoff. |
It turns out, as I expected, that 200mm is a bit much for standing close to the runway. From the spot at Wexford Road, I could comfortably fill the frame with a Caravan awaiting entry to the runway! The bigger challenge today was holding the camera still in the wind. Both the camera and the lens have stabilisation, but even they cannot cope if I can’t even keep the aircraft in the frame! |
And so to the handful of photos I did well enough with to publish. |
Case in point… this was cropped from a shot at 242mm. I only zoomed in because it looked daft with just the wingtips out of frame. I then cropped further for better composition. The subject is Beechcraft Super King Air B200, ZK-RSQ(2) of the New Zealand Air Ambulance Service. |
This next shot, of Air New Zealand Airbus A320, ZK-OXC, was taken at 800mm and is about a 60% crop of the original. However, the aircraft was approximately 1km away! Hence the amount of moisture between me and it. |
And an 87% crop at 200mm as it got much closer. |
Right… I’ll spare you all the technical details for the rest. I just thought it was interesting to consider the new geometry I’m dealing with. |
It turns out this was the first time I had seen ZK-LFW, one of Life Flight Trusts, Beechcraft Super King Air B200s. |
Finally, Air New Zealand Bombardier Q300, ZK-NEO, shows a bit of the ‘lumpy’ final approach. The Q300s were not having a good time of it getting in today. Of those 5 missed approaches I mentioned at the beginning, 4 were Q300s. |
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