LAX - 11/20/2011 (Image Heavy)

[Zee71]

Day 4 of 5 - was able to get some spotting in during the morning hour before the rain came in. Due to the winds coming out of the east, it was nice to see arrivals and departures on the 7s. The rest of the day was a wash out. Not the greatest images, but they'll have to do.













China Cargo - 777




LAN A340

[gonzalu]

Mark, lovely stuff... I can't wait to see that China Eastern 777 Cargo in person! The LAN A340 looks great, wish they would send it to NY from time to time. Eva MD-11F which you know I love and rarely makes it to NY...

[megatop412]

Wow Mark, you got the Yangtze River Express....that's my goal if I ever make it out there. Looks like you were shooting the 300mm?

[gonzalu]

William, he shot these with Nikon D7000 and 70-200mm f/2.8 with and without TC 1.4x I believe...

[megatop412]

Nice....Mark would you say the 7000 has a little better performance than the D300 or is it significantly better in terms in what you can see image-quality wise(i.e. is there really that much of a difference between 12 and 16MP)

[gonzalu]

I keep butting in cause Mark is not answering so, William, the D7000 has Nikon's latest tech, BUT the camera lacks the performance of the D300s even... sadly its buffer is very very small, maybe 8 frames RAW+JPEG, maybe 12 in JPG only and certainly the control layout is not ideal. I rented one to test and it is not for me...

Now, that being said, it is likely I will have to get one given that any new DX Nikon will be likely to hit store shelves next summer at best with the floods in Thailand and the remnants of the Tsunami/Earthquake affecting manufacturing etc.

[Zee71]

William, sorry for not chimming in sooner, but Manny it spot-on! I mostly shot with my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens (with and without the 1.4X teleconverter), which seemed to work well for me from Imperial Hill and other spotting locations (expect for the Proud Bird, which gave me too much reach). The buffer on the D7000 definitely can be enhanced. Overall I'm am pretty pleased with the D7000, especially when it comes to cropping. Those extra pixels help. Like Manny, I'm in a wait and see mode to see what Nikon puts out next year. This year was a bust for Nikon due to natural disasters overseas.

Here's the original image of the Yangtze River Express climbing out


Cropped version

[seahawks7757]

Nice Mark! I have never gotten lucky with inverse ops.

[Zee71]

Too many wires obstruct most of the images, but just before they reach the threshold you can get some clean shots.

[gonzalu]

For reverse ops, I would locate over by the beach to get closer cleaner shots without the wires... Imperial hill being high is a godsend but it looks like more buildings and poles and air conditioning etc continues to impede on the view!