I figured some people may be interested in the equipment I used to take the pictures on this site and my opinions on cameras/lenses.
Current Equipment:
Bodies - Canon 7D, Canon 50D
Lenses - Canon 300mm f/4 L IS, Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS II, Canon 24-105mm L IS, Canon 10-22mm, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Canon 1.4xII Teleconverter
Past Equipment:
Bodies - Canon XTi
Lenses - Sigma 50-500mm, Canon 18-55mm, Canon 28-135 IS
Some notes if your interested in air show or sports photography:
· The lens is more important than the body, expect to pay more for the lens than the body if you want to get the best pictures.
· For air shows, 300mm or longer lens is best to get in for close shots (on a crop body1).
· Prime lenses in general have better picture quality (at a given cost), but decreased flexibility to compose your shots.
Canon Vs. Nikon
I shoot Canon equipment, but that is simply because that was the first camera I got, and now all my lenses are Canon. From what I have seen and heard, Nikon cameras take better pictures in real world situations. They do a little better with noise reduction and white balance than Canons. Canon cameras are better on paper, and shoot better pictures under ideal conditions. Another advantage of Canon is that the mid to high end lenses are much less expensive than those from Nikon. Sony and a few others have had entrants into the SLR market, I will add more info on them here if I get the time to do some research.
1Crop bodies are camera bodies that have a smaller sensor size than "full frame" cameras. These include all of the Canon digital SLR models except the 5D and 1D series. I am not as familiar with Nikon, but only the high-end bodies are full frame. On Canons, the crop factor is 1.6, and on Nikons it is 1.5. This means to get the real length of the lens, multiply the lens focal length by the crop factor. I prefer the crop bodies to the full frame cameras for air show photography.
Other Links: World Airshow News Magazine Flying Heritage Collection Historic Flight Foundation Museum Of Flight