What type of lens should I get for an air show?

Question

I went to an air show yesterday, I took a few nice pictures of the Red arrows which is great, but they look so far away, even smaller than by eye.

I've got a Nikon D3000 with the kit lens. What type of lens should I get for this kind of photography? Also, would I benefit from a lens hood or similar?

Answer

1) A supertelephoto lens is best suited to this type of photography. In common usage this means a lens with long focal length e.g. 300mm or more. It can be either zoom or prime, a zoom would probably be more suitable if you're not exactly sure what focal length you need.

Some telephotos are extremely expensive, but if you're shooting in good light a cheaper lens with smaller max aperture will do, e.g. something like a 70-300 f/4-f/5.6

2) In general shooting with a lens hood will give you protection from flare and better contrast whilst shooting in sunny conditions so I would recommend using one all the time if possible but certainly for airshows.

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