Steam railway train loco photos prints & Wildlife photographs prints

I bought my first camera purely to take steam railway photographs in early 1959 when I was twelve - all the railway locomotives in my area were steam those days - it was a Kodak Brownie model E, reduced from £2-12-6d to £1 at Boots. That was 20 weeks spending money. Films were 1/10d and developing 3/6d, Those 8 shots on 620 roll film were precious. A shutter speed of only 1/50th of a second meant that some of my steam railway photographs were of static locomotives, which often resulted in a visible lack of steam and smoke. The Ian Allan ABC of the day seemed to set the standard, so that type of photograph is what I aimed for.

My first ever photographs with the box Brownie, spring 1959

Get it in the middle with your back to the sun, I was told. No-one mentioned getting the semaphores in as well! In fact the background in those days seemed so unimportant that we never gave it much consideration, however you will see from my later photographs that the background is just as important. So for anyone with little or no experience the following may help you.

Railway photography basics:-

Never stand in front of anyone else if they are there first.
Consider the background and get something of interest in the photograph to identify the location, not just a big steam engine somewhere in 'Anyfield'.
80-90mm focal length lenses give a better perspective and a more natural appearance.
Normal 50mm lenses can make railway photographs look stretched.
To overcome this, get low down then it make the loco imposing.
However, a 50mm lens on a digital camera with the 1.6 crop factor is similar to 80mm - perfect
Longer lenses give a fore-shortening effect which emphasis's the steam and smoke when using a frontal viewpoint.
Longer lenses can be better on dark days. Taking a 'head on' shot some distance away drastically reduces motion. Given that 30MPH is 44 feet per second, a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second allows more than 2 inches of movement - blur. This is effectively reduced by shooting more 'head on' and far away.
Shooting towards the sun illuminates the steam and smoke, more so with a long lens.
Rain reflects light off the track which adds to the impact of the photograph - shoot head on.
Use AV mode so the camera selects the fastest possible shutter speed.
Don't rely on autofocus. Pre-focus on the anticipated position of the loco. An exception being when using long lenses. 'AI servo' will let you take a photo even if the focus is not correct. 'One-Shot' is accurate but the subject is moving, and moves nearer this focus point!
The front of the loco has to be the focus point, just as eyes have to be in a portrait.
Imagine where the steam and smoke will be, taking the wind into consideration.
In strong winds shoot more head on as the smoke will fall behind the coaches, or block them out.
If the sun is right but the wind is 'at you' shoot from low down to get under the smoke. Try and find a cutting as the smoke will hold up sometimes in the shelter of the cutting. Be at the end of the cutting to get low down. Never choose an embankment as the wind will loop over and bring all the smoke down.
Hold your frame. Imagine where the loco is to be and pre-focus there. Compose your picture and when the train comes, hold that frame, do not look at the train but wait until it gets to your point of focus and fire.
To repeat - Look at the corners of your frame and not the train. Hold those corners still, do not follow the train.
Prime lenses are sharper than zoom lenses
Zoom lenses can lose up to 1 stop in light
Lastly if you just go out to take photos, make sure you put something back into steam railway preservation.

Equipment: -

I prefer to put my money into lenses rather than go for the latest multi mega pixel camera that are on the market. Using Canon bodies has a BIG, BIG advantage, Canon cameras have a large mount size allowing the use of other, better lenses which can be picked up relatively cheaply. These can be used with a suitable adaptor. You need to pre focus and stop the aperture manual, however auto exposure is retained in AV mode. With the introduction of 'live view' on modern SLR's spot on focusing is easily acheived as you see the subject 10 x the size

There are a few lenses which are even better than Canon 'L' series. Please bear in mind that I have 3 'L' series lenses and I have friends with different L series lenses to mine, before you dismiss what I am about to say. You could pick up these lenses very cheaply a few years ago, but as people like me are spreading the word, the prices have increased, however they are still a lot less than the 'L' series and are suited to railway photography. I buy lenses and sell them on if they don't improve on what I have in a constant strive to keep on improving.

Testing several of the same model of lens, reveals variations, some STARK. Suffice to say it is down to quality control and generally the more expensive lens the better the tolerances and quality control.

I have 3 railway photography lenses and they are different from the ones I use for wildlife, with one exception, they are as follows: -

35mm (56mm) -- Contax Carl Zeiss Distagon f2.8 - The sharpest 35mm (along with it's faster and mega expensive f2 version). Fantastic edge to edge sharpness wide open. Least used of my lenses, brilliant for tight or scenic shots. Originally over £400, expect to pay £150. Far sharper and resolving a lot more detail than the Canon L series.
I did have an original West German single coated version with Rollei mount and after hours getting the mount skimmed to get infinity, the lens was poor, must have been a rogue. I sold it on eBay and noticed it re-appeared 3 weeks later!!!!

50mm (80mm) -- Contax Carl Zeiss Planar f1.4 - The sharpest 50mm (the 1.7 is almost as good). Many claim this to be the finest lens ever made. It certainly puts the Canon 50mm to shame, which is very poor below f3.5. See Tornado at Woodhouse taken at f2. At f2.8 It is sharper than the Canon L series 24-105 zoom and the Canon L series 24-70mm zoom at any aperture. I had 2 Planars and one was slightly better below f2.8 than the other. Both stunning. My favourite railway photo lens - used over 50% of the time. You can crop the image and resample it back up to 70mm equivalent and it matches my Canon L series 70-200mm zoom at 70mm. So by using this and the Distagon it eliminates the need for a standard zoom. These are being made again by Zeiss with Canon mount at around £500. You can pick up the Contax version for around £200. Contax made the Zeiss lenses until being taken over, so Zeiss themselves had to start making it again and they are now produced in the Cosina factory in Japan

Canon 'L' Series 70-200mm - Very sharp for a zoom lens, you have to focus manually in poor light though. However this is a big, big, plus for steam railway photography, I cannot understand is how much depth of field this lens gives. It is amazing, it defies the laws of physics. The focussing is so forgiving.

If you don't want to stretch to the Canon 'L' series 70-200mm then I can highly recommend the following 2 lenses until you can.

90mm (144mm) -- Tamron SP90mm macro f2.5 - You will be surprised, amazingly sharp. Good at f5.6 and excellent at f8, see the full size bit of the Tornado photograph with this lens at f8. They are too soft below f5.6, but at f8. they are L series quality. I have tested 5 (I had 3) of these and one was below par. The other 4 were same above f5.6 but some better than others below f5.6. Was my second favourite railway photo lens prior to me getting the L series 70-200mm. However, starting at f5.6 means they are no good for poor light. (Just for info, and you can read this on my butterfly information page, Tamron's £750, 180mm macro is only usable at macro, anything above 12" away is very soft. I read the reviews, was bitterly disappointed and sold it without using it.) The 90 though is a bargain at around £75 for the manual version. Buy the 90mm but stay away from their other lenses.

135mm (216mm) -- Carl Zeiss Jena f3.5 - As sharp as 'L' series

I have owned (and tested) 7 of the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm. They are consistently excellent optically but not so the build quality, you may get one where the focus ring locks or ones where the iris sticks. Most will have backlash (play in the rotation of the focusing ring and aperture ring) as well. However they are sharp fully open, i.e. f3.5, rising slightly at f4, same at f 5.6 but drop off at f8, therefore they are extremely good for fast shutter shots. Considering the price of these compared to Canon L series lenses they are excellent value, too cheap not to have one. However as photographers are realising how good these are, the prices have risen, the last one I sold went for £100 (mint) so I would put the money towards a L series 70-200 rather than spend say £75 on one of these.

As a back up I also use a Sigma 18-50 f2.8DG EX which is as sharp as the Canon 'L' at 35mm, ( I have only had time to compare at this focal length at this point in time) but a third of the price. It suffers from a bit of chromic aberrations at the extreme corners which would need correcting on a very large print and it looses 1/2 a stop in light. compared to the Distagon and Planar. This lens has little use by me except if I need to go wider than the 35mm Distagon. I would class it as a semi professional lens for weddings etc. drops off at f2.8 though, as does the Canon L series. Great value for money, you can pick these up second hand for £200, An excellent upgrade from the kit lens, light and easy to use, but only the 35-50mm end gets used for railway photography.
A word of warning, I reckon this does not go to 50mm, it is about 45mm compared to my Planar 50mm.

Other lenses having good reputations that I have owned and tested: -

Canon 50mm f1.8, a big improvement on the consumer zooms but not a patch on the Planar, poor handling when 'trying' to manually pre-focus - sold it. Good value for £80 though, until you move up.

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.4, Had 2, tested 3, one almost as good as the Distagon, one was no better than the Canon kit lens and one was midway between, sold them. Now selling at prices near the Distagon, so don't bother. Have a cult following for some reason.

Tamron SP 28-80mm Adaptall 2. Performance is well above the kit lens and midway to the Sigma EX range - kept as a back up. Slight fall off at 80mm. Worth buying as a first upgrade as they are now so cheap, publishable quality. See - Very old steam locomotive photo - had mine for over 20 years. Originally £180, now go for as little as £10 on eBay.

Tamron SP 28 - 75mm zoom, Soft below f5.6 and not fully sharp untill f11 at 75mm. Better at the shorter end. . Considering the price of these keep well away. It is a great portrait lens and I use mine for my little grand-daughter. The softness gives lovely skin tones. It has the same sharpness characteristics as the 90mm but that is pin sharp at f8 and is cheap.

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar f1.8. Some rave over this lens, but it's not as good as they make out, similar to the Canon f1.8 - don't bother.

Rollei 50mm Planar f1.8. Made by Rollei themselves, this f1.8 version is optically similar to the canon 50mm f1.8. Was on my first SLR - leave alone, I've had mount issues with Rollei .It's not as good as the Contax or Zeiss Planar anyway.

Sigma 70-300mm Zoom - Poor with poor handling - holiday snaps only, - drops away after 200mm. Entry level!

Tamron 70-300mm Zoom - Very similar to above but fares better between 200mm to 300mm

Tamron 80-210mm Zoom -Very poor with poor handling - holiday snaps

Tamron SP 24 - 135 Zoom - Poor. My friend bought one, £250, mainly for holidays, came out with me and used it when I used my 135mm, he bought a Zeiss.

Canon L series 100-300mm Excellent, almost the same sharpness as the 70-200mm L series. The difference is too small to make any difference - I found I was not using it since I bought the 70-200 so I sold it. However if you can find one get it, a bargain L series lens. The 'one-touch' made it reat for wildlife.

Jupiter-9 an 85mm f2 Russian portrait lens, super soft and wonderful bokeh, but sharp at f8

Before you delve into your attic and dig out your old 'super' lenses and buy an adaptor - don't.

The following lenses I have tested on the 350D or 450D which are too soft and are simply not worth bothering with include: - Olympus, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm. Tamron 28mm and 135mm. Carl Zeiss Jena 29mm.

I have not tested any of the Takumar range, but my friend who I have sorted out with 4 or 5 lenses has some that he does not use, which is self explanatory.

Here are some links you will find interesting: -

You don't need to fully understand MTF charts, just remember that the left edge represents centre of the lens while the right side of the chart represents the edge of the lens. The higher the lines the better sharpness, contrast etc.

http://old.photodo.com/nav/prodindex.html

http://www.pbase.com/knickles/lenstests - look at the fully open crops.

http://www.pbase.com/token/lens_comp

I hope that you have found this page both interesting and informative and that it help's you to take better steam railway photographs. If I can be of any further assistance please email me.