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 photograh 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.
• A 50mm lens on a digital camera with the 1.6 crop factor equates to 80mm - perfect
• Longer lenses give a fore-shortening effect which emphasises 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.
• 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: -

Currently I am using the Canon 450D with 12.2M pixels, but not the lens that comes with it! Previously I had the 350D. Many will say that these are consumer cameras, however I prefer the lightweight plastic small body and 3.5 frames per second gives a nice gap between shots. Shooting in RAW means that 6, or sometimes 7 continuous shots is all you get. With the faster shooting of the more expensive cameras the buffer starts to write to the card if you try and space the shots out a bit, resulting in a short delay. Also, and this is a big also, buying the little brother camera means it is cheaper to upgrade, so you can keep apace with progress and keep your marriage..
The kit lens is poor for railway photographs as it need's to be stopped down, it's too loose to use manually and there is fall off at the most useful end - 55mm. It's a fantastic 'general' lens for the money, it will get you started but that's it.

The BIG, BIG advantage of Canon cameras is the 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 apperture manuall, however auto exposure is retained in AV mode. With the introduction of 'live view' on modern SLR's spot on focussing is easily acheived as you see the subject 10 x the size

There are a few other lenses which are as good or even better than Canon 'L' series. Please bear in mind that I have 3 'L' series lenses 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.

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 £300, expect to pay £115.
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 poor below f3.5. The Planar is better than this at f1.4. See the A4 at Retford, taken at f2.8. I had 2 of these and one was slightly better below f4 than the other. Both stunning. My favourite railway photo lens - used 50% of the time. These are being made again in West Germany by Zeiss with Canon mount at around £500. You can pick up the Contax version for around £150. Contax made the Zeiss lenses untill being taken over, so Zeiss themselves had had to start making it again.

Canon 'L' Series 70-200mm  - Very sharp for a zoom lens, as good as a prime.

If you dont want to stretch to the Canon 'L' series 70-200mm then I can highly recommend the following 2 lenses, which I used prior to getting the L series.

90mm (144mm) -- Tamron SP90mm macro f2.5 - You may be suprised, amazingly sharp. Almost on par with the Contax lenses, see the full size bit of the Tornado photograph  with this lens at f8. They are too soft wide open, good at f4 and 'L' series quality at f5.6  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 - used 30% of the time.
A copy of a Zeiss design, that Tamron have got spot on. At f5.6 and above they are as good as my L series 100-300 and the L series 70-200mm. 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. Buy the 90mm but stay away from their other lenses. Still a bargain at around £75 for the manual version.

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,  to cheap not to have one. Now going for aroung £60

As a back up I also use a Sigma 18-50 f2.8DG EX which is almost as good as the Canon 'L' but half the price. It suffers from chromic aberations at the corners which would need correcting on a very large print. This lens has little use by me except if I need to go wider than the 35mm Distagon, however I always take it in my bag and would class it as a professional lens.

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, untill 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.

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 - holday snaps only, - drops away after 200mm

Tamron 70-300mm Zoom - Very similar to above but retains its performance 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, same as the 70-200mm L series - I have one as a back up for wildlife. If you can find one get it, a bargain L series lens.

Jupiter-9 an 85mm f2 Russian portrait lens, super soft and wonderfull 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.

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.htmlhttp://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.