Air to ground photography camera choice

[Matt Ward]

I'm looking for a new camera to shoot when I'm flying, primarily terrain shots.  I want something that will work well from the plane (through the windows, filtering the prop, etc) as well as on the ground shooting sports, vacations, kids, etc.  Ideally something pretty small and maybe $1000 or less.  I've been looking at the Panasonic LX100 and Sony DSC-RX100 IV.  Anyone got any tips?

[201er]

iPhone tends to be plenty good enough. The difference in quality between cameras has shrunk over the years 

[ArtVandelay]

It’s all in the lenses as compared to phone cameras, a Nikon FX or DX models are quality cameras.

[EricJ]

I bought a 4k video camera hoping to improve video and audio quality in some vids I shoot periodically.   It's worse than the Galaxy phone I've been using, so I'm going back to the phone.   

 

[gsxrpilot]

A Neutral Density filter will take the prop out of your shot. You can find them for just about any camera, including your phone. 

We just ordered, for tomorrow delivery, the new iPhone 12 Pro Max for my wife. We'll have to see how it does with pictures. It's supposed to be pretty good and the best lenses/camera Apple has made to date.

Pre-Covid, my wife and I did a lot of international travel and a good camera is so important. In early 2017 I finally got rid of the full frame Canon with the L lenses and have just been using the iPhone ever since. It really pretty amazing how good the little camera in the phone has become.

[Matt Ward]

4 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

A Neutral Density filter will take the prop out of your shot. You can find them for just about any camera, including your phone. 

We just ordered, for tomorrow delivery, the new iPhone 12 Pro Max for my wife. We'll have to see how it does with pictures. It's supposed to be pretty good and the best lenses/camera Apple has made to date.

Pre-Covid, my wife and I did a lot of international travel and a good camera is so important. In early 2017 I finally got rid of the full frame Canon with the L lenses and have just been using the iPhone ever since. It really pretty amazing how good the little camera in the phone has become.

I forgot your wife was a big photographer!  I just bought the new iPad Mini with the 8mp camera.  It's certainly better than my iPhone camera.  Do you know about the ND filters for the iPads?  Do they work pretty well?

[ArtVandelay]

A Neutral Density filter will take the prop out of your shot. You can find them for just about any camera, including your phone. 
We just ordered, for tomorrow delivery, the new iPhone 12 Pro Max for my wife. We'll have to see how it does with pictures. It's supposed to be pretty good and the best lenses/camera Apple has made to date.
Pre-Covid, my wife and I did a lot of international travel and a good camera is so important. In early 2017 I finally got rid of the full frame Canon with the L lenses and have just been using the iPhone ever since. It really pretty amazing how good the little camera in the phone has become.

The Max display is really nice, much brighter than the mini 4 I was using before, now I use the Max as my Garmin Pilot hardware. You may want to “borrow” it.
The camera is nice, but a full size camera with telephoto lenses will give you much better shots of landscapes, wildlife, and plane to plane pictures.

[gsxrpilot]

46 minutes ago, Matt Ward said:

I forgot your wife was a big photographer!  I just bought the new iPad Mini with the 8mp camera.  It's certainly better than my iPhone camera.  Do you know about the ND filters for the iPads?  Do they work pretty well?

I have a clip-on ND filter that works for both the iPad and iPhone. It works great to take the prop out of the picture. I might have to get a different one for the new 12 Max as the multiple lenses are spread out a bit.

[Ross Statham]

Actually this is an area of personal expertise, so it’s nice that I can actually chime in.   I spent two months researching and evaluating cameras, gear and procedures and have photographed natural disasters for FEMA and GEMA (including a massive F5 tornado track aftermath).  I understand most of the ins and outs of this.  I’ve shot thousands of frames.

The good news is that your smart phone includes geotagging every time you snap a photo.  The bad news is that even the very best smartphones still only have a chintzy little lens, and while your megapixel count is high, the optics aren’t much.  Smartphone cameras have a rather wide angle lens setting as well, which is not what you want.

If you’re looking for top quality results, you’ll be looking for an SLR camera that will ideally have geotagging. This is a process by which your precise latitude, longitude, altitude and the direction the camera was pointed (!!) are recorded within the meta-data of the photographs that you take. (Hence the need for a three axial electronic gyrocompass included in the needed GPS.)  The GPS and gyrocompass will be particularly important later when you’re trying to later figure out exactly where you were located in the air and which way you were pointing the camera as you took the photograph.  (Trust me when I tell you just how much you will want and need those features.)

Best all around package we found was one of the later model digital Nikons that accepts an external front plug-in GPS input with electronic gyrocompass. But don’t use the Nikon GPS- it’s mediocre at best- we tried it, and found the aircraft cabin sometimes blocked GPS signal, and when you pointed the camera down to take photos often their chintzy two-axial gyrocompass stopped working.  We selected the Solmeta, who makes a superb 3-axial gyrocompass GPS that slides into your shoe mount on top and has a cable that plugs into the front of the camera.  No lost signal from the aircraft cabin.  I’ve been using that combination for six years to excellent results.  Strong Nikon optics, fast shutter speeds, crisp imagery- and each frame properly geotagged with direction of photo.

Message me if you want to discuss.  I love talking shop.