I'm visiting Kauai in early December and plan on doing one of the door-less helicopter flights around the island.

I'm shooting with a 1ds3. From what I've read so far, it looks like my best lens to use will be my 24-70mm. My 70-200mm will probably be too long (and suffer from motion blur) and my 17-40 might be on average a little too short. I don't think they will allow lens changes mid-flight (and pretty sure this wouldn't be smart for a lot of reasons anyways :) ). Does my choice of 24-70mm sound logical?

I'm stuck as to whether or not to use a circular polarizer on the flight. Everything I've read about these helicopter flights is to keep the shutter speed up (> 1/500). While the circular polarizer might enhance the photos, it will cut the shutter speed. With the doors off on the helicopter, I don't want to have it on at the start and then try to remove it mid-way through the tour. Even if I can maintain good shutter speeds, I wonder with the helicopter constantly moving around in relation to the sun, how much I'll be rotating the polarizer and lose shots in the end anyways. Have you used a circular polarizer on one of these flights?

Lastly I'm also wondering about the best time of day to take the flight. Weather is always an unknown variable. But I've never been to Kauai before and don't know what to expect. I'm thinking about either an early morning or late afternoon time slot. I'd rather have shots with the better lighting at the expense of some shots being too shadowy and not working out. I'm hoping someone can chime in on this too.

Thanks!

Paul

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