The parts of this series (including this one) are at:
Adapting Nikon lenses to Sony Alpha: Monster LA-FE1 autofocus adapter
Monster Adapter LA-FE 1 (2): AF-C for moving subjects
Monster Adapter LA-FE 1 (3): Another go with the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 E FL
Monster Adapter LA-FE1 (4): Revisiting birds in flight
Monster adapter LA-FE1 (5): firmware v04
As I mentioned in the last entry, I found the Monster Adapter LA-FE1 (Nikon F-mount lens to Sony E-mount cameras adapter) generally pretty satisfactory for use with the AF-S (single focus) method, especially with modern, more recent Nikon autofocus lenses adapted to the Sony Alpha-1. But how about moving subjects, where you need to use AF-C (continuous autofocus) to follow subject movement? I'll introduce this by discussing some bird photography, and then go on to an example where I think the LA-FE1 works surprisingly well i.e. aircraft.
Photographing birds
At the end of the last entry, I showed some pictures of garden birds sitting on perches that I photographed with the Nikon 500 mm f/5.6 PF lens mounted on the Sony Alpha 1 via the Monster adapter LA-FE1. This prompted the obvious question: is it possible to photograph birds in flight with this combination? As a first attempt at this, I took myself off to a local country park where a large lake attracts a variety of gulls and other waterbirds. My baseline expectations were not high (they could hardly have been lower), which is why I chose gulls (easy subjects). Comments on various forums such as these made me expect little to no success.
Setting up to photograph birds, I found that the lens seemed to track them very nicely using wide-area focus mode; the focus points followed them across the screen. Even so, not all the pictures were sharp. The "keeper rate" was significantly below what I would get with a D500. Nonetheless, I got quite a few sharp pictures, three of which I'm putting in here.
Two gulls and a cormorant. These are easy shots for any modern AF system.
I took myself off to Thanet for another go, this time with a favourite bird. The cliffs at Thanet are well known as homes for fulmars when they come to shore to breed. It was mid-March when I got to Thanet, and the fulmars had already taken up position in holes in the cliffs. The fulmars were scarcely flying at all that afternoon. I took the opportunity to get some pictures of them in their holes using AF-S, since this had worked well with perched birds previously.
Fulmars in love. AF-S on the 500PF–LA-FE1–A1
Perched wagtail on the cliffs near the fulmars holes
When eventually a flying fulmar appeared, I switched to AF-C but found it fairly difficult to pick up focus on it. By comparison, my Nikon D500 would have focussed instantly. Having said that, I was in wide-area mode, which in retrospect may have been suboptimal. Nevertheless, it did pick up focus after a while and I got some nice pictures.
Above and below: Fulmar, AF-C on the 500PF–LA-FE1–A1
One other subject caught my eye. A large mixed group of sanderlings and turnstones was on a concrete jetty and flying over to a slope across a short stretch of water. I tried photographing them as they flew across. I have put a compilation picture of multiple individual frames as I tracked one of the sanderlings from the jetty to the slope. Again, I was using wide-area focusing, which may not have been the best. However, even though the Sanderling was extremely small and the frame, I got a very good rate of sharp pictures. The combination seemed to follow focus surprisingly well, and gave a variety of wing positions, accurately focused. I repeated this several times with different birds (both sanderlings and turnstones) and got the same result each time.
Sanderling in flight from perch to perch. Vertical crops from 17 successive shots aligned.
100% crops of the sanderling sequence. Click to embiggen.
All in all, I think the 500PF–LA-FE1–A1 combination works better for small birds in flight than I had thought possible. With more practice and choosing better settings (focus modes in particular), I think this might be a viable combination for birds in flight.
In any case, the downside of using the heterologous Nikon lens/adapter on the Sony is that you don't get the full potential of the Alpha-1. The lack of weather sealing around the adapter will always be a concern. The Alpha-1 will give a bird photographer 30 frames per second with full autofocus with some of Sony's lenses. With the Nikon 500mm PF, I was using Medium speed continuous shooting and obtained about nine frames per second (I’ve been hesitant to try H as I don’t want to stress the system too much). But the big thing about the 500mm PF is it is smaller and much lighter than Sony's own 200-600 mm zoom (a bird photographer's favourite alternative within the Sony ecosystem).
On to aircraft
HM Coastguard Helicopter AgustaWestland AW189 92007 CG163/G-MCGU
While waiting for fulmars, a coastguard helicopter flew over. I changed the shutter speed to 1/125 second (the shutter speed I typically use with helicopters to get some rotor blur) and shot a brief sequence. Reviewing the shots on the rear screen, I was surprised to find that the camera had acquired focus extremely quickly, and held it. Unsurprisingly, I lost several to motion blur (as expected when shooting a moving subject handheld at 500 mm). But several were perfectly sharp.
Curiously — and I have no idea why this should be — the camera seemed to acquire focus on the helicopter more easily than the fulmar. Both were bright objects against a blue sky, so there was plenty of contrast. When the fulmars came close they were bigger in the frame than the helicopter.
Fast jets at Lakenheath
The helicopter gave me the feeling that it should be possible to photograph flying aircraft with this combination quite well. The best way to test this is to photograph aircraft that are both interesting and move very fast. To me, this says RAF Lakenheath. There was an added incentive of some visiting aircraft from overseas on the day I went.
My baseline comparator for this is my Nikon D810, a full-frame DSLR (since the Alpha-1 is full-frame mirrorless). The D810 is not from the current DSLR generation but has a very competent AF system, and I have used it with aircraft very satisfactorily for years.
One of the problems with photographing jets at an airbase is the heat haze. There's nothing you can do about it, except try to photograph in the cleanest air that you can find. I got several pictures shooting through the fence of F-15 and F-35 aircraft taxiing. The 500 mm PF lens focused quickly and accurately through the fence in a way that I found very reassuring.
When it came to flying aircraft, the Nikon-Monster-Sony combination acquired focus on fast-moving jets quickly and tracked them accurately.
F-15E 91-0321/LN of the 48th FW on full afterburner just after crossing the fence at Lakenheath. These things shift, as you can imagine, but the 500PF–LA-FE1–A1 picked up focus quickly and tracked it perfectly.
F-15E up close and personal as it crosses the fence
F-15C driver in his office, banking just after takeoff. Sadly, the F-15C aircraft of the 48th FW have now departed back to the US.
At one point during the day, there was a shout of "Heads up — in the distance!" An immediately recognisable shape was visible far away, heading towards the runway. It was a B-52 bomber — a big ugly fat fella! — escorted by a pair of F-35 stealth aircraft. (B-52s have recently been deployed to RAF Fairford for exercises, and this was a flyover to salute the fighter base). The three aircraft were approaching through very murky air, thick with heat haze: distant images appeared soft, even though they were correctly focused. As before, the 500 PF tracked them perfectly. As the BUFF got closer, I dropped the aperture from f/5.6 to f/10 to get the whole bomber in focus as it came over. The Nikon-Monster-Sony combination captured it perfectly.
Distant in the murk and haze: B-52H and two 48th FW F-35A.
Boeing B-52H Stratofortress 61-0018/MT on a low fly through at Lakenheath. f/10.
I've photographed at Lakenheath previously with the Nikon Z7 and Z7II cameras, using the 500 PF mounted on an FTZ adapter, and I'm not sure I could genuinely tell the difference in terms of overall results (although I’ve always felt the FTZ-combinations were slow to initial pick-up of focus, and would occasionally drop out of focus transiently). This is rather amazing given that the Monster Adapter is a third party device developed without support from either Nikon or Sony. But — and this is a big thing — while the Z7II will work at 10 frames per second, the autofocus is severely compromised under those circumstances and it becomes almost impossible to follow focus as there is a kind of slideshow effect after each image. With the Alpha-1, I got nine frames per second with full autofocus and no blackout between frames. In my opinion, for photographing fast jets, the Nikon-Monster-Sony combination comprehensively beats the Nikon–FTZ–Z7II combination. I had not expected that.
Compared to the D810, the adapted 500mm PF lens on the Alpha-1 had some advantages: 9 frames per second compared to 5 fps, no blackout between frames and higher resolution images (50Mpx vs 36Mpx). Autofocus accuracy on both is excellent.
All in all, I am impressed at how well the LA-F1 worked with these subjects. To accurately track an F-15E on full afterburner as it accelerates past on takeoff is what I'm after.
Propeller aircraft
Another example of where I might want to use the Monster adapter is with propeller aircraft. These pose different challenges to jets. Rather than trying to capture the image of a jet using a fast shutter speed, prop aircraft require slower shutter speeds to reveal the movement of the propeller. A blurred background will add to the sense of motion.
My local light aircraft field is Headcorn aerodrome. On a Sunday, Headcorn is very active for private general aviation: usually, a wide range of small light aircraft operate there, from vintage warbirds to modern microlights and everything in between.
As well as AF, I also wanted to test how slow I could set the shutter speed while still getting sharp images reliably with blurred backgrounds. Here, it is not the AF system that is limiting but the movement of the aircraft. On a grass strip, aircraft bounce as they run along: smooth horizontal panning cannot capture all the aircraft's movement. There are other factors too: vibration in the aircraft; parallax effects on the relative motion of different parts of a close aircraft; movements of control surfaces etc., quite aside from wobbly hands.
I won't put too many pictures in here except to say that using the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 E FL lens with the Monster adapter and Sony Alpha-1 worked pretty much perfectly. I had no problems at all with focusing for the whole time I was there. I used AF-C with either zone focus or tracking spot L: they were equally effective.
Usually, using my D810 with the 70-200, I find that in any short burst of panning pictures at 1/80 sec of an aircraft taking off, at least one will be nicely sharp. At 1/125 sec, I would expect more than that for most small light aircraft. For slowly taxiing aircraft, I was routinely able to use 1/60th sec. With the Nikon–Monster–Sony combination, my experience was pretty much identical. I've put the shutter speeds with the pictures here to indicate what gave reproducibly sharp results.
Boeing Stearman (G-NZSS) taking off, 1/80 sec
The Cessna Caravan of the Headcorn Parachute Club taking off fully laden with self-unloading freight, 1/125 sec
Twin-seat Spitfire TR9 (G-CICK) of Aero Legends, 1/80 sec
Piper L21B Super Cub (G-BMKB), 1/60th sec
Thruxton Jackaroo (G-AOIR) taxies after landing, 1/80 sec
Stampe SV-4B (G-AYIJ) 1/80 sec
Summary
Before going any further: I must reiterate that I have only tried the LA-FE1 on the Alpha-1, which has Sony's best AF system. I have no idea whether comparable results could be obtained with any other Sony camera.
The LA-FE1 does work for birds in flight on the Alpha-1 with the Nikon 500mm PF lens, but it gives a lower keeper rate than with a modern DSLR of the D5/6–D500–D850 generation. One other feature lacking from the LA-FE1 that is essential for any bird photographer is weather sealing. There are no rubber gaskets on the LA-FE1, and I'd hesitate to take it out on a day when it is likely to rain.
If you want to move to Sony for BIF with the Alpha-1, keeping your 500 mm PF lens and using the LA-FE1 is certainly possible. But in my view, it would only be a stopgap until you can afford a native Sony lens (e.g. the 200-600 mm). Nevertheless, I'm keeping the 500 mm PF lens for occasions when I want to carry less weight than the 200-600 mm lens, and when perched birds are the quarry. Alternatively, if the Sony 200-600 is unavailable (or has stopped working for any reason) the 500PF makes an excellent backup.
For aircraft, it is a different story. I've been pleased with how well both the 500 mm f/5.6 PF and the 70-200 mm f/2.8 E FL lenses work for aircraft. I found it very difficult to distinguish success rates with these lenses when using the LA-FE1–Alpha-1 from those on my D810. I even think that combination has advantages over the Nikon FTZ–Z7(II) (at least with the firmware versions I have used in the past).
For a day out photographing aircraft where I know that I will only need a 500 mm focal length, and when I know I am likely to be on my feet a lot, I would have no hesitation taking the 500PF–LA-FE1 with the Alpha-1 (weather permitting). Except for rare instances (for instance, capturing the precise overlap of two fast jets in an opposition pass), a maximum of nine frames per second is fine.
A special mention must be made for the Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 E FL lens. I have found this lens works amazingly well with the LA-FE1. There's nothing I have done with it so far where it has not performed admirably, whether in AF-S or AF-C mode. Tracking autofocus seems to work extremely well. I've not yet had a portrait session using it, so that remains to be seen. But for landscape, still life and aircraft, I will not hesitate to use it. Clearly, the new Sony 70-200 mm f/2.8 GMII has a lot of advantages, but that comes at such a cost that I'm going to stick with the Nikon lens for the foreseeable future (especially as I'm keeping my Nikon DSLRs).
The Sony Alpha-1 is one of the three best cameras in the world at the moment. The Sony lens ecosystem is excellent, but it has some missing elements. There is no lens comparable to the Nikon 500mm f/5.6 PF lens, and the LA-FE1 makes it possible to use that lens on the Alpha-1, albeit with some limitations for bird photography. Extra options are always good, and the LA-FE1 provides some.