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
Having shown previously that the combination of the Sony Alpha 1 – Monster Adapter LA-FE1 – Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 E FL works quite well for propeller aircraft, I wanted to investigate how it works with jet aircraft. That Nikon 70-200 is one of my all time favourite lenses and I want to find out what else I can get out of it on the Sony system.
As I mentioned in the last entry, the problem with prop planes on grass strips is that all sorts of factors — aircraft bouncing on the strip, parallax effects and more — lead to a low success rate when panning with the aircraft's motion. Correspondingly, I could not truly tell how reliably the combination worked when smoothly panning with the movement of the subject. But compared to a native Nikon camera-lens combination, it seemed more-or-less in the same ballpark.
To investigate this further, I took myself off to Heathrow to photograph jets coming in to land. Heathrow is extremely busy, and aircraft are constantly coming in on the same flight path, meaning that some reproducible testing is possible.
The day I went up last week, the aircraft were landing on runway 27L, meaning that standing on the famous spot by Myrtle Avenue, I could get in a short burst pictures on a different aircraft every minute or so.
I set the Alpha-1 to continuous low speed (5 fps) and tried out Zone focus (tracking off) to start with and subsequently Tracking Spot L. Having got a good session in with the adapted combination, I switched over to using the Sony 70-200mm f/4 lens for a broader comparison.
To cut a long story short, the adapted combination generally worked fine. For every aircraft I tried, I was able to get critically sharp pictures with the subject in a nice pose.
This composite image shows details (100% crops) of each of three different Virgin Atlantic Dreamliners (top to bottom G-VMAP, G-VOOH and G-VNEW), taken from 6 sequential frames from individual bursts. Click to embiggen and view at 100%. The lens/adapter combinations used are indicated. Both the Nikon and Sony lenses provide sharp images consistently except for image 6 on row 1, where it has slipped out of critical focus (image 5 on this row shows fractional softening too). Tracking focus kept all of this burst with the Nikon lens in focus.
Reviewing the pictures on the computer at home, I noticed a few where critical sharpness had not been maintained throughout the sequence, when viewed at 300% in Photomechanic. It was difficult to see that on the rear screen of the camera; nonetheless, all my in-camera selects (made in a few seconds between arrivals) were critically sharp.
My impression is that Tracking Spot L gave a higher rate of critically sharp pictures than Zone. I've not tried to quantify this across multiple planes (I do have a life!), but generally Zone would often give a couple more unsharp pictures somewhere in a sequence than Tracking. With tracking pretty much all were sharp in most cases. However, there is no doubt (surprise, surprise!) that the native Sony 70-200 gave a higher rate of sharp pictures than the adapted combination.
Emirates Airbus A380-842 A6-EVN taken with the Sony A1–Monster-Nikon combination. 400px image: click to embiggen.
For comparison with the Emirates aircraft, here is Quatar Airlines Airbus A380-861 A7-APJ taken with the Sony A1-Sony FE 70-200mm f/4. 4000px image: click to embiggen.
Overall, as far as I am concerned, the Sony Alpha 1 – Monster Adapter LA-FE1 – Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 E FL is a very satisfactory combination for photographing airliners in flight. As I noted previously, I was happy with it photographing propeller aircraft. I'll admit to being surprised at how well this combination works for these use-cases. Moreover, the Nikon 500PF lens worked well for fast jets at Lakenheath. I think the use of Nikon AF-S lenses of the most recent F-mount generation adapted on to the Alpha-1 via the LA-FE1 is a viable option for the aviation photographer.
Having said that, I still think this is an intermediate solution for Nikon-users moving to Sony until you can afford to get native Sony lenses. There is no doubt that to get the most out of a camera like the Alpha-1, you are going to want top-end native FE-mount lenses.
For myself, I'll keep the Monster Adapter LA-FE1 – Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 E FL combination for images that specifically demand that lens. Otherwise, the Sony 70-200mm f/4 focuses extremely reliably; it is also smaller, lighter and easier to manage. What images might specifically demand the Nikon lens? Anything that needs f/2.8, self-evidently. More than that, it is optically optically superior to the Sony lens (at the as fas as my copies are concerned). For landscapes in particular, I greatly prefer the Nikon for its better sharpness outside the central region. Update 2023-03-27: With the firmware update to v04 on the adapter, the AF performance is little different to the Sony lens, so where size and weight are not an issue, the Nikon lens will likely be in my working bag.
And finally, just a few more images to show that the Monster Adapter LA-FE1 – Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 E FL combination works well for this application reproducibly.
MEA - Middle East Airlines Airbus A330-200 OD-MEA
United Airlines Boeing 767-322ER(WL) N676UA
Air Canada Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner C-FVLU
Icelandair Boeing 757-256 TF-FIK