Is 400mm enough for planespotting/ aviation photography?

Hi,

I have the longer 150-600mm lens but mostly don't like to deal with it because of its bulk and size. Since I feel the sharpness of the lens drastically drops beyond 450mm (as per my tests with fighter jets/ commercial airplanes), so I'm thinking of going with a telezoom having max focal length upto 400mm.

Please suggest if max focal length of 400mm would be enough for aviation photography in most cases

Hi., my opion is that zoom lense NEVER outperform in terms of sharpnes fixed glas. I had only fixed 300 mm and most of my pictures are made with it. I was fully satisfied. To get higher mumber ,it is good idea to take TC 1,4... not more. I was not satisfied with combimnation 300 with TC 2. If you have Nikon never mix original Nikor glas with nonoriginal ( let say Sigma) TC. Hunting in low light condition is present.

If you have Nikon i would recomend you NEW 300 with VR. Very sharp, lightweight, small, handy glas.

BR Igor

Thank you for the suggestion. I was wondering if I want to exchange my tamron 150-600mmm for Nikon80-400mm- any thoughts on this??

Look at http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Nikon/Nikon-AF-VR-Zoom-Nikkor-80-400mm-F45-56D-ED---Measurements .... Field map. Using F5,6 focal 400 is not very sharp ..

I have tried various lenses and found that 400mm is enough for most airshows, if mobility and weight is a concern.However, I bought myself the new Sigma 150-600 mm Sports lens and am impressed. While it is a beast to carry, you are fine with a good tripod (Gitzo, Manfrotto) and a Wimberley gimbal head at airshows. This combination gave me some excellent results from 150 to its max of 600mm!