Monster Adapter LA-FZ1 (v1.2 firmware) & Nikon 180mm 2.8 AF

This is my first follow up article to my Monster Adapter LA-FZ1 overview/review article here, as well as my wider Monster LA-FZ1 experiences. As I said in that article, I currently have a 8 Nikon AF and AF-D lenses, some of which work better than others on the adapter. It’s also the case that when the adapter receives an update, how well the individual lenses work improves. As such, I will just continue to create little posts like this one documenting experiences with some of the lenses on the adapter.

In this post I am going to talk about the Nikon 180mm 2.8 AF. There’s actually three versions of this lens, there’s the first ‘AF’ version which has a more shiny out casing, there’s second ‘AF’ version that has the mottled/textured outer casing and the third ‘AF-D’ version that also has the textured finish but also has the ‘D’ in nomenclature which stands for ‘distance’ and is to do with the communication of focused distance information between lens and camera for the benefit of improved exposure when using flash.

My version is the second version so has the textured outer housing but doesn’t have the ‘D’ in the nomenclature or function. You can read about the different versions here. I mention the different versions as I don’t know specifically if how they work on the LA-FZ1 differs. As such it’s probably best to assume that this specifically relates to the version I have, but also very possibly gives a good impression of how other versions might work too.

For what it’s worth, the Nikon 180 2.8 AF is one of my favourite lenses. I had pretty serious GAS for one for a long time, but due to the longer focal length, I often set aside an option to buy it in favour of something else I deemed more “useful”. In hindsight, this feels like it was a bit of a daft thing to have done as now I have it, every time I use it, I love the results. I will at some point publish a few retrospective 5 frames articles about it as I got some lovely photos with it last year.

Of course, since I sold my Nikon Df and D700 it’s seen a little less use. I’ve not used it at all on my F100 yet – though I do have some plans for a slightly unusual roll of film I want to run through the combo (a story for another day). It’s also probably the main reason I want the Monster Adapter LA-FZ1 to work well on the Zf. The 85mm 1.8 AF-D is another favourite, but the 180mm is a lot harder to replace as Nikon hasn’t made a compact 180mm fixed focal length lens since, and there’s nothing in the same focal length from 3rd parties either – not that I can think of at least.

Of course there are plenty of 70-200 zoom lenses, Nikon even now make a more budget friendly 70-180 for the Z system, but I find I thrive on the limitation of the fixed focal length. More specifically, I’ve found in recent years that a rule of zooms (and admittedly the occasional prime) for pro work and primes for hobby just fits me and how I like to shoot. This lens is very much a lens of my hobby, as such I can deal with – and in fact enjoy – the limitations of it being a prime lens, and I can even deal with the autofocus not being perfect. I don’t need a lens like this to work perfectly, I don’t even really need it to work to its original spec and terms of speed or reliable accuracy… but I do need it to work in what I defined in my previous post as an “expected way”, i.e. when the AF in the camera is activated, I want the lens seek and find focus within a relatively short amount of time without too much issue.

The Nikon 180mm 2.8 AF & Monster Adapter LA-FZ1

I would say that this Nikon 180mm 2.8 AF is probably the worst functioning out of all of my AF and AF-D lenses when mounted on the Monster Adapter LA-FZ1, but it does just about work. The samples below show success, but as you will note, the subject matter is relatively still.

I will at some point write a post about how I have my Zf set up in terms of its AF functionality, but the short version is that I have the AF activation separated from the shutter button. It doesn’t have an AF-On button (annoyingly), nut I have made it work for me using the Fn button on the front. Because of this, I have the camera set to AF-C all the time – meaning whenever I press and hold the Fn button the AF works continuously to find a point of focus until I let go. I mention this, as it possibly puts the AF functionality of the adapter under a little more strain as it doesn’t just work until it finds focus then locks, it is constantly correcting.

The difference between good AF and less good AF under these circumstances is how quickly and accurately the correction happens without the lens going out of focus too much and it hunting to get back. With the 180mm on the adapter, it goes in and out of focus a lot, and when out of focus it often has to hunt a lot to get focus back. sometimes going fairly wildly out of focus and finding quite a bit of an issue finding it again. This gets increasingly worse as the light gets lower to the point that eventually in even just moderately low light it barely works at all. It also does all this a lot slower, and weirdly with a lot more of a squealing noise than I am used to from this lens.

The biggest issue though is probably the fact that when focusing from one extreme to the other of the lenses range, even in perfect light, the adapter/lens really struggles. So if for e.g. the lens is focused close to infinity then it’s required to focus to near the closest focus distance, it just can’t manage it – it doesn’t even hunt, or really attempt to find focus, it just makes an uncomfortable sounding but entirely ineffective attempt, and totally fails to do anything useful. The only solutions are to either focus on something at something maybe 4-5m away, or to help the lens by manually focusing closer to the point of required focus, and then attempt the closer focusing again.

Sample photos

In summary

As of version 1.2 firmware, the Nikon 180mm 2.8 AF does work on the Monster Adapter LA-FZ1, but it is probably fair to say that it doesn’t work particularly well. I love this lens enough to persevere, and I am definitely happy with the results I achieved, and actually didn’t find it too onerous in use. But yeah, it would definitely be great to see the next firmware update bringing some improvement to how well this particular lens works!

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