A few weeks ago I happened to take my first helicopter tour in New York City and I thought I would share a short guide that helps those considering taking their own helicopter tour. I wouldn't call myself an expert on this, but after three times (so far) I've learned quickly how to do it and what's useful for others considering this. I plan to update this with additional information as I take more flight tours, in the event I find other useful things worth sharing here.

Some of the points may overlap into other points and that's because they do all run together, but certain things I wanted to elaborate on and have a bit more specific details to each particular area.

NOTE: Use the images in this article to help you as well. I've included the full EXIF information for these select images as well.

Sony α1 + Sonnar 1.8/55mm, ISO 1250, f/2, 1/1000th secs | Full resolution image

1. Know Flight Route with Chosen Company & Photos You Want

Knowing what flight path your helicopter tour company is flying will be very essential for knowing the kinds of images you could potentially capture and the particular equipment you may need for your chosen flight.

With my tour with FlyNYON I chose to do the full Classic tour, which flew across Central Park and Midtown Manhattan, before flying South to lower Manhattan. I didn't necessarily care for this part of the city, but for my first flights I decided to do this one for all three and enjoy the unique view over Manhattan. Future ones I only plan to do the Experience tour, which focuses on lower Manhattan and is a shorter flight.

In determining what you want to capture beforehand will make deciding from a more expensive experience to choosing one that costs a bit less, but is focused on an area you may only want photos of to begin with. I knew going in that my focus was lower Manhattan and wanting images of the One World Trade Center tower in particular. I would have loved up close images of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, but due to ordinances in the city they're now forbidden from flying that close to the buildings. If you want to capture them you must utilize a longer telephoto lens. This is why knowing these things in advance will be advantageous.

Sony α1 + ZEISS Batis 2/25mm, ISO 2000, f/2.5, 1/400th secs | Full resolution image

2. Good Quality Lenses (Fast Aperture Lenses Are A Plus)

I'm constantly debated online about the usage of quality lenses (which are usually expensive lenses), as opposed to cheaper alternatives. For something like this you certainly want to have the best quality lenses you can possibly obtain! If you don't have the money for higher quality gear then rent any gear you may need!

This is a unique experience and for some this may be a one time thing. You want to make sure you capture the highest quality images you can! I also recommend those quality lenses being fast aperture lenses! Lenses that are at least f/2.8 apertures will be your best friend. Faster optics will be an even greater advantage to you, such as an f/2 or f/1.8 aperture lens.

I captured images during one day time, two sunsets, and a nighttime flight. The day and sunset flights were certainly more forgiving, due to there being sunlight (or more light in general) available. The night time flight is where that good glass really shows its worth. You're going to be utilizing very high ISO ranges and you need lenses that can take advantage of your camera sensors capabilities and be able to obtain quality images with the higher ISOs. The longer your focal length the more you'll need to have a faster shutter speed and that may come down to ISO. You'll mostly be at a wide aperture to begin with (this is okay as the distance is so far on a helicopter tour that depth of field isn't a major issue, the further of a distance you are from a subject) and you'll need to have a fast enough shutter and you'll have to increase ISO.

For the day time flight I was around ISO 400. Day time flights are typically recommended for first timers because of the ease factor for photos. You'll even be able to come away stopping down your aperture for even sharper images if you wanted, like the below image. For the sunset flights I was able to go as low as ISO 1,250 and still maintain a shutter speed fast enough to account for the speed of the helicopter and any kind of shaking of my body from the helicopter (I also had to maintain a wide open aperture for these unlike the day time). For the night flight I was around ISO 6,400. I needed more in ISO, especially with utilizing an 85mm lens and for the sunset flights I utilized a 25mm and 55mm lens. The 25mm would be the easier lens, being the wider choice (wider lenses can have slower shutter speeds than longer range lenses).

Sony α1 + ZEISS Batis 1.8/85mm, ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/2500th secs | Full resolution image

3. Lenses Tighter Than 25mm

On my first flight I decided to use a 25mm (on a full frame camera) and I discovered while using that lens that it was the widest that you could utilize without cropping your images. The reason for this? I was capturing the helicopter blades in many of my images and I needed to crop the blades out of some of my images. Any wider than this I didn't find necessary and you're perfectly fine with a lens like a 24-70mm, if you simply wanted to have the most versatile choice. If you want to go with a prime lens then I'd recommend 25mm being the widest you'd probably want. Of course, this will depend on the helicopter tour you take and how far or close you may be able to get to certain locations or simply the type of composition you want. For some other flights I took my prime ZEISS 85 (such as the above image) to have nice up-close images of the One World Trade Center tower.

For this specific flight tour I found the 55mm lens to be the best lens option. It was still wide enough for some of the scenic images I wanted, but tight enough to give the compression and allowing the buildings to look more closer in the frame than the day the 25mm lens was utilized.

I was asked if a lens with a wider range was better than a fast aperture lens and I personally would recommend the wider aperture lens, just because you'll want the low light advantage. If you have a high megapixel camera then you'll be able to crop in a bit if needed and obtain more of the composition you'd want. That's why I chose primes and selected the Sony Alpha 1, for being a 50MP camera sensor.

Sony α1 + ZEISS Batis 2/25mm, ISO 2000, f/2.2, 1/500th secs | Full resolution image

4. Good ISO Performing Camera

I mentioned earlier how ISO will be an important factor on a helicopter tour (primarily the sunset and nighttime flights). If you're photographing during the day then this won't be a major issue for you and won't matter as much on your cameras ISO capability. If you are doing sunset and night then you absolutely want to have a good camera that performs very well at high ISO. Normally I would recommend a camera like the Sony Alpha 7S III, but the 12MP sensor I wouldn't want for these kinds of images. 24MP would be my minimum, but the Sony Alpha 7R III, Sony Alpha 1 and the Sony Alpha 7R IV for instance are the highest megapixel cameras for Sony and typically with higher MP camera you will have an increase in noise, but the quality lenses will help in capturing the fine details at those higher ISOs. There are some great programs with DeNoise, such as Adobe Lightroom. With that feature it really cleaned up many of my nighttime images to make them more usable than before! Of course, this more useful the better the detail is and that means having good glass!

Your camera will only be as good as the lenses you attach and the combination you put together will matter tremendously. Yes, you may have more affordable lenses that do a decent job and you find to take quality images, but there's a reason there are lenses that are $300 and lenses that are $2,000. The optics are simply better and you want the best for this. This isn't something most could do a redo of and having everything perfect on the first go will be crucial.

Sony α1 + Sonnar 1.8/55mm, ISO 1250, f/2, 1/640th secs | Full resolution image

5. Utilize Burst Mode (Fast FPS Cameras Are A Plus)

This will perhaps be the only time you'll ever read an article that specifies burst mode photographing. If this is your first flight then you want to utilize this! A camera with a higher FPS burst rate will be very useful, allowing you to come away with many good frames. There's a lot of movement taking place and a lot of uncertainties on these tours where you won't be taking images one frame after another.

I chose the Sony Alpha 1 for its megapixel count and fps (frames per second) capability of 30 fps (with the lenses I'm utilizing I'm only able to go up to 20 fps, the same as my Sony Alpha 9). In a set of frames I obtained quite a few that were slightly out of focus and a few in between them that were perfectly in focus. If I utilized a slower camera I more than likely wouldn't have come away with as many keepers as I did. Yes, I did have many images to sift through and that's okay. I wanted to make sure that every opportunity I had to be on a flight I was coming away with great images.

You want to make sure you're using AF-C (accounting for the continuous movement) and I'd recommend the zone focus area. I went outside of my normal usage of flexible spot, but I didn't want to use the full wide focus area, as I do like to maintain control of where my focus is in the image. I find that with zone focus area you still have some control, which wide doesn't really give you.

Sony α1 + Sonnar 1.8/55mm, ISO 2000, f/2.5, 1/1250th secs | Full resolution image

6. Crop or Full Frame Camera

This is an essential thing to consider. Crop cameras give you the added benefit of reach with typically smaller lighter lenses, compared to that of the full frame sensors. Full frame sensors however will give you the better low light capability. If you're utilizing a 24MP sensor on both cameras the full frame will perform better, due to the individual pixels being more spaced out and larger on the sensor and being able to obtain more light on each pixel.

As far as which one is better will be up to you to decide between. It will depend on the types of images you're wanting to obtain to which system makes the most sense. There will be pros and cons to both systems. I personally chose full frame for the low light capability. I knew I would be at higher ISOs and I wanted a better overall image and full frame would give me a much better image quality.

I mentioned earlier in this article that you can rent any gear that you need. If you don't have something, then simply rent it. Have what you want or need for your experience and it will save you a lot in the end.

Click to read my article on "What camera should you buy?"

Sony α1 + ZEISS Batis 1.8/85mm, ISO 6400, f/1.8, 1/500th secs | Full resolution image

7. Determine Your Optimal Megapixel Choice

There are a lot of cameras out on the market and they range from around 12MPs to 100MPs and maybe even higher than that. I mentioned how the sensor of your camera plays a big part in your image quality. The megapixel count for that specific sensor will also be a factor from one camera sensor to the other. An APS-C sensor will perform better than micro 4/3rds at high ISOs, just as full frame will perform better than APS-C and so forth.

I wanted to have as much detail as I could, while being able to crop images if needed (which I had to do for the day I chose the 25mm lens, eliminating the helicopter blades in some of the images). I also wanted to have that detail, as my intentions are to sell prints of the images I was taking on these various flight tours. 12MP can still print a very large image, but I specifically utilize larger megapixel cameras for my more "epic" images in landscapes and architecture.

Your needs will differ from mine, but the safe area to be in is at least utilizing a camera with a 24MP sensor. Again, 12MP isn't terrible and on a camera like the Sony Alpha 7S III you do have that low light advantage. That may be the most important factor to you and with a telephoto lens you may not need to ever crop your photos, leaving you with the full 12MP image.

Sony α1 + ZEISS Batis 2/25mm, ISO 2500, f/2.2, 1/640th secs | Full resolution image

Hopefully these things help you in capturing your helicopter tour images. These are points I felt were most important to me to share with my general audience and could possibly be helpful for those taking a tour. I went ahead and made the investment to do several flights, allowing me to do this trial-and-error experience for you and allowing all of you to just go out there and take great images on your initial flight!

Here's the full gear list of what I used for my flights, in the event you want quick access links to these exact items:

• Sony Alpha 1
• ZEISS Batis 2/25mm
• Sony/ZEISS 1.8/55mm
• ZEISS Batis 1.8/85mm

I’d love to see your results, so be sure to share them with me on Instagram!

ADOBE LIGHTROOM & PHOTOSHOP PRESETS | FINE ART LIMITED EDITION PRINT GALLERY

Sony α1 + ZEISS Batis 1.8/85mm, ISO 500, f/6.3, 1/4000th secs | Full resolution image

Sony α1 + Sonnar 1.8/55mm, ISO 1250, f/2.8, 1/500th secs | Full resolution image

Sony α1 + Sonnar 1.8/55mm, ISO 10000, f/1.8, 1/400th secs | Full resolution image