Startrails

[Paulo Bizarro]

I have been trying out several wide angle lenses on my Sony A7. This weekend I managed to borrow a friend's Nikon 20 f1.8, a recent release. I also managed to spend the weekend in an area I simply love, southwest Portugal's coast.

So I went out at night with my daughter, set up the gear, programmed the camera for about two hours cumulative time. Each shot was 30 sec, ISO 1600. Now, aperture was just a nudge away from wide open on the Novoflex adaptor. At first, it is a bit disconcerting not knowing the actual aperture, but after a while, one gets used to it.

Focusing manually with the lens is not as difficult; of course the feel of the manual focus ring is not that great, there is no hard stop at infinity, and so on. But with zoom in the live view at 10X, it is easy enough to achieve focus on a bright star.

Since I arrived at arounf 9.30 pm, when it was not fully dark yet, I tried some landscape shots with the lens a bit stopped down. The lens is very good, sharp into corners and edges, and with surprisingly little barrel distortion on the horizon line.

I also shot some Milky Way photos, to try some panoramas, still working on those.

All in all, this seems to be a great lens: high performance, light, and not  too expensive.

Regards.

[JohnBrew]

Thank you, Paolo. The startrails image is a good one. I've always been fascinated by startrails and the adjustments necessary to record them. I rarely get the opportunity to shoot them, but when conditions are right I give it a try.

[churly]

Not being a real fan of star trails I prefer the first shot which is very evocative for me.  I like the composition and can smell the surf.

[MTGFender]

Nice pictures. I'd like to see more details of the foreground on the second picture.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Not being a real fan of star trails I prefer the first shot which is very evocative for me.  I like the composition and can smell the surf.

I like this particular area very much, and always go back to it. Now, to get down to this beach, it takes some scrambling down, it is not easy:)

[Paulo Bizarro]

Nice pictures. I'd like to see more details of the foreground on the second picture.

Thanks. I have room to open up the shadows a bit more, but I decided against it, to my eyes it ruins the "mood" of the shot.

[Hidden Grid]

First image is stunning!
Second is astounding!(How did you get the curved star streams?)

[Paulo Bizarro]

First image is stunning!
Second is astounding!(How did you get the curved star streams?)

Thanks.

Startrails are actually not difficult to obtain. You basically shoot a lot of say 30 sec exposures with the lens wide open and high ISO, and later stack them in appropriate programs (I like StarStaX).

I like the following site a lot for learning:

http://starcircleacademy.com/quick-tips/

[luxborealis]

Great work, Paulo.