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Author Topic: Astro/night wide field photography gear - best fast lens, low noise combo..  (Read 5550 times)

robdickinson

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I shot this last week on a canon g16 and it got me thinking.


Gibraltar Rock nightscape by robjdickinson, on Flickr

I used a Gigapan epic pro and shot 8 frames for this. Its noisy at 100% but the results surprised me and its easily as good as a single frame from a FF SLR (if you could frame this in one frame) - the result image is about 10,000x4300 but really would work at 5000px wide.

+ Gigapan epic pro is large and bulky, and not cheap.


** So the challenge - find an efficient sensor small camera and very high quality fast lens in the 30-50mm (ff terms) or so focal range to run on a cheaper gigapan 100.

Now I am not worried about size of sensor. Why? because with a smaller sensor I will just need more frames (within reason). This negates the size of sensor somewhat but not the need for a good lens.. I obviously dont want to spend 5 hours shooting a night panoramic so a very small sensor and 400mm lens wont workk..:D

The lens needs to be good at f2.0 I think (say a 1.4 prime). Good as in low CA, no coma, low vignetting. Not too bothered about sharpness, I expect it would be fine for any lens. Lens can be manual focus (actually preferred!)

If the ideal solution is a 35 or 50 on a 6d then fine, am suspecting a crop body ( nikon D3100?) could possibly be a better option, or even a nex 5 or something.

I know a FF sensor is usually twice as good as a crop (one stop+) but remember I will be taking more shots with the cropper so its more down to efficiency...

Thoughts?

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Fine_Art

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Id say the D600 with the Sigma 35 1.4 art lens. The large 6 micron pixels on the D600 are going to give you the dark noise free sky you want.
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robdickinson

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I'd go with a 6d over a d600 , prefer canon have canon lenses, and there isnt much difference between the two at higher iso.

Was thinking FF prime on smaller sensor would give better results skipping the poorer corners of the lens

Think I will get a sigma 35 anyhow looks a great lens.
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Telecaster

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Since you're considering Canon gear foremost I'd look into the 60Da. You may not need the extended longer wavelength sensitivity it offers, but it wouldn't hurt either for nebulæ & such. No idea, though, about the sensor's QE & noise characteristics.

That's a darn good photo, BTW, Gigapan assembly or no.

-Dave-
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NancyP

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I have the Canon 6D, which is great for astro-landscape. It has flawless performance at ISO 1600, and a reasonable amount of noise at ISO 6400, easily fixable. The Samyang series of manual focus lenses are particularly well suited for astro-landscape due to their relatively low level of coma when compared with brand name lenses at the same wide apertures. Lots of APS-C shooters use the Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye and lots of FF shooters use the Samyang 14mm f/2.8, both filling their respective frames. The 14mm is more-or-less rectilinear; I usually shoot at f/3.5 to f/4 for best sharpness and no coma. If you want a good astro-landscape lens that also has AF, you could use the Sigma 35mm f/1.4, with mild FF corner coma at f/2.0, zip coma at f/2.8. It is a fine lens, and note that its coma is less obvious than the Canon L 1.4. If you already have my dream landscape lens the Zeiss Distagon 21mm f/2.8, that works very well at f/2.8. All the legacy MF film era lenses I have around 50-60mm have significant coma at f/1.4 to f/2.8, and the best of the lot I have is the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AIS at f/4, still a little extreme corner coma (not objectionable, unlike the huge wings at f/1.2), but really sharp. (I like fooling around with the lens at f/1.2 for usual photography).You will have to ask around for info on modern 50-60mm lenses, which are more likely to be better corrected for coma. Jerry Lodriguess recommends the Plastic Fantastic/ Nifty Fifty Canon 50mm f/1.8 II ($125.00), and has a list of useful lenses on his web site. A good lens resource for coma information is the Lenstip review site.

If you want a dual-use astro-landscape and through-telescope camera, there are some compromises to be made. 95% of astronomers using DSLRs purchased to use with telescopes will have Canons, largely due to a hugely popular free computer program, Backyard EOS, that automates taking of subs, darks, biases, flats, etc., and also due to the large number of used Rebels out there which can be had very cheaply and adapted to full-spectrum/ hydrogen III sensitive by replacing the IR cut filter over the sensor (costs about $300.00 from most services). The noise issue for astronomers is best dealt with by taking large numbers of subs (the scene) and darks (lens cap on, camera at same ambient temp and same time as was used for the subs) and using computational means to eliminate random noise and bad pixels.
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robdickinson

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I should point out I normally shoot astro with a 5d2 , I have a samyang 14mm, 24mm tsemkII and 17-40, 50/1.4 sigma.

I will probably upgrade to a 6d at some point soon anyhow, but possibly the A7r instead..

Will do some lens research. 50mm is probably max on a ff slr, 35 on a crop...
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