Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: Endeavour on December 19, 2018, 12:43:00 pm
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I'm looking to expand my portfolio by including astro shots; milkyway plus night sky with foreground landscape etc.
These will be blown up and printed for sale.
I'll mostly be shooting on my existing Canon 1d4 but if I get on with it and I enjoy the process (night times in the Canadian dark spots can get chilly) then I may well upgrade to a more dedicated setup (i.e. Nikon D810a)
I also have an ioptron star tracker for long exposures.
I'm looking for sharp across the frame as much as possible without coma (isnt everyone?) because I will hopefully be printing large (A3+)
so onto my question regarding lenses: lots of googling throws up lens recommendations and then go on to talk about coma and the need to step down (thus negating the point of getting a wide aperture lens in the first place)
But the Sigma Art range f/1.4 seem to be mentioned a lot, and favouribly
Are they out performing the offerings from Canon?
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The sigma 14 & 20mm are fast and excellent. I'll mention that I don't think you'll see much of the milky way in winter in Canada.
Kent in SD
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The sigma 14 & 20mm are fast and excellent. I'll mention that I don't think you'll see much of the milky way in winter in Canada.
Kent in SD
heh, no maybe not, but I can still practice and get some nice star shots until it becomes accesible again (when the storms turn up and ruin my plans)
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The best Sigma might be the new 40mm lens 1.4 ART.
Sigma says it is there best ART
no coma even wide open....
https://www.lenstip.com/548.7-Lens_review-Sigma_A_40_mm_f_1.4_DG_HSM_Coma__astigmatism_and_bokeh.html
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The best Sigma might be the new 40mm lens 1.4 ART.
Sigma says it is there best ART
no coma even wide open....
https://www.lenstip.com/548.7-Lens_review-Sigma_A_40_mm_f_1.4_DG_HSM_Coma__astigmatism_and_bokeh.html
Not sure I'd want a lens that long for sky shots unless I was doing a lot of stitching.
Kent in SD
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All telescopes stitch...
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All telescopes stitch...
Way to go! ;)
Cheers,
Bernard
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The dpreview astrophotography forum has at least one thread about the new Sigma Art 40 f/1.4, which would seem to be an ideal lens for multi-row panorama astro-landscape photography. Roger Clark of Clarkvision.com, one of the geekier astrophotography instructional sites (for lovers of sensor performance graphs, tables of lens clear aperture, etc), is very enthusiastic about the Sigma Art 105 mm f/1.4, having used it for this last year's Perseids.
I haven't checked out Cloudy Nights forums recently, but I imagine that there are some lens testing threads there too.
I do like my Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4, and it has low coma at f/2.0. Rarely do I manage to take it to a dark enough site (Bortle 3 to 4, minimum 2 hours from home) to benefit from f/1.4 - I did so this last year's Perseids, and was rewarded with several faint meteors as well as two relatively bright ones.
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Early test show that the Nikon 50mm f1.8 S may be excellent as well in terms of coma control.
Marianne Oelund called the test results “never seen before”.
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62087114
Cheers,
Bernard
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I think you need to look at specific lenses within the sigma art range. The reviews are very different for coma depending on which one you examine. My friend on canon swears by the IRIX 15mm. Others I know like the rokinon/samyang lenses but go through several copies to get a good one.
Sometimes I wonder, but does any non-photographer, ever complain about "coma" (or other aberrations)? The "coma" actually makes the stars appear bigger which is appealing when viewing the image as a whole.
Which ioptron tracker are you using? and do you use the counterweight? One more thing to consider is that the sigma lenses are generally heavy and make using a tracker a bit more cumbersome (especially if you don't use a counterweight).
Regarding focal length, if you are doing any kind of near/far composition then the longer lenses will be a pain because you will frequently need to focus stack for critical sharpness. Or blend in a blue hour shot a smaller aperture. By long I mean anything > 24mm.
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Sigma Art 20mm1.4. Terrible coma till around f 3.5
Sigma Art 24mm 1.4 terrible coma till around f 4.5
Sigma Art 45mm 1.4 very low coma f1.4. Excellent from 1.8 out
I own all of these. And have used them extensively for night work.
I have not used the new 14mm.
Best lens I have is the Nikon 14-24. Only f2.8 but coma free. Used with D810 A
Check out www.lenstip.com. Great site and his review always includes a coma test.
Paul C