Which lens for star photography?

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 MikeR 17 Aug 2015
Hi all,

I had my first go at doing some star photography last week during the Perseid meteor shower, with mixed results. I had planned to stack a series of photos to reduce the noise, but haven't realised I was supposed to take dark frames, plus when I stacked them together the foreground was all blurry. However, I did manage to get some nice single frame shots. I was using a 60D with a 15-85mm f/3.5 lens.

It is something if like to get into more, particularly as one of the guys I was out with got some amazing shots. As I have a birthday coming up I'm thinking of getting a better lens for this sort of thing. Does anyone have any recommendations? I've been looking at the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and the Samyang 16mm f/2.0 (my camera is a cropped frame senser), am particularly drawn towards the Samyang, but open to suggestions.
In reply to davidbeynon:

nice images
 AdrianC 17 Aug 2015
In reply to MikeR:

Had the same question recently and also went for the Tokina for the 11mm capability (I'm also using a crop-sensor.) I think being restricted to 16mm is a high price to pay for f/2.0. Some pics here...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63191472@N04/18876098650/in/album-72157654930...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/63191472@N04/18441297034/in/album-72157654930...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/63191472@N04/19126655161/in/album-72157652686...
 mr rob 17 Aug 2015
OP MikeR 18 Aug 2015
In reply to AdrianC:

Thanks for the replies. Some nice photos there.

I guess the next question is, would the Tokina get me that much better results than my current lens (see my OP) to make it worth the money?

This is one of the better shots I managed to get the other night. OK for a first attempt I thought.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132072232@N02/20486242640/in/dateposted-publi...
 AdrianC 18 Aug 2015
In reply to MikeR:

I also had the 15-85 as my start point (it's still the kens I use by far the most day to day) and the improvements I noticed with the Tokina were that at f/2.8 and 11 mm I get away with a shorter exposure and there's less zoom so the stars look more like points rather than the slightly elongated effect you get with a 30 s exposure at 15 mm. Plus you get more sky into your shot, of course!
 James Rushforth Global Crag Moderator 18 Aug 2015
In reply to MikeR:

I can't help too much with the lenses for a crop frame (and you seem to have got good advice here already) but if you've not already have a look at: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6741

There really is very little little need to stack photos unless you're doing deep space photography (in conjunction with a sky tracker) or unless you're planning on creating star trails. The simplest and best way to deal with noise is to remove it in Camera RAW (PS or LR) using the luminance noise slider (zoom in to at least 100%), 50% normally works well without compromising sharpness too much.

Feel free to experiment with 'long exposure noise reduction' (the dark frames you were talking about) but in my experience it's a mixed bag, even with an expensive camera.

Have fun!
OP MikeR 18 Aug 2015
In reply to AdrianC:

Thanks for the info, I'm very tempted to get this lens. Do you ever use it for general landscape stuff as well?
OP MikeR 18 Aug 2015
In reply to James Rushforth:

Hi James,
Thanks for the advice, that's interesting. I've not got PS or LR yet, but am thinking it's something I should get. I've never used either so I guess I'd need to find some online tutorials.

I've read your article a couple of time. Great article, it's really helpful and inspiring to get out and take some shots. Thanks a lot for writing it.
 James Rushforth Global Crag Moderator 18 Aug 2015
In reply to MikeR:

No problem, I'm glad it came in useful

If you can afford it I'd def recommend taking a look at PS or LR combined with taking photos in RAW format. Post processing is very much an essential part of night sky photography.

I'm no good for recommending crop frame lenses but essentially you want something as wide and fast as possible.

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