If you need dual use for astrophotography and visual astronomy, get an apochromatic refractor. Along with improvements in telescope mounts, camera technology, filters, and digital image processing, these have allowed amateurs to produce astrophotographs of nearly professional quality. That's roughly a 4" lens. The Moon. The 35mm lens from Rokinon has an impressive aperture. Method 3 – Astrophotography using your iPhone and telephoto lens If you’re not quite up to splurging on a telescope, you can achieve somewhat adequate iPhone astrophotography results with a telephoto lens. It's bright, it's large, it changes every day and the surface has lots of detail. Astrophotography with a Canon Telephoto Lens. One of the limiting factors is the speed of the film you use. Well, if you’ve read our explanation of telephoto lenses here, then you know that optical zoom makes sense for space photography.While there are super cheap lenses available on Amazon that claim to be astro-capable, they don’t perform up to expectations. Also, a 150-600mm lens is getting up there in size if you are looking for an equivalent telescope. Try to get your hands on a telephoto lens. By shopping around carefully I’ve amassed quite a collection, my cheapest cost me £18 while the most I’ve spent was £65. If you are doing nightscapes and night photography, you should use as wide lens as possible, and as fast as possible. In general you need a very fast speed film to do astrophotography, especially with longer focal lengths such as 300mm. A really basic choice that will mostly suit daytime phoneographers is the Olloclip Telephoto and Circular Polarizing Lens , £56, which gives you 2x magnification, so you get a little closer in … For large patches of the Milkyway and some of the largest deep-sky objects, you can use any 200+ mm telephoto lens. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14mm-24mm F 2.8 Lens The last lens in our list is the Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Standard Zoom lens. Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM. Choosing A Location For Astrophotography. This will come with added complexity and is probably beyond the range of just starting – but something to consider if you find passion in astrophotography. Most telescopes do NOT have a flat field unless you add a field flattener or unless they are specifically designed for astrophotography. Different characteristics such as focus scale and chromatic aberration are given a lot of importance which makes shopping for astrophotography lens … Zoom or fix with an f/2.8 lens speed is acceptable for an astrophotography lens, but isn’t the best choice. There are night photography and astrophotography, so somewhere in between, there is a gray area where two merges. Astrophotography is known to be a quite demanding genre of the photography that uses different characteristics and qualities of the lenses. Of course, if you are willing to pay more money, there are other trackers out there that can handle a large telephoto lens, like the Orion Sirius, or SkyWatcher HEQ-5. Best Lens for Astrophotography in 2021. What are the best, most impressive and easiest Astrophotography targets to capture all year round without a telescope? The first isn't too exciting, but it's a rather nice shot of the moon taken using the 500mm lens with a 2x multiplier. Doing Lunar Astrophotography is very simple with just a DSLR camera and a tripod. I’ve used a number of different ones of between 24mm and 200mm focal length for a variety of shots. This is a great travel lens, but it's not ideal for astrophotography. Yes, the best lens for smartphone astrophotography is a telescope; who would’ve guessed it? For the astrophotography world, the lens provides a way to get clear pictures of the night sky without having to worry about distortion. So, by looking into the previous two sections we know that the best starter lens for astrophotography is a relatively wide-angle lens with as big a clear aperture as possible. You can easily photograph many deep sky objects with just a DSLR camera and a tripod. With astrophotography, chromatic aberration is but one problem, you also must consider astigmatism, ... Return of the “Bigma” telephoto zoom lens. Astrophotography with a camera lens and a fixed tripod - Part 2. This is on paper the best lens for astrophotography today, but it does come with a few flaws: it is very big and heavy and coma correction is not exactly as perfect as you would expect. The wide aperture uses nine blades. Yes, the moon is not considered a Deep Sky Object, but we decided to include it anyway. Back To News As you will see in a minute, this lens … Sample variation can be an issue too. When the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 came along with a main camera sensor and an ultra-wide lens, astrophotography worked on both sensors, ... just like telephoto zoom lenses. Aim the telescope at a distant treetop or landmark, center that in the view, and then look through the finderscope. Best Camera Lens for Astrophotography Long ago, astrophotography equipment used to be very expensive and accessible to only astronomers. Lesson 3: Camera Features You Just Have to Know! The truth is, when I look at similar reviews for astrophotography lenses, they tend to focus solely on Milky Way photography, and nightscapes. The Best Lens for Astrophotography (You May Already Own) The Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 Camera Lens and DSLR on a Tracking Mount. I have two lenses for my Canon T3i camera, an 18-55mm and a 55-250mm. All the below images were taken with my Samyang/Rokinon 135 mm f/2 lens, Fuji X-T20 mirrorless APS-C camera, and Fornax Lightrack II tracking mount.They should give you a good perspective on which astrophotography targets are well suited for the FOV (field of view) of this 135mm focal length (APS-C) telephoto lens. The Moon shot with a Photojojo Telephoto 12x zoom lens for an iPhone There are several different sizes of zoom lens designed for smartphones that have become available in recent years. While lenses are arguably the most important part of any photographer’s setup, finding the best lens for astrophotography (or for even just moon photography) is especially vital for those wanting to delve into this style. To make your choice easier, here is my list of 10 best astrophotography lenses. The Sigma represents the best deal, when you consider the optical quality and overall performance. Here is my brief review of some Nikon lenses for telescope-free astrophotography. David If you are into astrophotography and you are on a budget, the good news is that there are many legacy lenses you could choose from to expand your equipment, particularly fast prime lenses. Vintage lenses like this can provide a very cost-effective route into astrophotography. Star trails (as shown in the images below) ... which is my most used lens for astrophotography. At higher zoom it goes down to f/5.6, which means it's fairly slow. Those blades are highly efficient, helping to increase the signal to noise ratio. If you’re looking for the best astrophotography lens, read on to learn what you should consider when choosing a lens. Canon Lenses for Astrophotography. Not anymore! Nikkor 28–300mm f/3.5–5.6 (FX)(Aperture = 8–53.6 mm). Some types of Astrophotography are doable in the middle of the city but that tends to be limited to lunar or planetary photography. Sample Astrophotography Images. I wouldn't particularly buy a telephoto lens to use solely as a refractor however if you are going to use the lens for daytime photography as well then it can make sense. Canon EOS 7D, 500/4.5L lens + 2x TC. Although I have got a Canon 300mm f/4 L IS lens I don't use it much for astrophotography, that is almost exclusively reserved for my Canon 500mm f/4 L IS lens which is much better optically. Planetary photography requires a telescope but if you have a telephoto lens of at least 300mm or so you can get some nice shots of the moon. Something to keep in mind is, just like regular photography, you don’t always want a huge telephoto lens in astrophotography. Most telephoto lenses have very little field curvature. 2. Haitong Yu: Very favourable is the lower vignetting compared to most of the other 14/15mm lenses. If you are into astrophotography or night sky photography, you are indeed at the right place. I have the Sigma (with a Sigma mount). This lens is much cheaper than some of the same-brand lenses for astrophotography, and it comes with the same level of optical performance. What to Look for in an Astrophotography Lens. This will make your … I would not recommend going this route until you've mastered astrophotography with a DSLR and telephoto lens. In fact, this could also work with your smartphone, but a digital camera works best here. With many of us stuck in lockdown, quarantine, and self-isolation, I thought I’d share 10 ideas for astrophotography that you can do from home, even if … It can zoom from a relatively wide angle 18mm to a medium telephoto 55mm. In 10 minutes with a modest telephoto lens, you can record 16th-magnitude stars. If you are looking for wide-angle lenses to help you with your Milky Way photography or just wish to capture the breathtaking view of the start sky, you certainly need to check out the best Nikon Lens for Astrophotography, most of which are available for purchase online. The Moon is probably the easiest and most interesting celestial object to photograph with a camera and lens. Our camera, bought used from eBay, came with a basic telephoto lens, the Canon 75-300mm lens which works great for the moon. Does somebody have experience with these lenses ? I also have a Celestron C6 SCT telescope, which for all intents and purposes is a 1500mm lens! This review covers the best astrophotography lenses available for amateur and professional astronomers. This lens will work well for Astrophotography but will also function for other purposes. Many lenses can be suitable for shooting the night sky – both affordable and more expensive. That’s narrowed it down significantly, but there are still plenty of options to consider. Some people complain that the focus ring on this one is too small. And DSLRs don’t require you to bring along a computer when you’re shooting the night sky. Take the very best pictures and savour lifetime moments within years to come. This could be hard when you’re out in a terrain or park but one thing you can do is to always bring a plank. The following lenses and astrophotographic performance descriptions apply to APS-sized 1.3x, 1.5x and 1.6x crop-factor sensors. 1/50s @ ISO 400. To do astrophotography with a 70-300mm lens using a film camera is a challenge, but is possible. Here are our pick for the 15 best wide-field targets with no telescope with examples for each and what lens to use! The term “legacy lens” refers to old lenses produced in the film era, such as the Canon FD or Olympus Zuiko OM lenses. So, if you need dual use for daytime and astrophotography, get a long telephoto. However, while Sigma cameras are pretty much useless for AP (I got this lens for birding), they can do Moon shots, and I have posted a bunch of those at 600 mm. This allows your camera to zoom in further and get a closer view of distant objects like the moon and stars. This is another Sony lens that we thought we’d list as its perhaps the most versatile lens from this series. Moon, first quarter. There are many DSLR cameras available for purchase, but Canon manufactures the most popular ones for astrophotography. I've spent countless hours over the past few years learning about astrophotography, and even I had a hard time wrapping my head around the complexities of a monochrome camera and RGB / narrowband setup. The Best Telephoto Lenses for Astrophotography Over the last ten to fifteen years excellent apochromatic telescopes have become available for visual use and photography. While doing some camera tests I took a few interesting astrophotography images using a Canon 500/4.5L lens.