Star / Night time photography

[hippoeater]

Hello!


I'm interested in shooting stars at night. I currently have a Zeiss 50 1.4 and Canon 20-700 2.8 is usm II in my camera bag and I've really been eyeing up the 14mm 2.8 to use for this. I've been looking for a good landscape lens and I thought it might be fun to try and do some shots of stars at night.



Would this lens fill that void or would I be better off looking at something else?





Also, any tips or suggestions on sites to explore for help with shooting stars?





Thanks!!

[tkerr]

See if this can help.


http://www.scribd.com/full/41186760?access_key=key-gnoflczzrljkxl1qzzd


If you're using a full frame DSLR to calculate how long your exposure can go before detecting star drift, Divide 600 by the focal length of your lens. E.g. 600 / 50mm = 12 seconds shutter speed. Anything longer than that you will need a telescope mount capable of tracking. Or a home made Scotch Mount or Barn Door Tracker.
If you're using a Crop Sensor you will first need to convert the lens focal length to the equivalent of using it with a Full Frame. To do that, multiply the focal length of the lens by the crop factor. E.g. 1.6 x 50mm = 80mm. IOW you would be getting the same field of view as an 80mm lens on a FF sensor. 600 / 80 = 7.5 seconds.

At those shutter speeds you will have to use a high ISO in order to get enough saturation of the stars against the background of the dark night sky. Then it will probably be noisier than it is worth.
Most often people like to use short focal length lenses for those very wide field shots of the night sky, especially the summer Milky Way.

[andnowimbroke]

Thanks for the question and thanks for the reply. I have been wanting to play around with stuff like this but didn

[tkerr]

Thanks for the question and thanks for the reply. I have been wanting to play around with stuff like this but didn't know how to go about it or who to ask. The link went to this shady character's pdf. I hope he knows what he's talking about

Nope, I just shoot from the hip. The Information I provide isn't necessarily the only way of doing things, and is only enough to get you started, The other web links I provided in that PDF can cover the information better than I did.
I am far from good at it when compared to people with superior equipment and experience, but I do a fair job of it. If you care to see some examples of what I have done with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT and a EOS 50D you can check out some of my work here >>> http://www.photoshop.com/users/TimKerr


Some of it is shot through a telescope, and then some through a small camera lens, and some with the 100-400mm L.

[Daniel Browning]

The 14mm f/2.8 is definitely a great nightscape lens. Wider angles of view are easier technically, but harder compositionally. Narrower angles of view are more difficult technically, but easier compositionally. You didn

[hippoeater]

Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned that...I am shooting with a 5DMark II. Thanks for the replies so far and the information! It

[btaylor]

Forget the night shots - I want that 20-700mm f/2.8 usm you mentioned!


Best bet is to just play around and experiment, the 14mm would be a very nice addition to your kit.