Nightscape lenses

[BlackNebula]

G'day,

Looking for some advice, I'm looking at purchasing a wide angle lens for nightscapes but the budget is not stretching too far. Only have the kit lenses that came with my Canon 700D at the moment and looking to upgrade.

Found this Sigma 10-20mm F4/5.5 On gumtree for what seems like a good price of $350 and in "as new" condition, I know it's not very fast but would it work at night? Also found a Tamron SP 10-24MM F3.4/4.5 for a bit more.

Any advice would be most appreciated

Cheers
Mark

[gregbradley]

Samyang 14mm F2.8 is hard to beat bang for buck. Most of the other good nightscape lenses are expensive like Nikon 14-24 F2.8 ED, Zeiss 15mm F2.8.

Greg

[traveller]

Tokina lenses are also worth considering. I have the 11-16 f2.8.

[omegacrux]

Most Aurora chasers use the Samyang 14 it's a good lens , around $450 ish

David

[Redshift13]

My Tokina 11mm-16mm f2.8 is a great lens for nightscapes & auroras.

[Joshua Bunn]

The Sigma Art series lenses are exceptional... the 35mm in particular. Around 700 to 800 dollars second hand.

Josh

[gregbradley]

Sigma has a new lens Art 20mm F1.4 which is the fastest 20mm lens in the world.

Its getting some good reviews. But not sure how it goes for nightscapes where you don't want coma in the corners.

Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8 for Sony emount seems like one of the best around. I plan on getting one shortly. The Loxia 35 F2 is fine but strong coma in the corners wide open which reduce a lot by F4 and the rest is corrected using the distortion slider in Lightroom. The 21mm is a different design and has less coma.

Zeiss Batis 25mm F2.8 again for Sony Emount is my current favourit elens. Less coma than Loxia 35 and again at F4 is quite good. Colour from this lens is amazing and its extremely sharp.

For Canikon Zeiss 21mm F2.8 is a classic lens. The 15mm F2.8 seems one of the best (see Carlos's images on this site they stand out).

Lenses are like telescopes. There are a lot of OK lenses but to get the really good performers they cost a lot. That's where Samyang stand out. They are cheap for what they are and perform better than they should for the price. But watch out for sample variation.

Samyang also have a 12mm F2 which I think is an APSc lens but gets good reviews for astro. I would check that out as you are using an APS camera right?

Greg.

[BlackNebula]

Thanks for the reply's and advice, you are all perfectly right and I would love the Tokina 11-16 or Samyang 14 however I am on a tight budget so can either compromise and get a wider angle lens now, meant to be a B-Day present or wait and save up for a more expensive lens.

Any comment on a Tamron 17-50 mm f/2.8, not too wide but at least a faster lens? I'm thinking either this one or the Sigma 10-20mm F4/5.5 (Wider but much slower)

My only concern with the Tamron is that it is very similar in range to my 18-55mm F3.5 kit lens bar of course being much faster.

Cheers
Mark

[BlackNebula]

Hi guys,

Thanks again for all the great advice and options, but I had to keep within my budget (Sadly the minister of finance insisted). Found a very reasonable Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 yesterday and pulled the trigger. I will be looking at the Samyang next (Maybe Xmas:rofl:)

Now just to see how she goes, but I'll have to wait for the weekend for that!

Cheers
Mark

[skysailor]

The Samyang 14mm f2.8 IF ED UMC lens is very good, and they currently sell for approx $550.
cheers

[skysailor]

This is an example of the Samyang, just a couple of quick "snaps" from my light polluted back yard, about 20 secs exposure @ 2.8 from memory... hope this helps with your "future" purchases...
cheers
194906

194907

[BlackNebula]

Very nice, the Samyang's are well recommended no matter who you ask! Are you using a crop sensor or full frame? I've read that they don't give a wide enough FOV on a crop sensor?

[skysurfer]

This Samyang 14 is indeed a really nice lens. I ahve fullframe, but even on a crop camera it has a FOV of a whopping 80-90º.
Here an example of a Milky Way shot of 30 seconds.

[pfitzgerald]

+1 for the Tokina 11-16mm lens.

Paul

[BlackNebula]

Would the image quality be better on a Samyang compared to the Tokina with it being a prime lens?

[Regulus]

Mark.

I have been researching this a lot this past week and have decided that the Canon 10-18 is about the best available in the budget line. It is APS-c only.
I have read and watched over a dozen articles and tests on the Canon 10-18/10-22/Tokina 11-16/Sigma 10-20 and 12-24.
The 10-18 would be followed by Bo's 11-16 Tokina in my list. (One is for sale on the Camera thread).
The Canon 10-18 has the least barrel distortion, and Chromatic Aberration of the lot and sharpness is over the top good.
Here's a referral to a review that also has links to th 10-22. There is also a review there of the Tokina
http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/index.htm
Here's a basic review on the Sigma 12-24 which appears to be a good lens also (I had the 70mm Sigma macro and it was outstanding in every regard, but I found the working distance to the front element was too short and swapped for a Canon 100mm macro (this is a common, and real, problem with short macros).
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Sigma-12-24mm-f-4.5-5.6-DG-II-HSM-Lens.aspx
The draw back is the minimum Aperture compared to the Tokina. But it has a 4stop IS system that compensates, and there is a review somewhere of this lens hand held at 1/16th of a second that is astounding. Also the f5.6 is getting near the line of diffraction limiting for APS-c but f8 is still workable. And given the depth of field on these f5.6 is still a very useful aperture.
I have strongly considered the Sigma 12-24 which is full frame and on APS-c gives next to no distortion.
Good luck in the hunt. I'm tossing up the 12-24 and the 10-18 myself. These are 19.2mm and 16mm equivalents at widest angle, which are both very wide

Trev