NIKON ED Camera Lens Tests- M42

[FOOTPRINT]

Hi All,
Had a semi clear night last night and have been waiting to test a new Lens on the Canon EOS300D (modded), so away we went, the lens is an NIKKON ED 70-300mm Lens, my idea is being able to get Barnards Loop Etc. wide field stuff, it looks promising but note the blue fringing around the bright stars which shouldent happen with ED glass, still early days, must do a CWB with this lens on the Camera, which should help, also more exposures, not possible last night due weather, My Focus looks a bit out also, it is difficult to focus the lens via the Camera viewfinder even with a 2x magnifier I might resort to using DSLR Focus but this is also difficult with a Lens.

The 70 mm setting seems useful for getting the wide field im after (Baranards Loop) dont see much use for the 300 mm setting at this point in time, still we shall see, anyone else with experience in using an ED Camera Lens id love to hear of your findings.

300 mm Lens= 2 x 6 Min. Exp. DF removed- guided LX200-10"

70 mm Lens= 3 x 6 Min. Exp. ED removed- guided LX200-10"

cheers................Jim

[xelasnave]

Looks good to me Jim you can see that outter belt of nebulosity easily. I got myself a lens 70/300mm in Sydney and only been able to try it once but I was happy cause things were not ideal but I got an idea of what use it will be. Its raining here.
alex

[xelasnave]

actually its stopped
alex

[astroboy]

Hi Ken
I haven't used any ED zooms on our modded 350D but have used Nikkor 180 F2.8 ED and 300 F4.5 ED .
They both work very well wide open , Octane has some pics he he had taken here with the 300 F4.5 ED .
Your 70mm shot looks good but may need a MV filter to sort out the blue , the 300mm shot looks like it needs stopping down to control the aberrations , a common problem with zooms .
To help manually focus I put a wide rubber band around the focus ring to give a bit more feel when focusing and so it won't slip during exposure.
You have a big advantage having a Nikon adapter , there are lots of good Nikkor MF prime lenses out there going for good prices , most people want AF lenses these days.

Zane

[FOOTPRINT]

Hi All,
Thanks for the feedback, and yes Alex I saw and commented on your picture taken with a Camera Lens, very good, good colour too, can you say if its an ED Glass lens ??.
Hi Zane, thanks for the info. yes ill try stopping down the Iris at 300 mm F/L, and I dident think id have to use an -Violet Filter with the ED Glass, still live and learn, early days with this thing, I took 10 x 6 Min. again last night at 70mm F/L will process them this morning see if Barnards loop comes out any better.


cheers.................Jim

[CometGuy]

Jim,

Astrophotography is very demanding on lenses, especially when you start stretching the image to bring out faint detail. Even the mega dollar lenses need to be stopped down a little to give best results. In you case you should try refining your focus and tracking and you might be able to get better results even without stopping down.

The most amazing wide fields I have ever seen were done with 135 f2 lens stopped down to f5.6.

Terry

[Garyh]

Thats not too bad for a zoom I reckon.Jim?.just a little bit of violet/blue CA and not much coma there...much better than you would get if the zoom was a none ed type...Like Terry says, get the focus spot on and stop it it down a stop or two and your pics will be much improved with less CA and tighter stars..keep it up!
Its good to see how these lenses are performing as I am saving for a nice lense!
Cheers Gary