hey Martin
I think your idea of widefield must be different to mine!
This meteor shower pic was taken with a 24mm f1.4 lens on 5DmkII:
Geminid Meteor Shower
You *really* need fast lenses for meteors and I couldn't conceive of using anything longer than 50mm. There are very fast 24, 35 and 50mm prime lenses which is mainly where I would be looking. For a cropped sensor camera you 'could' consider the 10-22mm zoom but it's nowhere near as fast.
For widefield milky way scenes/landscapes I also use the 24mm (and my new-ish 14mm ultra wide).
For classic 'widefield' shots I have heavily used my 50mm lens. These two milky way mosaics are both three parts on a 40D with 50mm 1.4 lens:
Southern Cross
Centre of the Milky Way
For comparison, this is four part mosaic with 200mm f2.8 lens on 40D:
Antares, Rho Ophiuchi and the Blue Horsehead
And this is a single image with 200mm f2.8 lens on 5DmkII:
Large Magellenic Cloud
Hopefully that gives you some food for thought.
cheers
Phil
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pugh
Thanks guys.
actually - what I am looking for is a lens that can do (in priority order)
1. Milky Way, large asterism shots.
2. star trails
3. Meteorite showers.
So, I think about 100mm is good for Milky Way, but think that about 200mm is optimum for star trails.
100mm is probably too long for meteorite showers.
So, can 1 thru 3 be done with a single lens? Probably a zoom lens like 70-200mm would cut it?
any other thoughts?
cheers
Martin
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