[gregbradley]

I thought I would list the lens I have or know of that are useful or not for astro work. I use Nikon, Fuji and Sony cameras. I have an olde Canon 40D so my knowledge of Canon lenses is limited.

I have a Pentax 67 55mm F4 lens that is fairly poor unless used 2x2 binning. With my Proline it was shocking until I stopped it down to about F5.6 and 2x2 binning and it cleaned up.

Samyang 24mm F1.4 cleans up at F2 and so does coma.
Samyang 8mm F2.8 fisheye for Sony - awesome lens, perfect wide open, only $280 and super sharp. Fisheye effect is not for everyone though.
Nikon 85mm F1.8g cleans up around F2.2 ($650 lens)
Nikon 180mm F2.8 is not bad wide open (unusual - probably because it has ED glass in it) (about $400 2nd hand)
Contax G 90mm Zeiss Sonnar seemed clean wide open (on a Sony Nex 6)
(this is a superb lens). APSc lens needs an adapter $70, $300 lens 2nd hand there is also a 45mm F2 ($450 reputed to be one of the sharpest lenses around - I have one and haven't tested it yet) and a 28mm F2.8 ($450) and 21mm F2.8 ($900)
Pentax 165mm 67 F2.8 is clean wide open (a little bit of blue haloing easy to clean) $200 2nd hand - a great buy 85mm of backfocus
Nikon 50mm F1.8g is pretty clean and clean and coma free by F2.2 ($200 lens)
Nikon 24-70 F2.8 is clean from wide open and no chromatic aberration - very nice ($2100 lens)
Nikon 14-24mm is clean wide open $2100 lens)
Nikon 105mm F2.5 is clean F2.8 onwards (cheap lens but high quality). (About $200)
Nikon 28mm F2.8 AIS is a cheap lens but super sharp and has quite a reputation. I think its clean wide open. ($250)
Nikon 55mm F2.8 micro - no good, sharp for macro shots. ($89)
Canon 50mm F1.8 seemed identical to Nikon's 50mm F1.8D but perhaps not as good as Nikon 50mm F1.8g which is a very good 50mm lens and cheap new ($140 or less).
Canon FD 85mm F1.4 lots of CA and cleans up around F4 ($100)
Canon FD200mm not too bad but needs F4 ($300)
Canon FD 55mm not so useful.($100)

Don't know as much about the Canons but usually Nikon/Canon match each other fairly closely with some exceptions so I would expect similar with the Canons. The 50mms are usually good value at under $200 for both brands.

Minolta Rokkor get good reviews and they are cheapish 2nd hand.

So do Pen F, Zuiko, Voigtlander lenses, some Olympus lenses 2nd hand from about $80 to about $600 usually shorter focal length are more expensive).

As autofocus isnt't really used then legacy lenses with adapters makes a lot of sense for high quality low cost lenses.

For Fuji X system 35mm F1.4, 14mm F2.8 are superb lenses. Fuji lenses are about as good as they get and probably similar or not far behind Zeiss lenses. The 14mm F2.8 is better than my Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 but of course its for APS cameras and specifically only Fuji as the flange to focal plane distance is quite small and won't fit on DSLRs as the mirror gets in the road.

But Fuj XE1 and Sony Nex 5 and 6 are very workable Astro cameras for nightscapes so don't feel you are limited to Canon or Nikon. Olympus OMD EM5 is also.

Of the 2 the Fuji is a bit better at high ISO low noise than the Sony Nex 6 but there isn't a lot in it and long exposure noise reduction on each narrows the gap even more. Fuji XE1 and Nex 6 would outperform any Canon except 5D3 and 6D but again its limitation is APS size.


Greg.