OK I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the Canon 20DA from the states.....they are not released at the moment but I have been put on a list for the first shipment due to be released any day now.
Oh did I also mention I purchased a SAC 9 CCD that I will be using as a Guide camera...that's probably a couple of weeks away.
Gee all this equipment.....might have to have a Garage Sale soon....hehehe
And if any of you are wondering how am I going to guide with the SAC9 and Skyscan..the aswer is the shoestring adapter I already have...again from the states.
Nice.... Tony. The 20A should serve you well. Be keen to see what you can get out of it.
Good choice for guiding setup also. Be keen to see how well you go with autoguiding the EQ6. Keep us posted.
Cheers
Striker you are asking the (almost) impossible, the most flexible lens is zoom, for astro you want 100-400mm and as fast as possible. So you are into the Canon L series lenses if you do not want either horrid coma and abberation or you must stop down so much the lens becomes too slow to use. Consensus out there is the F2.8 70-200L is a great option if you must go for zoom, the F4 version is as good but slower (and cheaper). You do not need IS for astrowork and other than that you should stick to L series primes.
OR
You could go for the Sigma 70-200 APO which is cheaper and good, I think John Drummond uses this and gets wonderful results?
OR
Use your ED80 and a flatener for you wide field shots.
You can play with the canon kit lenses (I do) but you will find yourself cropping a lot of the image and using 25% scaling on the remainder to reduce the distortions to acceptable levels which is a shame with such a superb camera.
As a guide you should probably spend about 30% on the glass (scope) and the rest on the body (mount), that should give you a clue as to the lens budget that matches your camera. BTW what does the 20Da come with as a kit or is it supplied body only?
Boy you really are going for broke aren't you...really jealous here....looks like a superb imaging set up you are putting together....please do let us know how you get on with the EQ6/Skysca/autoguiding I am wanting to go this way shortly (with a C9.25 rather than 11) so I am very interested in your experiances.
I dont want any lenses for astrophotography...like you said I can use my 80mmED for real wide view shots...I just want something reasonable for family shots with a Zoom.
I also have focal reducers so have many combinations just by useing my current scope setup.
I have been told the standard 18-55 lense you get is fairly ordinery so I would like to go a step up...but saying that I dont want multiple lenses...thats why i am looking at something 18-100 that I can get some use out of for most personal applications...not astrophotgraphy.
BTW the 20DA does not come with any lenses...BODY ONLY.
I know nothing about DSLR so I dont want to go and get $1000 lense just for some family pics to start with but considering I dont get a lense I thought I could go for something a little better then the standard lense canon gives out on most DSLR models.
Give me some model numbers and I will check them all out.
tony,
get a 50-500 Sigma telephoto lens and a 18-125 for widefield shots. And get a 2 times 7 element teleconverter, and a circular polar filter. by the time im finished you have spent another couple of thousand.
Tony, I tried the Sigma 18-125 on a Pentax 1stds and I was unimpressed (actually crap was the first thought that came to mind). The chromatic abberation was extreme to the extent I decided not to go with the Pentax Sigma bundle. I took a few shots of some buildings close by and the edges on one side of the image were fringed vertically with purple, on the other side green. That said the performance of that lens may not have been typical. I'd go for the 17-85 IS Canon Lens it's image stabilised and will be a much better lens. Don't know much about the 20DA but I believe it's only for astro use and you may have to add an external filter to correct for daylight photography. Try this link for some info on Lenses for EOS series. http://www.bobatkins.com/photography...00dlenses.html
I have the 25 to 105 usm, which I use on an EOS 5 35mm silver process body, and it's one of the better zoom lenses I've ever had, at least as good as the Nikon ones I've got. You'll find that no wide zoom except the very expensive wide zooms from Canon and upward (some minolta esp old rokor, nikon, ziess, lieca), are worth a pinch, and you'd be waisting the camera's ability to mate it with the really aweful Sigma. I find that the 25-105 and a 100 to 300 USM cover nearly all my vanilla photography needs, but I don't use the 100 to 300 that often. For family work, the 25 to 105 is the choice. You wouldn't want to use wider than 25 for portrature anyway, and you'll rarely open the 25-105 up all the way, appart from the odd landscape (really better off at around 80 and doing a mosaic which your canon software suite will have a utility for, even when buying a bare body).
I don't know the CCD size of the 20 DA, and that'll have an effect on any crop factor between 35mm lens focal lengths image fields, and the field of view on your body, but I still can't see the 17mm and up zoom being worthwhile for happy snaps, when the very good and much cheaper 25-105 will basically do it all (remembering that for portrature, most is done between 80 to 100). You also have a fairly reasonable chance of vignetting with sigma and even the canon at greater than 25 if the ccd is too much smaller than 35mm.
Tony,
if the 20Da is like the other Canons, and like my Nikon, then the CCD chip gives a magnification factor of about 1.6x, so if you want wide (and I do) you need to think around 17mm to whatever.
In optics there is no such thing as a free lunch, ask Ponders. Gut feeling is try a kit cheapie first, at worst it will cost you a few dollars to find it is or isn't any good. As an all round hobby and snapshot lens it may do what you want. If not then figure some decent coin for the "L" series stuff.
As an aside I have the kit Nikkor 18-85mm for my D100, and it is quite good. Didn't stop me buying a film camera yesterday though, with a zoom (24-85mm) I love the digital stuff, but miss film as well. Weird huh?
Thanks Gary, yes i have decided that it must atleast start at 17-18mm what it then zoom's to I have not found the right one yet....I realise the L lenses are very good but I'm not going to spend $1000 on 1 lense....I may even look at second hand....
I would like something around 17-85 or 17-125 approx...around this range.....shame they dont sell a Canon USM 17-85 otherwise I would have it now...I will keep looking.
Tony, some months ago, I saw a Canon EOS film camera with EF zoom lens in a second hand shop for under $100 (I think it was $80), may be a cheap way to get a zoom if you're prepared to lose a little bit at the wide end of the range....
Tony, did not read the whole thread but here goes. A mate of mine in Perth has a 20D and the image stabilizer lens ($1000.00) one. It gives great shots and he is more than happy with it. I must say that I have considered getting the Nikon version.
As a guide you should probably spend about 30% on the glass (scope) and the rest on the body (mount), that should give you a clue as to the lens budget that matches your camera.
Hmmm, I've spent a bit of time photography forums and I think a lot of people would disagree with you. They seem to be of the opinion that the body is the cheap part.
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