Astrophotography f4 vs f2.8 vs f1.4 - - With DOWNLOADABLE IMAGES

If you don't have money to buy fast lens just make more shots and stack exposure in Sequator, DeepSkyStacker, etc

Is a 50mm f1.4 is nice too for astrophotography ?

Good advice, I often drop one to two stops even on fast lenses to improve image quality. I shoot both with Canon (FF) and Pentax (APS-C) with stacking and a tracker.

Hey Mike is it possible to shoot astrophotography with kit lens ? :)

is 15 seconds the maximum shutter speed before you start to get star trails, or can you go longer?

Just got the Sony 11mm 1.8 for the Sony Zv-E10 and taking it to Zion next week. Thanks for the tips!

Great explanation !
Question - I was going to take a stab at astro and have found a location fairly close to me with very little light pollution.
I currently own a Sony a7iii and a Sony 16-35 F2.8 GM lens. In your opinion would this be 'sufficient' for a 1st time attempt at astrophotography, or am I wasting my time and be better off renting a Sony 24mm f1.4 gm ?
Thanks for any advice, and I appreciate the video.

Thanks for the video. Super useful. I am a beginner with a fuji xs10 and looking to buy my first prime lens... i would like to have the option to shoot astro and I'm looking at a Fujifilm XC 35mm f/2 lens... is this a big no no? I would like to add that i am not (and don't plan to be a professional photographer) thanks a lot :)

Bros really creeping out here

Have a kit lens 15-55 and 75-300 mm with the lowest f stop being 3.5. Just got into Astrophotography and was wondering should I get a 24MM 1.8 would it generate for better photos. Thanks.

Hey Mike! Quick question, my 18-55mm kit lens has awful very noticable astigmatism on the corners at f4. I recently bought a skyguider pro so im able to shoot at shutter speeds up to around 3 mins. Combining that and a higher f stop like f16 or even f22 makes out for much sharper stars and no astigmatism. From what i tested in a bortle 7-6 area, shooting at this high a f stop, as long as you have a long exposure, theres no problem. Is this a reliable technique or should i look into getting a better lens? Thanks for your help!

Good video and so clear, thanks! One thing that always grates with me is “raising iso adds noise”. Please investigate since it’s the reduction in shutter speed and the closing of aperture that results in the increased noise...(it takes 5 mins to check this, by shooting 9 shots, varying only one of the 3 variables at a time-ss,aperture,iso). Thanks again.

I miss the Sigma 16mm, F 1.4 here as a recommandation.

OK so... 16-35 F4 IS (Canon L) or nifty 50 at F1.8. And thank you for good no nonsense information.

What’s your opinion on using a speed booster/ Focal reducer for Astro ?
Cheers

Hey Mike. Thanks for the video. Really helpful. Cheers!

if i want to print astro shots for a wall poster home decor will i need to get even wider aperture than f2? i am looking at samyang 12mmf2 vs sigma16f1.4. which should i prefer? wider fov or brighter aperture? personally i really like samyang as the wider 12mm will also double up as a grat vlogging lens so i can hold the camera comfortably. camera is a6600.

Thank you for this video I’ve been wanting the answers to this question

well, i was already impressed as i switched from a very cheap F1.8 (mainly for live concerts etc where i had barely light) to a "midclass" (300€ still not much for a good lens) F1.4 with USM. The Focus.... WOW, like day and night vs the 60€ F1.8s cheap slow and loud AF system. But the biggest impact was the F1.4.

With the F1.4 i can easily shoot in F1.8 to F3 and it does a lot better job than the F1.8, AF much more on point, bokeh looks slightly better on the 1.4 also (at F1.8!)
Seems like i should try out the fixed 50mm 1.4 lens for astrophotograhpy, as much this is possible with a regulat D-SLR without modifications on sensors filters

Great video Mike. My wife and I are off to Iceland for a week next March and i was looking for an extra lens to hopefully catch the Northern Lights. I shoot with a Canon EOS R and currently own the Canon 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 all f4. I was looking at getting the Samyang 14mm f2.8 but then saw the Samyang 20mm f1.8. Which would you recommend out of the two?

Hello Mike! What do you think about mounting an f4 lens like Sony 70-200 f4 on a light-sensitive camera like the Sony a7s series? Would that combination compensate for wide aperture loss and applying higher ISO without introducing noise to the image? And what do you think about the optical quality of Sony 70-200 f4 for landscape photography? Thank you very much!

All things being equal would you rather have f2.8 without IS or f4 with is ? first for astro but also for everyday carry.

greatly described!

Is 24mm okay for astrophotography?

I see star trails all over the place :(
I thought you were going to discuss vignetting and lens distortion, we know that wider apertures render much worse pictures...

How do you feel about the Tamron 35mm 1.4? Good value for the money and astrophotography in general? I read some really good reviews on it. Your take on this lens is more than appreciated.

Lens Rental is your friend.

very good video, thank you

Hi Mike hoping you could help me in my choose of lens to shoot the milkyway, I'm turn between 20m f/1.8. Or the GM 24m f/1.4 ... Moneywise I was hoping to get away with spending the amount the 20mm is worth but if there's a huge difference in quality of lens I'm happy to go and spend more on the 24mm???

What do you think about the Viltrox 24mm f1.8?

thx

As a beginner I am confused!! What is the difference between 14mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.8 for astrophotography? Is f/4 and above still good?

Great video!

Brilliant, and to the point 👌🏼

👍

Nice video, please can you tell lens manufacturers especially Fuji, to give us an 18mm f1.2 lens I will be very grateful...

Stacking is not allways the answer, you need a certain amount of photons to hit the sensor to change that zero (no light) to a 1 (light). So longer exposures allways is better then stacking.

Or just buy a star tracker :)

Eventho I Have couple of 1.4 lenses I never use them at F1.4... no matter how good and pricey the lens is it never Gives me proper results at F1.4... all lenses Have their peak performance and usually its F4.0 with these 1.4 lenses... noise is pretty easy to get rid of in post processing with stacking or tracking but the mistakes the lenses produce at their widest aperture are sometimes quite impossible to rectify at post processing. This is really something every beginner astrophotographers should know. F4 with kit lense compared to f4 with lens that goes down to F1.4 is remarkable. I know this tutorial is not about that but just saying :) Havent seen Any tutorials on that subject

The best and the best video for explanation of astrophotography using dslr. Thank you

Hey boss, thank you for this explanation. I'm into astro-timelapses and to make the parts of the Milky Way more noticeable on my kit lens, I had to push the ISO to 6400 @ f3.5 and 20 sec. exposure, and sadly I get a lot of noise on my image. Hopefully, the Tokina 14-20mm f2 that I've ordered will let me use a lower ISO and still make the Milky Way pop.

Cheers!

nice video and explanation but you know what i dont get? why didnt you compare the lenses on the same iso value? of course the higher iso gonna be noisy ,you could have done the same thing with the f1.4 lens, it would be noisy too. Im new and maybe thats the reason why i dont get it. im here to know what the difference between the two lenses on the exact same settings. Btw who shoots on such high isos anyway? your video made me kinda confused.

Thank you for the clear explanations! Beautiful comparison of photos. :)