Best lens for shooting the 'Aurora borealis' Northern Lights

a1ex2001 said:
It's a lovely picture but do you not have a nagging thought about if it would look even better with more aroura? [emoji12]
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No, you can't shoot the whole aurora so you have to pick a bit of decent foreground and make the most of it.
 
ndwgolf said:
I'm confused I thought the idea was a faster lens will be better???????
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In general, yes, but the aurorae can be quite bright and so f/2.8 will be sufficient. If you'd like to capture detail in the aurorae then being able to increase your shutter speed to a 1/10 or 1/5th of a second would be great and that wil most likely require the prime. 24mm is a bit too narrow for the northern lights though unless you have a particularly strong foreground or will shoot over a reflective surface. HTH!
 
Sid said:
In general, yes, but the aurorae can be quite bright and so f/2.8 will be sufficient. If you'd like to capture detail in the aurorae then being able to increase your shutter speed to a 1/10 or 1/5th of a second would be great and that wil most likely require the prime. 24mm is a bit too narrow for the northern lights though unless you have a particularly strong foreground or will shoot over a reflective surface. HTH!
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You won't capture aurora with a shutter speed of 1/10 or 1/5th of a second.
 
ndwgolf said:
Guy's
I am going to be shooting the 'Aurora borealis' next year and want to know which would be the better lens to use out of these two lenses;
I have the Nikon 14/24 f2.8 or the 24mm f1.4
Tips advice on shooting these 'Aurora borealis' would be much appreciated
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Going back to your original question. Pick a really clear night, put you camera on a tripod, put your lenses on manual focus and using live view focus the lens until you get pin sharp stars. Take a single shot at ISO 1600 for 15 seconds at f2.8 at 24mm with the zoom. Repeat with the prime. Load files up and view the very edges at high magnification on a laptop or PC. Which lens shows the least coma ( stars appearing as a 'comma' shape as opposed to a pinpoint) at the extreme edges ? That's the one to choose !
Hope that helps
James
 
.I have a trip planned to Iceland end of Jan and was wondering which lenses to take was thinking my 17-40 L or sigma 12-24 and 24-105 was thinking about a prime either canon 35 mm F2 or Sigma 24 mm 1.8 I will be using a 5D MK2. I think the 24mm might be the best choice reading the replies now just need to decide on which zoom.
 
Alan Neilson said:
.I have a trip planned to Iceland end of Jan and was wondering which lenses to take was thinking my 17-40 L or sigma 12-24 and 24-105 was thinking about a prime either canon 35 mm F2 or Sigma 24 mm 1.8 I will be using a 5D MK2. I think the 24mm might be the best choice reading the replies now just need to decide on which zoom.
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Alan,
If you own this array of lenses ( and are not hiring them) I would strongly suggest you test them out on a clear night to see which is best capable of producing pin point stars at the edge of its field - it's no use have a fast wide angle of its lousy are rendering the background stars to pinpoints . The stars will be there even in an epic aurora and it won't look right if the star field is full of coma and chromatic abberations.
Where are you going to in Iceland ?
I would be very interested in seeing what you manage to get in terms of aurora.
James
 
jbw said:
Alan,
If you own this array of lenses ( and are not hiring them) I would strongly suggest you test them out on a clear night to see which is best capable of producing pin point stars at the edge of its field - it's no use have a fast wide angle of its lousy are rendering the background stars to pinpoints . The stars will be there even in an epic aurora and it won't look right if the star field is full of coma and chromatic abberations.
Where are you going to in Iceland ?
I would be very interested in seeing what you manage to get in terms of aurora.
James
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Thank James will try that once I get a clear night and can get out where it is nice and dark and no light pollution. It is only a three night trip to Iceland staying in Reykjavik with a couple of trips included so not sure how much time I will get to shoot so will see what happens!
 
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