Looking for a lens for night time photography

Applemuncher

Applemuncher

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Justine
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Hi - I'm looking for a bit advice. I have a Canon EOS 100D and I'm currently using some lenses I had from my old SLR EOS Canon which are functional but the auto-focus is a little unreliable so I tend to use these in MF. I have a zoom lens 80-200mm and a standard zoom 29-80mm. I'm looking to buy a new lens which I would like to use for night time photography - you know when you see a tree or buildings with lots of stars behind? I

I've tried doing some research - I'm relatively new to all this so find some of the reviews difficult to understand and to make matters more complicated, I'm looking for a budget lens. I've found good reviews for the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 but I'm uncertain if this lens would be suitable for the night time shots I've described?

I would really appreciate any advice you can give, I'm feeling a little bit lost.
 
The Canon 10-18mm f4.5-4.6 isn't all that suited to night time hand held shooting as the aperture range is nothing special and you're going to be shooting at high ISO settings and very possibly at low shutter speeds.

So, if you're shooting handheld you're going to want to strike a balance between aperture, shutter speed and ISO setting. I'd recommend that you take a look at the wider aperture lenses and for zooms that'll be 18-50mm f2.8 (there is one 18-35mm f1.8 from Sigma) or alternatively you could look at a prime lens of either f1.4 or f1.8 aperture.

I don't really keep up with what's available in Canon land but certainly Sigma and Tamron both do 17/18-50mm f2.8's and there should be a few 24, 28, 30, 35 and 50mm f1.4 and f1.8 prime lenses to choose from. Back when I had Canon DSLR's I had Sigma 20mm 1.8, 30mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4 and all were good to excellent.

If you're prepared to think about buying used you could possibly grab a bit of a bargain.

You could also think about using a tripod, I'm not a great tripod user myself and I much prefer shooting handheld but with a tripod you may not need the more expensive wider aperture lenses.

Good luck choosing.
 
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Thanks for the info. For the type of star photography I would like to take I will be using a tripod (I already have one). Lenses are so expensive it's crippling to make the final choice - I think it's one I'll have to do a lot of research for.
 
Pick up a second hand 50mm 1.8,great lens to have in your bag.:)
 
jockwav said:
Pick up a second hand 50mm 1.8,great lens to have in your bag.:)
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Yes , but its not going to give the wide angle view that Justine suggests she wants. If you are after star trails/milky way shots the Tokina 11-20mm f2.8 is sometimes suggested or the Samyang 14mm F2.8.
 
Yes, I have a 50mm (kind of - it's within my Zoom range) - am looking for something really reasonably priced for now, wide angle is a most. The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 is below £200 new - if there's something more suitable then I would be happy to buy second-hand.
 
Samyang 14mm 2.8
 
Yes so you can lower the ISO and shorter exposure

Or letting more light in ...... whichever way you wanna look at it! Manual focus and sharp as a pin edge to edge
 
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For night time photography fast lenses are the way to go unless you have a tracker.

There is a max length shutter speed you can use before the stars start to show as lines in the image. Several ways to calculate it but 500 divided by the focal length gives a pretty good start.

So if you have 2 lenses both of the same focal length of say 24mm, one f2.8 and the other f4. Both give you 21 seconds exposure using the 500 rule. The 2.8 will let in twice the amount of light in that time compared to the f4. To get the same exposure with the f4 you would need to expose for 42 seconds which would give you significant trailing.

Fast glass can be expensive but something like the Samyang is a good start but be aware it's manual everything..
 
Mark twiglet said:
Yes so you can lower the ISO and shorter exposure

Or letting more light in ...... whichever way you wanna look at it! Manual focus and sharp as a pin edge to edge
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IIRC, the Samyang on Canon is manual everything, including aperture. Not sure if that means you can set it on the lens and the camera can then meter of if there's no communication between the body and lens. There's a Tamron alternative - or was - same focal length and aperture (15mm f/2.8) but AF and auto aperture. It also has a less weird distortion (the Samyang has a sort of moustache shape distortion, the Tamron is the more "traditional" barrel type.)

In general, the faster the lens the better for night shooting - you can always stop a fast lens down for narrower apertures but the maximum aperture is fixed.
 
Gaz- thanks for that, I've heard of the 500 rule, it hadn't really sunk in though how the aperture was going to impact the photo - you explained it really well though!

Nod - thanks for the recommendation, I'll look in to it- I don't mind setting the lens in manual but it's good to know about the distortion.
 
Applemuncher said:
Gaz- thanks for that, I've heard of the 500 rule, it hadn't really sunk in though how the aperture was going to impact the photo - you explained it really well though!

Nod - thanks for the recommendation, I'll look in to it- I don't mind setting the lens in manual but it's good to know about the distortion.
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If your using LR CC then the distortion correction for the Samyang is pretty good. Yes for Canon it's manual everything but In reality its hard to go wrong. I was out last night for an hour. Manual @ f2.8 @ ISO 6400 and 25 seconds and pretty decent results straightaway. Only the amount of light pollution spoilt it.
 
Gaz J said:
If your using LR CC then the distortion correction for the Samyang is pretty good. Yes for Canon it's manual everything but In reality its hard to go wrong. I was out last night for an hour. Manual @ f2.8 @ ISO 6400 and 25 seconds and pretty decent results straightaway. Only the amount of light pollution spoilt it.
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I don't mind manual - I really think it will come down to price though... what is LR CC though?
 
One last question if you don't mind - do you think this would do it? Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 LD Di-II AF Lens Canon fit
 
I'd go wider for star scape type stuff the tamron 11-18mm (or something like that) f2.8 is ideal on a crop
 
Applemuncher said:
One last question if you don't mind - do you think this would do it? Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 LD Di-II AF Lens Canon fit
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I had the original MK1 version of this lens and thought it was good, it was the sharpest zoom lens I'd ever used on a DSLR and the constant f2.8 will be useful.
 
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