Shooting the Northern Lights

Holliday

Holliday

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Had a search and the threads didn't really answer my questions.

In January I'm going on a cruise around Norway and would love this chance to take some pictures of The Northern Lights (and of course the scenery)

From what I've read so far about shooting the lights, the faster the lens the better, and prime over zoom. In my bag at the moment I have my 400D, Nifty Fifty 1.8, Canon 100mm Macro and my tripod.

I was wanting to get a wide angle lens so I could take wide seascape shots on the boat, possibly the Canon 10-22mm.

However! Seeing as though I'll be on a boat during most nights, I was wondering whether it would be better off me getting the 50mm 1.4, so I could increase shutter speed and hopefully reduce camera shake due to the boat (which hopefully won't be that bad since it's a cruise ship). But with this I would lose out on the wide scenery shots.

Any advice would be much appreciated, cheers.
 
Wider angle would always be useful, but as you said if you are on a boat you would probably have a problem with the movement with even a fast WA. I think 50mm would cause you to spend a lot of time wishing you had something wider.

How about a widish angle IS lens, something like the 17-55 f/2.8 IS (although i guess you would probably want to hire that!:eek:). There also seems to be a Sigma 20mm f/1.8, wideish and fast as well as the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 (very good lens) as the more affordable options at around £300-£350.
 
I totally forgot about hiring a lens, although being in really low temperatures, I'm not sure how the lenses would handle it, or if I want to risk it ;). The Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L USM seems pretty wide and fast.

I think you're right on the 50mm, definately need to go for a wide lens.

Cheers for your help :)
 
I also wondered about that but it's not particularly fast, having said that it is far cheaper than any of my suggestions.
 
I've not done it myself, but the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 is sharp, fast and a good focal length on a 1.6x crop body.

You won't be able to use it on a full frame camera if you think you're going to upgrade.
 
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