Night star photography Lense

lixxus

lixxus

lixxus

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Joined
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Hi all

I have a m43s gx7 and i am looking to buy a new lens to shoot stars and time lapses.

I have come across both these lenses

Panasonic H-H025E-S LUMIX G 25 mm/F1.7 ASPH Lens

&

Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8 Lens


Which one would be better and more versatile, especially during day when not shooting at night for street/urban photography.

many thanks for your suggestions
 
I am not overly familiar with m43 lenses, but I have seen a lot of people saying great things about the Samyang/Rokinon/Wallimex 12mm F2 NCS lens, that states it is available in m43 mount.
 
avatar12m said:
or you could buy a nikon fx 20mm lens f/2.8 and a lens adaptor that way you can use filters on it and use it as a landscape lens aswell, it will also be allot sharper than any lumix offering at similar price range.

there about £250 plus a good adaptor

whatever you end up with make sure you can stick filters on it so then you have a night/street/landscape lens

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LECYYR8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
Click to expand...

mate thank you so much. this was the pro advice i was looking for.

this is my first mirrorless camera so i appreciate the pro tips.

is there any other lens combinations you would recommend. I currently only have the default lens which came with the camera 14-42mm
 
lixxus said:
what about this lens with this adaptor

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-EF-S-...=sr_1_3?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1452000628&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LECYYR8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
Click to expand...

That specific adaptor is for adapting Nikon lenses, so if you go that route make sure you get the right option from the list!

Using adaptors will also mean you lose at least some auto control of focussing and aperture.**

45mm is a nice lens, but the crop factor of the M43 system makes it quite a narrow field view for star and street work I think.

**edit.
Actually looking at those adaptors, you will lose auto control of both aperture and focussing, so the lens must have a manual aperture ring to compensate.
 
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For stars you will want a wide angle with a large aperture (good for it to be sharp at that aperture too!)

I just got the Samyang 12mm mentioned earlier in the thread and it's brilliant, manual focus isn't really an issue with focus peaking at night, and during the day you can stop down the aperture a bit and not need to adjust the focus at all.

Here's a useful link for exposure times for different focal lengths which might be of use to you: http://www.capturingthenight.com/astrophotography-and-the-600-rule/
 
ok but what about the Panasonic 25 mm/F1.7

i mentioned in op. this has f1.7 and wide angle.

surely that will be ok and it can manual focus
 
ajf said:
That specific adaptor is for adapting Nikon lenses, so if you go that route make sure you get the right option from the list!

Using adaptors will also mean you lose at least some auto control of focussing and aperture.**

45mm is a nice lens, but the crop factor of the M43 system makes it quite a narrow field view for star and street work I think.

**edit.
Actually looking at those adaptors, you will lose auto control of both aperture and focussing, so the lens must have a manual aperture ring to compensate.
Click to expand...

is there any combination of adaptor + lens which will give me manual control of aperture and focus.

Ideally i want to spend £150 on lens
 
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The problem is most modern lenses do not have a manual aperture ring - that Nikon mentioned above is the only one I have seen.
Without that, there is no way of controlling aperture on the lens otherwise as the converter takes away the electronic contacts that normally do that.
The Panasonic 25mm you mentioned, and the Olympus equivalent, are nice little lenses, but remember that on a crop camera it is equivalent to a 50mm on full frame so not an especially wide field of view.

If you have a 14-42 already, just set it to 25mm and see how that goes for the type of photo you want.
 
atm i use a lumix with a samyang 14mm ( which is 28mm on the m4/3 ) but only usefull at night or day, But you cannot screw any filters on it, it is a really sharp lens imo has manual aperture ring.

i needed a wide angle lens for it aswell that accepted filters and had an aperture ring for nice landscape photos ( you need 85mm filters ) but the lumix options are very expensive so i bought the 20mm nikon fx lens with an adaptor.

just remember this way you have a prime fx nikon lens that you can stick on a nikon body in future

you could also try any old short canon fd prime mount lens via an adaptor all manual focus plus have an aperture ring. ( but beware some are silly prices and theres lots of copies make sure its canon glass ))

also just remembered some adaptors have aperture rings built in but have never tried them.

look here also very good site

http://suggestionofmotion.com/blog/panasonic-gh4-lens-options-wide/

http://suggestionofmotion.com/blog/panasonic-gh4-lens-options-documentary-primes/
 
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ajf said:
The problem is most modern lenses do not have a manual aperture ring - that Nikon mentioned above is the only one I have seen.
Without that, there is no way of controlling aperture on the lens otherwise as the converter takes away the electronic contacts that normally do that.
The Panasonic 25mm you mentioned, and the Olympus equivalent, are nice little lenses, but remember that on a crop camera it is equivalent to a 50mm on full frame so not an especially wide field of view.

If you have a 14-42 already, just set it to 25mm and see how that goes for the type of photo you want.
Click to expand...

how does the crop factor effects the shot i want. Surely when you point the lens at open sky in a field then it wont matter. It just means you shoot less of the sky ?

I am correct in saying the crop factor for m43s is x2, so if i get a 25mm lens then really its a 50mm ? as you mentioned above.

I'm going morocco in spring and plan to take time lapses in the desert and also night shots of the milkway. I just recently purchased my gx7 couple months ago. i was going to opt for a dslr but decided the m43s was more suited to my needs as i dont take photos a lot and wanted a camera that had electronic shutter timer without remote. It ticked all the boxes apart from the limited lens choice.

any advice would be appreciated once again thanks
 
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lixxus said:
how does the crop factor effects the shot i want. Surely when you point the lens at open sky in a field then it wont matter. It just means you shoot less of the sky ?

I am correct in saying the crop factor for m43s is x2, so if i get a 25mm lens then really its a 50mm ? as you mentioned above.
Click to expand...
Well, yes that is correct but you could say that with any subject! The point is are you able to fit in the bit(s) you want?
You also mentioned the 25mm as having a wide angle which it isn't really, and especially not on a crop body.
I had assumed (perhaps wrongly) you were looking at taking whole sky images such as the wide angle milky way shots some people do.


Thats what the suggestion of setting your current lens to 25mm to test was for. Is it wide enough for what you want?
 
I think I will be going for

Panasonic 25 mm/F1.7 Lens
or
Panasonic 14mm/F2.5 Lens

I also went on Flickr and used camera finder to look at star/milkyway shots using my camera and what lenses people were using.

It seems the aperture most shots taken were in f1.7-2.5

I even saw some photos using default camera lens with f3.5. (so now i am thinking might just stick with current lens and get a zoom lens instead)

I took the advice regarding setting my current lens to 25mm. It does crop the pic and i guess more is better so a 14mm lens will probably make more sense, especially if using it around town etc. As morocco has narrow streets, standing back will be a problem with a 25mm lens.

I am just debating if 25mm F1.7 is worth sacrifice of a cropped focus length.

or just get the 14mm lens with F2.5. Ive look at video reviews online about this lens are they are good. it seems to be a popular lens among filmers using blackmagic cam and gh3

so confused as what to do. I dont even have a zoom lens and over the last couple of months with fireworks and blood moon. I found myself missing out on taking amazing shots.

I do take more landscape shots then portrait and street. hence why i am thinking my first lens should be a wide angle
 
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