Very cheap lens for startrails etc

[long_arms]

Hello,

I did a post the other day however I thought this is worthy of a second topic.

I'm getting a 350d body.

I know nothing about dslr's.

Should I buy a 18-55 (kit) lens for star trails? I want it to have a wide enough field of view to have some landscape in my star trails/milky way shots.

I've also seen old 28mm M42 lenses very cheap on ebay. On a 350d I understand it would be the equivalent of a 44mm due to the sensor size?

Which would be better or any recommendations?

I'm on a VERY tight budget as I'm only looking to dabble in this (i.e £50 reeally). I've heard the 50mm prime lens is a favourite but surely too long for what I want.

Thanks,

Dan

[Andy_E]

The standard Canon kit lens isn't that great... Ok but not great. I certainly wouldn't want to use it wide open, so would benefit from being stopped down a bit (perhaps to f5.6). However on a really tight budget it might not be a bad bet. Alternatively, you can pick up a Canon 50mm EF f1.8 II for around £80 new these days... even less second hand. I'd prefer that, though you lose the flexibility of zoom range.

[butlermike]

For the price you can get M42 lenses for they're worth a go. They vary in quality a lot but for what you're thinking of doing most should be fine.

I wouldn't get caught up in the whole focal range difference between sensor sizes, its only going to matter to you if you personally change your camera to a full frame.

28mm on a 350d is still wide!

The bigger the aperture the better as well, even if you do stop it down a touch.

50 mm might not be wide enough if you want to do night landscapes in my opinion.

http://www.mrcad.co.uk/CarouselProductView.ink?Row_ID=506037&pcode=SKU7399&pcategory=35mm%20FILM%20CAMERA'S&manufacturer=Sun&subcategory=MANUAL%20Camera%20Lenses&theCategory=148&theSubCategory=587

The above is a nice wide fast-ish lens for £25. Might be worth a try at that price!?

Don't forget you'll need an adaptor to fit the M42 lenses onto the canon but you can pick them up for a couple of pounds off a famous auction site...

Good luck!

[tich]

I have managed to do some star trails using a standard canon lens although focusing had to be done manually & I found it a bit tricky. I have since brought some old M42 threaded lenses & adapted them to fit the canon & I've had various amounts of success using them although finding a clear enough night to attempt some more star trails hasn't happened yet.

[long_arms]

Thanks guys!

I think I'll buy a cheap old lens and give that a go.

I would want to focus manually anyhow, I'm sure it will take a lot of practice and a lot of frustration but It's obviously possible

I've found an old 28mm sigma mini wide with an OM fitting. A quick google shows you can get an adapter and it will allow focus to infinity.

The kit 18-55 lenses can be bought cheap and I will obviously want the 50mm f.18 in the future so I think an old 28mm is okay to start with even if it turns out to be useless

Would some sort of mask over the lens help with focusing?

I want some clean star trails with a dark background so will probs use a low iso and stop the lens down a bit. Sound okay?

Dan

[Guest]

Just remember with a DSLR to times the lens by 1.6, (it has a crop factor of 1.6) so a 28mm lens is actually a 40mm, and a 55mm actually an 80mm, because the sensor is not the same size as a 35mm film, and that's what lens are based on, it might be even more for the 350D, 1.6x is for my 1000D, your sensor might be a tad smaller.

here is my attempt with a 28mm lens (40mm to be precise)

MM

[mikehab]

I'm a great fan of using old 35mm lenses on a modern DSLR body with the appropriate adaptor ... the quality of some of the old lenses was (and still is) fantastic. Just did a quick search and found this OM Zuiko 28mm f/2.8 for example...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Olympus-Zuiko-OM-System-Lens-28mm-Lens-/321102756751?pt=UK_Photography_VintagePhotography_VintagePhotoAccessories&hash=item4ac3373b8f

Obviously you need to shop around and watch the auction sites, and you need to be particularly careful to watch out for fungus in these old lenses .... but there are bargains to be had.

Mike

[long_arms]

I haven't actually bought a lens yet, so will obviously look around.

I've found it difficult to find details on certain lenses as the internet is full of snobs that have sample images that look great and sharp to me but they still mock the lens :/

It seems that as I dont care about the flexibility of a zoom lens for now, old lenses are the way to go!

[Davey-T]

If you've got a lot of light pollution in your area you'll gather a lot with wide open lens and long exposures and you can't use a clip in CLS

filter with the kit S lens.

Dave

[Andy_E]

Just remember with a DSLR to times the lens by 1.6, (it has a crop factor of 1.6) so a 28mm lens is actually a 40mm, and a 55mm actually an 80mm, because the sensor is not the same size as a 35mm film, and that's what lens are based on, it might be even more for the 350D, 1.6x is for my 1000D, your sensor might be a tad smaller.

here is my attempt with a 28mm lens (40mm to be precise)

MM

Just to confirm, the 350d has a 1.6 crop factor too