First light - new glass!

[chiltonstar]

After a year of indecision, I finally made a decision re an ultra-wide angle zoom. I had considered the Samyang 8mm fisheye, but reports here and elsewhere hinted at quality issues; the Sigma ultrawide zoom was also a possibility, but again poor reviews and a suspicious number available used led me elsewhere - to the Tamron 10 - 24mm zoom in fact as I had heard good reports of this and got the chance to try one out.

Tests on a digital lens testing chart surprised me - it seemed a lot better than I expected.

My first try pointing it at the sky two nights ago from my garden; a single frame, 10mm, f4.5 (wide open), 30 secs at ISO 800, mount drive off, Cygnus and Milky Way. Original reduced to 1/4 size and converted to jpeg. Again, better than expected.

Chris

[macg]

Nice!

[Psychobilly]

That's definitely not to shabby for a Super wide zoom wide open....

I bought the Tamron 10-24SP DiII for my crop sensor Canon cams but haven't used it on the sky much your results are encouraging... I also have a Sigma 10-20 EX DG in Nikon fit that I can use with an adaptor...

Now I have gone FF I have the Samyang 14mm on my wish list especially seeing the results others are having with it on FF cams...

Peter...

[chiltonstar]

I took the lens to rural France three weeks ago and tried some Milky Way shots to make a horizon-to-horizon panorama. Results are good, but my P'shop skills aren't up to getting the best from the images! eg, a poor attempt at one part (the Southern MW)...... Interesting how the star trailing increases across the frame - the FoV is so huge that stars on one side of the frame are much farther from the Pole I suppose.

Chris