Affordable Lens For Canon 60Da?

[DaveyLeo10]

Does anyone have any recommendations for an affordable lens for the Canon 60Da? I can't afford to spend hundreds on a wide angle lens and to be honest I'm not so much interested in big wide angle shots but more specific targets like the constellation Orion. 

I love my camera, I've used it many times with my Nexstar Evolution but it's not practical taking my scope with me when I travel (sadly!).

[Psychobilly]

Canon 50/1.8 EF II stopped down to around f4....? around £40 second hand

Peter...

 

 

 

[jambouk]

The field of view calculator webpage isn;'t working for me at the minute (http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm) but when it does, plug in the camera and a 50mm lens and see what the field of view is, I suspect this will be about right for Orion.

 

Then it's just a case of finding a 50mm lens you like, there is a whole spectrum, depending on your budget. You can get f/1.8 prime 50mm lenses for £50-80, and f/1.4 ones for £180 or so, f/1.2 for £800 or so

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canon+50mm+1.8&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acanon+50mm+1.8

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-EF-50mm-1-4-Lens/dp/B00009XVCZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454420332&sr=8-1&keywords=canon+50mm+1.4

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-50mm-1-2L-USM-Lens/dp/B000I2J2S6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454420402&sr=8-1&keywords=canon+50mm+1.2

 

As said above, you may need to stop it down a few clicks to minimise aberrations at the edges - very much trial and error.

 

James

 

[MARS1960]

Well you have a few options depending on budget. Personally i love my Tamron 16-300mm, best of all worlds, bought lightly used for £300.

Or you could go for a converter for Canon FD lenses and for around £50-£70 you can get a really good quality FD 300mm prime lens.

[Psychobilly]

you can also think about old M42 lenses with a suitable adaptor... Although prices have gone up over the last few years as people realise that there are some real "gems" to be had...

The older lenses were designed to use with a full frame sensor so can do a pretty good job on crop sensored cameras... they were also designed to be manually focused so usually have silky smooth focusing action that doesn't creep...

Peter...

 

[Psychobilly]

The problem with FD lenses is you need an adaptor with optics in there to achieve infinity focus  and there lies the problem - finding a decent adaptor at a reasonable price...

Personally I would go with a lens designed to use a longer "register" than the EF mount which is 44.0mm as all you meed is a simple mechanical adaptor - no optics..

the M42 mount has a register of 45.46mm so you need a thin adaptor to guarantee Infinity focus..

 I use this page as a "resource" for checking different lens mount registers http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/mounts-by-register.html..

Peter...

[Psychobilly]

This company does a "proper job" of converting FD to EOS but it isn't cheap...

http://www.thelensdoctor.co.uk/page5.html

 

[DaveyLeo10]

My budget is a max of £200, I'm still learning all the terminology so I'm easily confused! 

[Psychobilly]

5 minutes ago, DaveyLeo10 said:

My budget is a max of £200, I'm still learning all the terminology so I'm easily confused! 

Canon Lens mounts

EF - lenses for full framed and crop sensored cameras - like the 60Da

EF-S lenses only suitable for crop sensored cameras amongst other things  they protrude too far into the body of the camera to use on full frame.

FD - The older canon lens mount from "film days" and  "pre-EOS" has different register - the distance between the mounting flange and the focal plane.  this means you need an optic in the adaptor to get infinity focus.

 

[DaveyLeo10]

Thanks for that! Really helpful

[Psychobilly]

No worries...

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Hi, I put together a quick guide to budget lenses for astrophotography that you might find useful. It includes a 50mm shot of Orion.

[DaveyLeo10]

Ha! I already read through it so you know it's on Google! really helpful thanks!