'nifty fifty'

[Andywilliams]

Greetings all,

After saving a few pennies, I have invested in a nifty fifty canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens.

I know that they need to be stopped back to f2-4 to avoid coma.......but do you all have any further tips with using these? and your favourite targets for the nifty fifty?

Remembering of course that I am southern hemisphere based.

I intend to use it widefield on my 1000D unmodded and my 40D modded dslr.

I look forward to your expertise

cheers,

Andy

[Andywilliams]

I might add.....that I will be using my barn door tracker with it for timed exposures from 60-180 seconds.

[johnfosteruk]

My first thought is that if you're tracking for 180 seconds stop it down further. Go to F5 or F6

[Andywilliams]

Thanks John, I will try bracketing with different f stops and see what I get. I didn't realise that I might have to stop it down that much.

cheers, Andy

[johnfosteruk]

I'm not saying you'll have to necessarily but definitely test all the options. 

[Atreta]

1 hour ago, Andywilliams said:

Greetings all,

After saving a few pennies, I have invested in a nifty fifty canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens.

I know that they need to be stopped back to f2-4 to avoid coma.......but do you all have any further tips with using these? and your favourite targets for the nifty fifty?

Remembering of course that I am southern hemisphere based.

I intend to use it widefield on my 1000D unmodded and my 40D modded dslr.

I look forward to your expertise

cheers,

Andy

You could try the milky way,  the southern pleiades,  eta carina nebula too,  large magellanic cloud if it's still visible where you live.  With the 50mm you'll get a lot of objects in frame. 

Do you have stellarium installed?  If not,  it is a handy program for finding targets and getting to know what's visible. 

[SDB777]

Stick close to the f/4 area, and adjust the ISO towards better quality if you start blowing out the image with too much light. I'd rather reduce noise then stop down(YMMV)

Have fun, shoot a LOT of data!

 

 

Scott

[Victor Boesen]

It is a really good lens! However you need to stop it down not just because of coma, but also because of the color in the stars.

from light-polluted Oslo: Nikon d3300 (Nikon type nifty fifty) at 2.8 (I think) no tracking, 30X6sec exposures.

You can see what I mean with colors in the stars, can't you? They get kinda blue'ish.

Clear skies!

Victor Boesen

[Knight of Clear Skies]

8 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

My first thought is that if you're tracking for 180 seconds stop it down further. Go to F5 or F6

Personally, I wouldn't stop it down this much as that greatly reduces the signal (f5.6 is half the aperture of f4). With thirds-focussing I've used this lens at f4.5, the corner stars are pretty good at this focal ratio.

Sometimes lens imaging can be a bit of a compromise between star shapes and signal-to-noise ratio.

 

[andyboy1970]

Here's one from this year Canon 550d + Nifty fifty at F5 uncropped.

Far worse at F3.5 here-

 

[happy-kat]

What does half the aperture mean.... Aperture squared in minutes.

5.6 x 5.6 = 31.3 6

4 x 4 = 16

So you can get the same light collected in 16 minutes at f4 which takes 32 minutes at f5.6

Thirds focusing is anywhere where the thirds intersect.

 

[Eduardo Ventura]

I had a nifty fifty and found that (even for photographic subjects) I had to use it at at least f/2.8 (and that was a compromise)... For astrophoto I remember taking it to f/3.5 when I was thirsty for light, but that was pushing it... My lens had an astrophoto sweet spot at around f/4.

Hope it helps...

Cheers,

[happy-kat]

I have the 40mm EF pancake lens it makes a great everyday lens as so small and tidy, but for astro my preferred lens is a vintage 50mm all manual lens including p&p under £25 (plus £7 adaptor)  Fast at f2 and good star shapes so I only stop it down a little bit. I like and prefer prime lenses (none zoom).

On a 1100d

[hjw]

Hi Andy,

I found the Antares region very rewarding for the 50mm lens. 30 x 30sec, f/3.2 and ISO400. But anywhere along the Milky Way will be nice. I really like this lens for wide field.

 

Good luck and clear skies!

HJ

[rigradio]

If you don't like diffraction spikes, you might want to try stop it down using step down ring or aperture mask ISO aperture blades...

[Andywilliams]

Thanks HJ.....if I could produce something as colourful and rich as that I would be a happy man ?

[Andywilliams]

Thanks for all of the wonderful advice so far .....I will post my efforts in the near future (when i get a good night to image !)