Imaging with the Samyang 135mm f2

[Kyle Allen]

This is my first pic with this lens that I'm truly happy with. I love how quick and easy it is to set up on the Star Adventurer.

144 x 30 second exposures taken at F2.8 with an unmodified Canon EOS 100D.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Here's the Angelfish Nebula with the Samyang.

Just a 30 second exposure with the 6d for the starfield, taken last night during a small gap in the clouds, with about 40 minutes of Hα taken with the modded 1100D blended in using Photoshop.

[Richie092]

Another silly question... have been searching for a second hand Samyang and all the cheap ones are Sony fit. If I am going to use the #Uranium235 adapter does it have to be Canon fit or will any do ?

Edited February 13, 2021 by Richie092

[Laurin Dave]

Don't know the answer but not a silly question at all, as I found out, I have a Nikon fit one and the threaded adapter doesn't fit.  Different number of holes and spacing..

[Richie092]

Shame they are different but I’m not surprised. Cheapest I can find a Canon one is £450 ish. Sony are £100 cheaper and the Canon ones don’t seem to come up 2nd hand. 

[FenlandPaul]

28 minutes ago, Richie092 said:

Shame they are different but I’m not surprised. Cheapest I can find a Canon one is £450 ish. Sony are £100 cheaper and the Canon ones don’t seem to come up 2nd hand. 

Hi Richie, I purchase mine in October from a company called Tecobuy, who I think ship from Hong Kong. It cost £328.99

It took about 3 weeks to arrive I believe. Mine has been a good example, and I don’t know how I would have fared if I had problems with it.

Online you’ll see mixed reviews on product quality and customer service, but they’re undeniably the cheapest place to buy new. I did well with them, and am considering going back for a 24mm f/1.4

If you’re prepared to take what may be a bit of a risk, it’s great value for money. But proceed with a level of caution.

[Adreneline]

1 hour ago, Richie092 said:

If I am going to use the #Uranium235 adapter does it have to be Canon fit or will any do ?

I would be surprised if it doesn't fit. I have a Canon Samyang and I bought the Astrojolo M42 adapter before the Uranium235 became available. It is simply a case of removing three screws and the end plate comes off and you replace it with the M42 fitting.

[Laurin Dave]

 

5 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

I would be surprised if it doesn't fit. I have a Canon Samyang and I bought the Astrojolo M42 adapter before the Uranium235 became available. It is simply a case of removing three screws and the end plate comes off and you replace it with the M42 fitting.

I was surprised too but the Nikon fit version of the Samyang 135 has 4 screws and is a different diameter to the M42 adapter

[Richie092]

30 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Hi Richie, I purchase mine in October from a company called Tecobuy, who I think ship from Hong Kong. It cost £328.99

It took about 3 weeks to arrive I believe. Mine has been a good example, and I don’t know how I would have fared if I had problems with it.

Online you’ll see mixed reviews on product quality and customer service, but they’re undeniably the cheapest place to buy new. I did well with them, and am considering going back for a 24mm f/1.4

If you’re prepared to take what may be a bit of a risk, it’s great value for money. But proceed with a level of caution.

I looked at Tecobuy but it seemed a little too good to be true. Will have another look. 

[Space Oddities]

I confirm Uranium's adapter is only compatible with the Canon EOS version of the lens. The Nikon one has 4 screws, and mirrorless versions won't fit at all, because it's really not the same construction (that big spacer at the back of the lens). I owned the Fujifilm version before getting the Canon one, and I believe it's identical to the Sony version. 

Your best bet is to browse forums and 2nd hand shops for a Canon version. You can also lookup alternative names, because Samyang used to sell its lenses under 3 names: Rokinon (USA), Bower (Germany) and Samyang (rest of the world). My lens is actually a Bower one  And it's 100% the same company and products, just a different branding for some obscure reason...

Luckily for us, manual Samyang lenses are usually not impossible to find on the used market. A lot of DSLR users purchase one, and realize it's difficult to focus it in daytime with a DSLR... and end up selling it. Sometimes it pops up on Astronomy forums as well, but you need to be lucky, this lens is a keeper!

Edited February 15, 2021 by Space Oddities

[Richie092]

Thanks for the reply. That’s really helpful. 
ive got a month or so before thaw adapter gets delivered so plenty of time to hunt one down.  

[Richie092]

On 13/02/2021 at 16:08, FenlandPaul said:

Hi Richie, I purchase mine in October from a company called Tecobuy, who I think ship from Hong Kong. It cost £328.99

It took about 3 weeks to arrive I believe. Mine has been a good example, and I don’t know how I would have fared if I had problems with it.

Online you’ll see mixed reviews on product quality and customer service, but they’re undeniably the cheapest place to buy new. I did well with them, and am considering going back for a 24mm f/1.4

If you’re prepared to take what may be a bit of a risk, it’s great value for money. But proceed with a level of caution.

Did you have to pay duty or import tax on the screen price? It looks a little too cheap to be true!

[FenlandPaul]

1 hour ago, Richie092 said:

Did you have to pay duty or import tax on the screen price? It looks a little too cheap to be true!

No - I only paid what was quoted - no other charges.  This was before Brexit, so not entirely sure on whether that would change things.  In my experience the prices were very good indeed.

Very recently, however, I bought a lens from a fellow forum member in Germany and was charged import VAT by the carrier.  Nothing the seller could have foreseen, but just saying for transparency.

[fireballxl5]

IC 1396

Another process of data collected using my Samyang 135mm @ f/2, from two sessions at the end Nov/early Dec 2020. Integration of 71x300s subs (~6 hours) with an ASI071MC Pro and IDAS D2 LPF in the suburbs. Mounted on a guided AZ-GTi, all controlled by AAP.

Processed using MaxImDL (calibration, alignment & stacking) and PixInsight (everything else). Image appears slightly garish on FB but the TIFF looks nice enough on my monitor😊

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by fireballxl5
image not included in post

[david_taurus83]

The M48 adapters for the Samyang 135 are back in stock at FLO. They've been out of stock for ages but I ordered one yesterday and was quite happy to wait a few months if needed. As luck would have it, I received a notification that they were back in stock today! Not many left! 

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-samyang-lens-to-m48-adapter.html

[Richie092]

Result!! One of those is mine 😁

[AnonymousAnimosity]

My first two pictures with this lens, Star adventurer and modded canon 100D. Stacked in Siril and quickly processed with StarTools.

72x120" lights at f2, calibrated with flats and biases

91x120" lights at f2.8 with l-enhance filter, calibrated with flats, biases and darks. Dark optimization in siril does seem to reduce pattern noise a bit.

[Richie092]

Two fantastic pictures there. I love the field of view you get with this lens.

[groberts]

I can see some of you are sucessfully using this lens with the Star Adventurer mount:

• How do you find this combination - with a DSLR, OSC or Mono camera?
• Would like to see pictures of the set-up if possible please?
• How does the mount handle the weight?
• I see the mount can go with a decent photography mount, I have  manfrotto 190 - would this be up to the job?

Where I'm going with this this to try and establish light weight set-up with the Samyang.  I've been using mine with the AZ-EQ GT which is great but something more portable appeals.

Graham  

 

[Tomatobro]

Samyang 135mm f2 with a Horizon2 OSC camera. Pulse guided with PHD2. Sharpcap 3.2. Navigation via plate solving.

Polar align using Sharpcap

To fast find use an angle finder to set the counterweight bar horizontal than transfer the angle finder to the lens clamp. Look up the altitude (not RA) of the object in Stellarium and adjust the angle of the lens to match. Turn on Tracking. Swing the lens to roughly where the object is and plate solve. Adjust the Dec (and only the Dec)  till correct. Then adjust the RA and plate solve. keep plate solving and adjusting RA till object is centred.

Tip. If using batteries to power the mount remove one battery before storing the mount. Its very easy to turn the rotary switch on when packing away. removing one battery means mount cannot be turned on by accident.

[Dinglem]

@Tomatobrois that a William Optics 90mm Saddle Plate where the dovetail plate is attached?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics-brand/william-optics-90mm-saddle-plate-for-vixen-style-dovetail-rails.html

[Tomatobro]

Yes. The standard SW one works ok for polar alignment it just takes a bit longer to achieve. The WO unit just shaves a few minutes off the setup time.

[Magnum]

Just captured this image of the heart of Orion my recently purchased samyang135, though I was hoping for a bit more structure at the bottom and really had to work hard on this image, straight out of the camera there was much more contrast in the centre 50% of the image than the outer parts which looked washed out ( almost like reverse vignetting ),  im wondering if my Baader 7nm Ha filter is going off band at f2.8, can't decide wether to stop the lens down ( defeats the purpose of buying it ) or upgrade to an Antlia 3nm filter which ive seen examples of working well with RASAs at f2.2. my filter has always worked fine with my other optics including my old slower Pentax 135.

Can people here comment if they have experienced issues of their Ha filters going off band with this lens? weirdly ive seen a much deeper image taken using just an Optolong L extreme filter used at f2 which theoretically as a triband filter should be inferior to the true 7nm ha filter for something like this. 

This is 21 x 10 min subs in Ha using my Samyang 135mm F2 lens set at f2.8 & my Atik383L ccd camera. Guided, captured, stacked and stretched in MaximDL processed in Photoshop. 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Magnum

[geeklee]

2 hours ago, Magnum said:

Can people here comment if they have experienced issues of their Ha filters going off band with this lens? weirdly ive seen a much deeper image taken using just an Optolong L extreme filter used at f2 which theoretically as a triband filter should be inferior to the true 7nm ha filter for something like this.

Fantastic image @Magnum

I've asked the same a few times in this thread but haven't had anything concrete back.  I've seen all sorts mentioned here and elsewhere - using the 7nm at F2, using 12nm ones, using the dedicated high speed ones etc.  I'd expect F2.8 to be more forgiving than F2 of course.  I think my L-eNhance (rather than eXtreme) seemed to do quite well but it has much wider passes.  Like the 7nm I'd expect the L-eXtreme to struggle too...

I've finally received my M48 adapter for my Samyang 135 so hoping to get my 460EX onto it soon and only have the normal Baader filters - including the 7nm Ha.

Edited February 20, 2021 by geeklee

[Magnum]

I found some info on the baader website, looks like the standard 7nm baader is ok down to f2.8. So looks like mine cant be going too far off band but there will be some losses at the fastest end.
plus a good write up on the subject by Baader.

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/blog/baader-highspeed-filters-and-why-different-fratios-require-special-filters/

Edited February 20, 2021 by Magnum