10 minutes of pleasure in Orion (dual band svbony)

[Ratlet]

Bit of a mixed bag tonight.  First clear night (proper clear) in a month and, Brucey Bonus, no moon!

Wanted to test out the svbony 7nm dual band filter and the takumar 135mm f3.5 I picked up for £15.  Got outside to realise I don't have any suitable step down rings so had to aperture blade it to down 2 stops.  Also quickly had to gaffer tape up a few shield as it was sopping wet out.

Started off well, but something went very wrong early into the session.  Mount just seemed to give up tracking.  Looked back through the subs and lo I only had 10minutes of data.  Gave it a perfunctory stretch and colour calibration and this is what I got.

Not delighted with the amount of data, but thought the image turned out well consider there isn't really much to it.  No sign of halos from the filter but will need to do some testing.  Pretty impressed with the takumar 135mm.  Obviously not as quick as the samyang, but for a fraction of the price I won't complain!

[Elp]

That's a good result, and one hell of a bargain considering how much they normally go for.

[alacant]

4 hours ago, Ratlet said:

takumar 135mm f3.5 I picked up for £15.

Hi

Yeah, they really are underrated. Excellent shot. Just imagine what 10 lots of 10 minutes would look like😀
To help with the stars, leave the internal diaphragm wide open and fit a e.g. 49 to 30 step down ring to control the aperture.

There's loadsa detail to dig out. Even in the .jpg.

Cheers

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by alacant

[Ratlet]

33 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

Yeah, they really are underrated. Excellent shot. Just imagine what 10 lots of 10 minutes would look like😀
To help with the stars, leave the internal diaphragm wide open and fit a e.g. 49 to 30 step down ring to control the aperture.

There's loadsa detail to dig out. Even in the .jpg.

Cheers

 

Cheers bud,

I usually use Stepdown rings (I have a lot) as a preference but I leave them outside with the mount.  I should have checked, since the one size I don't have is 49mm which I need for this lens!  I've ordered some in at any rate.

I was quite surprised at the amount of detail it pulled out for only 10 minutes.  I didnt attempt to do too much to it since there is nebulosity everywhere in it and I hadn't got the time to begin to approach it for a more serious attempt.

The F3.5 seems to not be anywhere as popular as the F2.5 for imaging, but I think it gives very respectable performance for 1/3rd the cost! (This one was an absolute steal at only £15 versus the £150+ for the F2.5).

I'm not sure whether it is the lens or the filter or both, but I'm very impressed with the levels of chromatic aberration.

I've had issues with lenses not reaching focus without some tweaking (adjustable m42 adapter on order) but this had some room at infinity without anything.  Again that might be down to the filter shifting the focus slightly.

[LaurenceT]

Can you all please stop posting stuff about 135mm prime lenses. It's probably my favourite focal length lens for "ordinary" photography and astro. I've had several of these over the years but sold them all on, and now I'm looking for yet another one thanks to you😄

[Ratlet]

32 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

Can you all please stop posting stuff about 135mm prime lenses. It's probably my favourite focal length lens for "ordinary" photography and astro. I've had several of these over the years but sold them all on, and now I'm looking for yet another one thanks to you😄

This is actually the third 135mm I've bought.  One was Pentax mount which I didn't get an adapter for and the other was a cheap Chinon which I couldn't adjust the infinity focus on.

I've probably spent about £200 on 6 lenses from 135mm to 300mm focal length over the last year.  2 of them were gambles (the 135mm) as there was nothin online about their quality, but cost £20 total and may turn out to be good.  I think in terms of bang for buck though I'm doing okay, but I'm absolutely going to bring the rest of you down with me!

[alacant]

1 hour ago, LaurenceT said:

now I'm looking for yet another one

But this time, you must keep it!
Don't forget, in the same category as the Takumar and also amazing-for-the-price, Zeiss 135-3.5. But not the zebra or other early non-coated models designated 'Sonnar' which produce reflections. The one you want is designated 'MC S'.
Cheers and HTH widen the search.

Edited February 14, 2023 by alacant

[LaurenceT]

I've just seen a Canon FD 135mm F2.8 for sale, I've got an FD to Nex converter and a Nex T2 adapter so I could use it on my Sony A9 and also for astro with my Asi cameras, just don't tell my wife......