Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

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camboman
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p.1 #1 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

I've been saving my pennies for a new lens to shoot long exposures of the night sky. A bit of research leads me to put the Zeiss 21mm f2.8 at the top of my list (I am considering all primes from 20-25mm). I'm shooting with Nikon d600 and d700. I would prefer a MF lens with a hard stop at infinity.

If you use this lens to shoot night skies, I'd love to hear your experience, (good or not so good) or any alternatives that you think would work better. Thanks!

Feb 16, 2013 at 05:29 PM

LightShow
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p.1 #2 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

I do shoot with the OM 21/3.5 & 50/1.4 at night quite often, I found them to perform better than most if not all my other lenses at not having obtrusive coma or flare when having bright lights in the frame.
21/3.5 on a NEX-7, most of my lenses would have thrown out some sort of ugly blob from the center of the starburst.

Not quite night but it does have nice color.

Sorry for reposting images.

Feb 16, 2013 at 07:02 PM

camboman
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p.1 #3 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

Thanks Lightshow.

I am mainly interested in shooting stars with a bit of landscape included. Hopefully far away from city lights.

Edge performance at or near maximum aperture is important.

Feb 16, 2013 at 09:04 PM

philip_pj
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p.1 #4 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

I was thinking well most any lens would do, but the 21mm is incredibly good in low light, due to the amazing contrast levels - it's well known for micro-contrast, but the macro contrast is just incredible, so you get this tonality remaining in low light, it is actually quite seductive. So that plus the 'everything in focus' feature would mean you would not be disappointed...

As the D600 shares Sony's great new 24Mp sensor with the a99 and RX1, that would be my suggestion.

Feb 16, 2013 at 10:15 PM

Toothwalker
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p.1 #5 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

camboman wrote:
I am mainly interested in shooting stars with a bit of landscape included. Hopefully far away from city lights. Edge performance at or near maximum aperture is important.

This is the Y/C version, at f/4 if I remember correctly.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Feb 17, 2013 at 01:46 AM

LightShow
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p.1 #6 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

philip_pj wrote:
I was thinking well most any lens would do,
Not really, after reading a few threads it becomes clear not every lens is cut out to shoot stars, coma being the main abboration to curse at, more so if you want sharp points of light vs. star trails.

Feb 17, 2013 at 02:28 AM

ronjames
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p.1 #7 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

I like the zeiss. Great wide open.

fairbanks alaska 2013 by Analogick, on Flickr

Feb 17, 2013 at 07:57 AM

camboman
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p.1 #8 · Zeiss 21mm for night skies?

Thanks philip, toothwalker, lightshow, and ronjames!

The Zeiss 21mm it is. Sometimes you gotta spend big to get what you want...

Feb 18, 2013 at 02:50 PM

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