David Baldwin Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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djflan
If you are photographing star fields only then an astro mount and stopping down ordinary/cheaper wide lenses is the way to go.
If like me, however, you like photographing stars and terrestrial objects in the same shot you will need a fast wide. I've used the Sigma fast wides, Olympus 28mm f2, Nikkors 28mm f2 AIS and 28mm f1.4, Canon 24L Mk1 and Canon 24L Mk2.
To be honest finding a new, affordable fast wide is a very challenging task. On the 5D2 even the top of the range 24L f1.4 Mk 2 struggles with sharpness and extreme coma until f1.8, though as has been pointed out already the lens really needs to be stopped down to f2.8 for critical work - large sample image at this aperture (5D2/8 secs/ISO3200) here:
http://www.nightfolio.co.uk/subpages/sm001.html
For your present budget I would have thought you could easily get a 24L Mk1 and this would be better than your existing zoom, but on stars the Mk 1 did have shocking chromatic aberrations. I think your best bet would be the Canon 24L Mk2 but not living in the US I don't know what it costs over there. Yes, on the 24L Mk2 you need to stop down to f2.8 to defeat the coma for critical work, but on a 5D2 at high ISO and a few seconds exposure that is very feasable IMHO, and the Mk2 lens has wonderful CA correction.
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