The Canon Magazine 99
astro lenses
Here are the best-buy fast-wide-angle lenses for
astrophotography and shooting starry night skies
ight is arguably the most important
raw material for photography, so
things get a bit tricky when there’s not
much to play with. Naturally, shooting
outdoors in the middle of the night is
particularly challenging, even when the
subject in question is the Milky Way on a clear,
star-studded evening. To make matters worse,
the night sky is not only very dimly lit, but it’s
also very large and constantly moving. This
means that you have to choose wisely when
it comes to picking a suitable lens.
To take in a generous portion of the Milky
Way and avoid the further difficulty of stitching
multiple images together, you’ll need a wide-
angle prime or zoom lens. A focal length of
around 10-14mm is ideal on an APS-C format
camera, or around 14-20mm on a full-
frame body. You’ll also need a wide
aperture for sucking in as much light as
possible. This avoids the need to send
your camera’s ISO setting into the
stratosphere, as you try to keep
exposures short enough to stop
stars trailing across the sky.
Compared with standard and short
telephoto lenses, wide-angle optics
require relatively large-diameter elements,
especially when the design includes a fairly
fast aperture rating. This can make them
expensive to manufacture, particularly if you
add the complexity of a zoom facility rather
than sticking to a fixed focal length. Here are
some of the best buys that will help you reach
for the stars without spending a fortune.