Northern Lights - Samyang 14mm f2.8

a1ex2001

a1ex2001

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Alex
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I have a trip booked to Iceland at the end of February and while there I will hopefully get the oppertunity to photograph the northern lights, I've been researching this all over the web and have come to the conclusion that while my existing kit will do an ok job it is far from ideal. I have a Canon 5D mkii so this should tick the high iso requirment but the widest lens I have is 24mm and that is only f4 beyaond that I have the 28mm end of my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 (which I want to sell) and a 35mm f2 neither of which I feel are wide enough.

So looking at the fast wide prime options the Samyang is by a distance the cheapest and gets some very good reviews, the manual focussing doesn't bother me as even wide open at hyperfocal distance the dof is massive and I've always fancied an ultrawide for some landscape work as well. I have also looked at renting the canon Lens but it's not cheap for a decent length trip so I'm leaning towards buying the samyang as a grey import with the plan to keep it and if it doesn't get used selling it on at a small loss probably less than the cost of renting the canon lens.

I will be buying one of the chinese carbon fibre tripod knock offs from ebay as they seem ideal for this trip (easyjet luggar allowance!) and they have been well reviewed by a few people on here.

Does anyone have any experience with this Samyang lens they would like to share? Does my plan sound sensible and finally do people think the lens would sell second hand at a decent price as I can't find many sales to give me a feeling for demand!
 
Can't comment on the merits of buying a Samyang, but you will want something wider than 24mm. I took some Northern Lights shots last year with my Canon 10-20, mostly at the wide end, on a crop camera, so 16mm equivalent FOV when compared with full frame. That has a maximum aperture of f3.5 but at 1600 ISO and around 30-50 seconds, I managed some reasonable shots. I also had my Sigma 30mm f1.4 and 17-70 f2.8-4 with me to allow more light in, but the 10-20 won out in the end.
 
Another alternative, if you can find one second hand, is a Siggy 14mm f 2.8.
I bought one some years ago, and it is a great lens for the money.

George.
 

S14mm f/2.8 on 5DIII

If it worked for that it will work just fine for aurora. One thing to consider is heavy vignetting (a problem for all fast lenses) - after correction corners turn a little noisy. Make sure to download LR profiles for the lens. The lens is crazy sharp, although mine had to be readjusted for infinity focus with a bit of disassembly.

Another one to consider is samyang 24mm f/1.4. 14mm could be too wide if you aurora or foreground are not perfect across the horizon.

The 5DII bit is the most concerning. ISO3200 is rather noisy on those so prepare for noise reduction fun. 5DIII is barely adequate at that.

P.S. I am pretty jealous about your trip and hope you get decent weather :)

Goody13 said:
Can't comment on the merits of buying a Samyang, but you will want something wider than 24mm. I took some Northern Lights shots last year with my Canon 10-20, mostly at the wide end, on a crop camera, so 16mm equivalent FOV when compared with full frame. That has a maximum aperture of f3.5 but at 1600 ISO and around 30-50 seconds, I managed some reasonable shots. I also had my Sigma 30mm f1.4 and 17-70 f2.8-4 with me to allow more light in, but the 10-20 won out in the end.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's all on tiny sensor dslr...
 
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If you read around on astronomy sites one of the top rated lenses is the Samyang 24mm f1.4
A very fast lens - the 14 mm Samyang suffers from coma - stars at the edges appear to be streaked etc and not round pin points. The best 14 mm lens appears to be the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 - I use mine with a Canon camera adapter. The most important investment should be to get hold of a good quality rigid tripod - Gitzo make some excellent carbon fibre ones.
The link below is to the NASA site which is displaying an Icelandic night photograph taken by me using a Canon 14mm lens - one I would not recommend this lens for night photography due to its poor coma performance.
Hope this helps
James
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130807.html
 
Thanks all, I'm really looking forward to my trip and want to get the right gear without breaking the bank. The samyang is the only option I could consider keeping as all the others are rental only for my budget!

Plenty to think on but leaning towards the samyang if it's to wide I can always crop it a bit or fall back to the 24-105mm which people still have decent success with.
 
daugirdas said:
Yeah that's all on tiny sensor dslr...
Click to expand...

Well, thanks for your dismissal of crop sensor shots. I see that all of us that have rubbish crop cameras needn't post in this thread. Hopefully the OP will be happy having suggestions restricted to those coming from people who own "proper" cameras.
 
Goody13 said:
Well, thanks for your dismissal of crop sensor shots. I see that all of us that have rubbish crop cameras needn't post in this thread. Hopefully the OP will be happy having suggestions restricted to those coming from people who own "proper" cameras.
Click to expand...

Any camera is a proper camera (y) but the OP of this thread is using a 5D2 your recommended lens in the form of 10-20/10-22 are designed as EF-S lens and as such will not work on a full frame 5D3 :(

That said I don't like to see people talked down to :(
 
MWHCVT said:
Any camera is a proper camera (y) but the OP of this thread is using a 5D2 your recommended lens in the form of 10-20/10-22 are designed as EF-S lens and as such will not work on a full frame 5D3 :(

That said I don't like to see people talked down to :(
Click to expand...
Thanks. I was aware of that, hence the reason I quoted 16mm equivalent FOV for his 5D2. I used my 10mm illustration to sow that he would, in my opinion, need wider than 24mm, or in other words, indicating that 14mm would be fine. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

As to the comment that prompted my reply, I would ask who is in a better position to comment; the man with all the gear, or the man who has photographed the Northern Lights twice ... ? That's not aimed at you, by the way.
 
Goody13 said:
Thanks. I was aware of that, hence the reason I quoted 16mm equivalent FOV for his 5D2. I used my 10mm illustration to sow that he would, in my opinion, need wider than 24mm, or in other words, indicating that 14mm would be fine. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

As to the comment that prompted my reply, I would ask who is in a better position to comment; the man with all the gear, or the man who has photographed the Northern Lights twice ... ? That's not aimed at you, by the way.
Click to expand...

Your suggestion for crop lens on FF camera was really spot on and was really needed. Let alone you interpret everything else :thumbs:
 
Well, I don't really understand what you're getting at now, so I will leave the pros to it. I know that none of the lenses I took to Lapland with me can be used on FF.
 
jbw said:
If you read around on astronomy sites one of the top rated lenses is the Samyang 24mm f1.4
A very fast lens - the 14 mm Samyang suffers from coma - stars at the edges appear to be streaked etc and not round pin points. The best 14 mm lens appears to be the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 - I use mine with a Canon camera adapter. The most important investment should be to get hold of a good quality rigid tripod - Gitzo make some excellent carbon fibre ones.
The link below is to the NASA site which is displaying an Icelandic night photograph taken by me using a Canon 14mm lens - one I would not recommend this lens for night photography due to its poor coma performance.
Hope this helps
James
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130807.html
Click to expand...
Bloody hell, James. Game over with that shot! ;-)
 
jbw said:
If you read around on astronomy sites one of the top rated lenses is the Samyang 24mm f1.4
A very fast lens - the 14 mm Samyang suffers from coma - stars at the edges appear to be streaked etc and not round pin points. The best 14 mm lens appears to be the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 - I use mine with a Canon camera adapter. The most important investment should be to get hold of a good quality rigid tripod - Gitzo make some excellent carbon fibre ones.
The link below is to the NASA site which is displaying an Icelandic night photograph taken by me using a Canon 14mm lens - one I would not recommend this lens for night photography due to its poor coma performance.
Hope this helps
James
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130807.html
Click to expand...
Fantastic shot. I presume that was a full, or nearly full moon night given the amount of light in the shot?
 
No moon at all - if I remember it set before sunset - Geminid meteor shower was going on at the same time so to see the meteors you need a faint to moderate aurora - any think stronger would wash it out. If you are at all interested, if you look at my 500px site there are some shots of when the aurora was a lot stronger. The link is

http://500px.com/imagesinspiredbynature

Hope this helps
James
 
When I looked at a trip to see the northern lights I was concerned about the temperature being too low for the camera. I can't remember the exact figures but I think my 50d doesn't like less than 0 degrees and the outside temp where I was looking at was -20. I'm all for pushing the limits of quoted specs but not that much!
 
chris-red said:
When I looked at a trip to see the northern lights I was concerned about the temperature being too low for the camera. I can't remember the exact figures but I think my 50d doesn't like less than 0 degrees and the outside temp where I was looking at was -20. I'm all for pushing the limits of quoted specs but not that much!
Click to expand...

I've used my 450D down to -15c and my 5D3 down to -17c both with absolutely no issue so I see no reason that your 50D wouldn't be fine
 
landwomble said:
Bloody hell, James. Game over with that shot! ;-)
Click to expand...

It's been linked before, but well worth another long look (y) For once, awesome is the right word.

jbw said:
No moon at all - if I remember it set before sunset - Geminid meteor shower was going on at the same time so to see the meteors you need a faint to moderate aurora - any think stronger would wash it out. If you are at all interested, if you look at my 500px site there are some shots of when the aurora was a lot stronger. The link is

http://500px.com/imagesinspiredbynature

Hope this helps
James
Click to expand...

Brilliant images on 500PX James. Both inspiring and depressing in equal measure :)
 
I have used a variety of Canon cameras at -30 to -36 C - all worked fine - only problem is to take plenty of back up batteries as they don't last that long in the cold and a spare lens as they can frost over at the front. Just pop a fresh one on and put the old one in your pocket with one of those glove warming pad things and by the time the new one freezes over the old one should be ok to use again. One tip - never have a skylight or any other sort of filter on your lens - you need to grab every photon of light you can !
James
 
Before you splash too much cash keep in mind that the Northern Lights are a naturally occurring phenomenon and are not always easy to predict... I was in Iceland for New Years with the hope of seeing them. Conditions were perfect on a couple nights and there had been a period of high solar activity, yet we saw nothing :(
 
Very true. As I see it there are two ways to approach the problem
1) make sure you go to a place where there is plenty else to do and look - so if no aurora you don't get too bored or disappointed
2) give up all ideas of it being a holiday and hunt clear skies where the magnetic Kp values are going bezerk rather in the same way people chase storms in the USA - it's exhausting because you get no sleep, you may drive hundreds and hundreds of Miles, sleep in vehicles etc but it's great fun and usually very rewarding
James
 
jbw said:
Very true. As I see it there are two ways to approach the problem
1) make sure you go to a place where there is plenty else to do and look - so if no aurora you don't get too bored or disappointed
2) give up all ideas of it being a holiday and hunt clear skies where the magnetic Kp values are going bezerk rather in the same way people chase storms in the USA - it's exhausting because you get no sleep, you may drive hundreds and hundreds of Miles, sleep in vehicles etc but it's great fun and usually very rewarding
James
Click to expand...

I would love to do that...
 
I have one spare battery and plan to rotate them from an inside pocket should the cold have too much impact. I always carry a spare lens but never before in fear of the front element frosting over!

Some amazing shots linked I'll be over the moon with anything half as good!

I think it's going to be the samyang as the canon equivalent is over 100 quid to rent for my trip and I won't loose close to that if I decide to sell the samyang on at a later date.
 
jbw said:
No moon at all - if I remember it set before sunset - Geminid meteor shower was going on at the same time so to see the meteors you need a faint to moderate aurora - any think stronger would wash it out. If you are at all interested, if you look at my 500px site there are some shots of when the aurora was a lot stronger. The link is

http://500px.com/imagesinspiredbynature

Hope this helps
James
Click to expand...
Fantastic shots on there. I was happy getting one of my Northern Lights shots in our work calendar this year, but it's not a patch on yours. I love how you have the light foreground.
 
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