What Lens for Canon 650D

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AMAR SHAZAD

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AMAR
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Hi,

I'm a pretty novice photographer. I have a Canon ES 650D. I am going to northern Chile and want to try and take a photo of the Milkyway.

Could anyone advise me of some of the lenses that would help capture a good photo? I'm hoping a lens that isn't too expensive but gives good enough results that I could buy from the UK maybe off Amazon or something. I have a tripod etc and a 18-55mm lens but don't want to risk using that lens if it doesn't give good enough photos of the milkyway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot
 
I'm sure someone who knows what they're talking about will chip in shortly (if only to correct me!). Partly I'm commenting as I read the first sentence with a comma after 'pretty', and it made me smile. :)

As I understand it though, the key (unless you stack images, and even then) is to get as much light to the sensor as possible, in the time you have before the stars move. Apologies if this is super obvious to you.

A long shot will of course give you star trails, so assuming you don't want that, you have only 10-20 seconds or so depending on your focal length. This means that the wider your aperture, the more you can take in, in that time. So you're looking for a faster lens than yours to improve your pictures.

Given you'll also likely want to capture a wide angle, you'll need a fairly wide lens. I'd was speculatively wondering (for myself in the future) on something like a 24mm prime f2.8, as you can get them without spending hundreds. For example, a Cannon Efs one new on Amazon now for £154. I think this would give you nearly twice as much light in, and given you around 13 seconds exposure before you get star trails.

I've got a couple of respectable sky shots with my 18-55 kits lens at f.3.5 18mm, so you could use that, but the more light you can get, the better.

Apologies if any of this is incorrect please do correct me. :)
 
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