Read on to find out which you should be using and why! This leaves you with a buttery bokeh and an object in perfect focus. Film Friday: DPRTV reviews Fujifilm's Acros II film, Fujifilm launches Instax Mini 12 instant camera, DPReview March Madness, vote for your champions, Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM sample gallery (DPReview TV), OM System M. Zuiko 90mm F3.5 Macro sample gallery, Live from Japan: Highlights from CP+ 2023, Retro Review: 24 years later, the Sony F505 is still pretty cool, Hands on with the OM System M. Zuiko 90mm F3.5 Macro, New FAA rules make it easier for recreational drone pilots to fly in restricted US airspaces, Leica marks James Bond's 60th* with a special edition D-Lux 7, Film Friday: A closer look at the Pentax KX, an original K-mount SLR, Blackmagic Design announces a new Studio Camera 6K Pro, National Geographic selects Pictures of the Year photo contest winner, Sigma brings DC DN APS-C primes to Nikon Z-mount, Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm F4-5.6 Macro sample gallery, Tamron announces 11-20mm F2.8 ultra-wide zoom for Fujifilm X-mount, Film Friday: DPReview TV steps back in time to shoot APS film, Finer Points: Here's an easy way to improve video autofocus, DPReview TV: One simple fix to improve video autofocus, Head-to-head: Adobe Super Resolution vs. ON1 Resize AI vs. Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI, Waiting for the fishy in the little dishy by Gil Aegerter, Lava Lizard on Marine Iguana by ZimmWisdom. So.. its like there is one F stop not being used by the lens..how do you know what click is for what F stop?? Samyang 135 f/2 astrophotography gallery Below some pictures I made using Samyang 135 lens with QHY163 mono camera and iOptron Smart EQ Pro mount. As I posted on the Petapixel variant of this article, cropping a 85/1.4 shot to a 135mm-equivalent FoV gives you approx. She's cold? This image of NGC 7000 was done at F/4 at iso 800 with a Canon 20D mod. @ Juksu - you're pathologically clueless. I have been following your work both on YT and here from Japan for a while. So now your 42Mpix A7rII is only a 10.5Mpix. Super sharp from f2. Why take a step back from 250 to sit between the RedCat and the 24-105? This is the EF-M series version. Some real life images from my photoblog: http://hellabella.de, One of the best and sharpest lens around. As a complete beginner in Astrophotography should I buy Rokinon 135mm lens or Canon EF 75-300mm lens with Canon EF 50mm lens? Since Eric was so generous to share his images with me, I had to include his photo of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex as well. The criterion I used in evaluating lenses was optical perfection with no reservations. I am a complete amateur at photography in general and this is all new to me so thank you for all the information and videos. It's just "girl" in front of blurriness.#2: Plants on a pond.It's okay. Is it possible to get good results on a Baader filter modifed Canon 450D and a good telephoto lens, or do I need to get a good APO? It is fantastically sharp, can make beautiful blurred backgrounds and bokeh, and is both light and inexpensive for what you get. Large emission nebulae like the California Nebula (pictured below) are a great choice for this focal length. I had both for a while. The original poster is right that it was a compromise though and stopping down was necessary for critical sharpness and a better image. The colder temperatures will make DSLR astrophotography much more practical, and there are plenty of great targets to choose from. The flat lens hood is great for taking flat frames after a night of astrophotography. No rear seals - since the 17-40 Canon has added rear seals to L lenses, to help in weather sealing. Ive captured a lot of deep-sky astrophotography targets from the northern hemisphere, but Im usually in too deep to capture an entire region of space at once. Find out what happens when Chris shoots some very expired APS film using old Canon and Nikon cameras. How about the sigma 50mm f1.4 Art? In fact, it might be fun to try! In fact, in my test shots, I noticed that the red channel was a little softer than green and blue. To shoot indoors under typical gymnasium lighting, you often need f/2.0 or wider to get a shutter speed high enough to stop the action. Of my last 3500 shots only 62 were made with the 135 f/2. Add To Cart. Since i am totally new in this field, i would like to start with astrophotography but using my existing camera (Fuji XT-30). You're sour grapes man, you wish it were you who wrote the article. +1 for the 135mm lens. AHAB. I thought I had to sell my 100/F2.8 macro L but thanks for letting me know I can keep it. Interesting. 1. I therefore reduce the aperture at the front end of the lens (as an aperture stop) by screwing in a series of step-down rings into the filter thread. It seems they are now quite comparable in quality to prime lenses. Were those taken with the Canon telephotos you spoke of, and the full spectrum modified camera and the clip in filter? If 135mm f2 works for you, then fine. Just place your subject against a distant background, and half of the job is done. f/2, fast-accurate-silent focus, (relatively) small & light, super sharp!! One thing I am most stun is its AF performance. For DPReview, it's also an opportunity for a good old-fashioned camera fight. There are only a handful of foolproof strategies for making a great photograph. Well, for me. If you own an EOS Camera - It's a no Brainer, Buy one The cat is a case for the bit bucket i my opinion - it has no composition, a distracting background and a random parts of the body in focus - the same picture made with a smart phone could not look worse. I really don't want to count all the pores - and the hairs coming out of them (eeeew!) The 135mm focal length is absolutely perfect for the Heart and Soul Nebulae if youre using a crop sensor DSLR camera. The inset picture is a magnified view of the bottom right corner of the frame. As soon as e.g. I have an old 135/2.5 Takumar that is not bad at all, for the price. I got my first 400 around 50 years ago, and I must say that each step forward feels like a revolution, for a while. The APO showed no chromatic aberration at all with the addition of the Astronomik UV/IR cut clip filter (passing 380-680nm), but the telephoto lenses, even when stopped down, showed a tight bright red ring around all stars. Also, as creative as the wide-field 135mm focal length is, its not practical for smaller DSOs and most galaxies. Far from being a generic run-of-the-mill image hosting website, it was created and is still operated by an astrophotographer, and boasts features that are very specific to astrophotography. It is good to know that the 200/4 SMC Takumar is good. This has several advantages from less demanding tracking accuracy, to being able to use a lower ISO setting. The Best Telephoto Lenses for Astrophotography. Also, when used as recommended, and properly guided at full camera resolution, they are all comparable to a field-corrected APO, producing perfect images from edge to edge which can be easily cropped 25% with no evidence of aberrations. Has a good weight to it. It could easily rival 'bokeh monsters lenses' at fraction of their price. I'll walk you through all this inc. Did anybody use this lens for DSLR astrophoto? Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality. Although typically unused in astrophotography, I did get a chance to see the beautiful bokeh this lens creates when shooting at F/2. This free website's biggest source of support is when you use these links, especially these directly to it at Adorama or at Amazon, when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. IS would also help outside with wind. (Actually if I can live with the DoF I prefer it to my 85/1.2 too, as there is much less bonus colour.) 135 mm. The foolproof image seems to be more a case of how a bright fuzzy cluttered moving background can completely detach from the offset dark subject matter and overwhelm it. Really excels as indoor sports lens on a crop camera. The Canon 135mm f/2 is no less impressive on a full-frame camera. In this new review, I focus exclusively on the unprecedented Samyang 135mm f/2, which is primarily designed for portrait and wildlife. Exposure uniformity (vignetting) is also really excellent, reaching a maximum of 1/4 EV (on a camera with an APS-C size sensor) at f/2, and dropping to well under 1/10 EV at f/2.8 and above. Excellent build quality, fast auto focus, and its fast. Focus end stop. (purchased for $700), reviewed October 9th, 2012 No telephoto lens, and no apochromat, is sufficiently corrected to accomodate such a wide spectral range. Zeiss Jena or Oberkochen? Do I wish it were manufactured with metal? Overall, spectacular lens. Some APOs can be fitted with pricey telecompressors, but those invariably result in vignetting and coma. Many students just wanted to take better snapshots of family, vacation, pets, etc. The Samyang 135mm f/2 lens is very wide in astrophotography terms. The shot of the cat could certainly be improved through cropping, though. Built quality is wonderful, focus ring is well-damped. Now I have only the Nikon but I can try to take a photo of the same subject fully open Often need f2.2 to f2.8 to gain sufficient DOF for human subjects. For example, the legendary Canon 85mm F1.2L weighs in at 1025g, and the Sigma 85mm F1.4 Art isn't too light either at 1130g. I understand the optical design is quite old. The screws should be set sufficiently tightly to prevent shift, yet not so tightly as to interfere with fine focusing. Lior, I have done a lot of reading on modern zoom lenses. Thanks to you I got a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 and a 24mm f 1.4 and am considering this lens at the moment, but wonder how it compares to the Canon 135 mm f/2. I got many great shots from this lens but also missed ton of shots due manual focus only. Thanks, Fast. Photos posted are pleasing but I'd be into seeing something new. http://www.adstateagent.com | http://www.printradiant.com | http://www.hitsticker.com, I love this lens. There are a lot of photo/video cameras that have found a role as B-cameras on professional film productions or even A-cameras for amateur and independent productions. Canon EOS 60Da with the Rokinon 135mm F/2 lens. I found with the 70-200 made me lazy. As it is it is earns a 9. The logic of this article can be applied to a 200/2.8 as well. I have used and still use the 135MM F/2 l lens. f/2! Also, accurate guiding is essential. Available Monday. In this post, Ill share my results using an affordable prime telephoto lens for astrophotography, the Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 ED UMC. But you are talking more than 2x crop (cut half by width and height) and that leaves you to twice smaller resolution == quarter of the Mpix count.So now your 42Mpix A7rII is only a 10.5Mpix. (For Nikon users there's the new 105mm too.). The image shown below covers 4.96 x 5.98 degrees in the constellation Cassiopeia. http://www.idyll.com/135. Especially for beginning astrophotographers, who should first invest most of their finances into a good telescope mount, telephoto lenses are an excellent and affordable solution. Does the bright star reflection bother you? Along with improvements in telescope mounts, camera technology, filters, and digital image processing, these have allowed amateurs to produce astrophotographs of nearly professional quality. A Canon 70-200L IS II at 200mm at f2.8 has all the same characteristics of the Canon 135L. I have compared many times my 135/2 against my 100/2.8 and there is a big difference. For the rest there is Sigma 135 /1.8 Art also fantastic value lens. When the aperture is stopped down to 37mm using step-down filter rings, this lens produces incredibly tiny pinpoint star images from edge to edge. Rain or shine, it's hard to find a camera that does all the OM-5 can for the price. This lens has the Pentax K bayonet mount, and requires the K-EOS adapter for attachment to Canon EOS cameras. You get what you get.#4: Cat in Underbrush.That's pretty good.#5: Woman with Blanket.It's like a snapshot. Asahi Optical's Pentax KX was one of the first cameras with this lens mount, acting as a midrange model in the lineup. Focus are dead on with my Fullframe or APS system. Im so new to all of this so thank you for your insightful and educational posts. Just plain black plastic (no interior felt as in newer lens hoods). Oh and it's stabilised. This lens provides all of these requirements. In between interviews with executives of the major companies, Dale Baskin took to the show floor to bring you this report. Im a newbie at astro.. and photography in general really! I had of course heard that this lens is supposed to be very sharp, but I had never before had such a full blown "wow" experience when reviewing the sharpness of a lens. Thanks Gary! You can barely tell it's a pond.#3: Duck.Birds with bokeh are fine. The Rokinon 135mm F/2 ED UMC. Thanks.. or.. Clear Skies! Take care not to confuse this lens with the 200mm F4 SMC Takumar 6x7 which has a different optical configuration, and which I have never tested. This is a fully manual lens, meaning that it does not have autofocus, and you must manually select the f-stop using the aperture ring at the base of the lens. Love the shot of the blue anemone, which also displays nice bokeh, and blur! Still - a great portrait lens when used at f/2.8 or f/4, with a creamy bokeh indeed. Besides lack of IS, the only major issue I have with this lens is flare. I stopped reading after the part where someone I don't know told me I "should" be doing something. Now i have the f2.8 version, and while the resolution is better it s under no circumstance as good as the f/4 one. It's a technical review about a couple of lens attributes. Several days ago another member posted a stunning telephoto image of the Snake Nebula, Barnard 72, taken with a Canon lens which costs $12,000. I mainly use for head shot photography. Simple as that! Still, what a time to be an enthusiast/photog, so many nice options. And as this article clearly shows, no amount of blurr will make a poorly composed photo good. Photography is full of fuzzy concepts. Sure, the Nifty 50 is an incredible value (and a LOT cheaper), but the 135mm puts you within range of some of the best astrophotography targets in the night sky. I have the Canon 135 f/2 and loved it from day one. Samyang 135mm F/2 ED UMC Review (Camera Labs), Does a F/2.0 lens become F/2.8 when used on a crop sensor camera? All content, design, and layout are Copyright 19982023 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved. Nice image, andysea. I bought this lens after reading your great review for my Nikon D5300. When I was teaching photography in 70's at a junior college, I critiqued students photos, but I never did so harshly. If experience has taught me anything, its that the practical, pain-free equipment that gets the most use under the stars. I have only owned my 135mm for less then a year, but already it is one of my top three most used and most fun lenses. BTW, the 300-mm Tele-Tessar you describe -- what camera was it made for?