better midrange zoom for "starburst"?

Looking to get better "starbursts" in my arch shots. I've got a 16-35II and it does an AMAZING job at this... Here's 2 examples:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/benjacobsen/7​264889810/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/benjacobsen/8​133518363/

and this tool helps a bit:
http://www.benjacobsen​photo.com …-5d-mark-iii-bjp_8410.jpg


but I'd LOVE to see some REAL WORLD EXAMPLEs if any of you guys/gals have some!
Thanks

niiiice Ben . here's one from the 50 1.4 @ f14...........

While I haven't tried it, someone suggested using ladies hose or fine black screen/mesh stretched over the lens. It's worth a try.....

I'm not too sure I like the effect, but the 24-70II does starbusts. If you zoom in on the white lights in the lower right side of this picture, you can see an example.
http://www.flickr.com …157631958059910​/lightbox/

Not a great photo as I was just out mucking with the lens, but it shows the starburst from the 24-105:

billythek wrote in post #15220352
I'm not too sure I like the effect, but the 24-70II does starbusts. If you zoom in on the white lights in the lower right side of this picture, you can see an example.

nice, looks like they have it dialed in there...

Snydremark wrote in post #15220428
Not a great photo as I was just out mucking with the lens, but it shows the starburst from the 24-105:

OK, so it's better than the 24-70L but not quite 24-70II good. I'm very curious now to see how the 24-70 f/4 IS fares with these. I don't love the pricing on it (more than the 24-105 with less range?) but if it handles flare well it might be the answer. It's certainly the perfect size and FL range to round out my landscape kit...

ben:

i think i know what you're looking for, and it comes down to aperture blades.

if you count the points in your first shot with the 16-35, there are 14, which is 7x2. the reason there are twice as many spikes than blades is that the 7 blade aperture is not symmetrical, so the diffraction spike from one "side" bleeds over to the other "side," effectively doubling the number.

on your 24-70 v1, there are 8 blades. with an even number, the spikes will superimpose on one another. i suspect what is happening is that the superimposed spikes tend to bleed into one another and cause them to be not as well defined. perhaps there are tiny variations in the position of the aperture blades (or more specifically, the corners where two overlap) which cause them not to be perfectly superimposed.

on the 24-70 v2, there are 9 blades. the 50/1.8 has 5, the 1.4 and L have 8. the 24-105 has 8. the 14/2.8 v1 has 5, v2 has 6. 24L v1 has 7, v2 has 8.

so far, in the samples i've looked at, all of the shots with nice, sharp, distinct diffraction spikes have an odd number of blades. i had originally suspected that curved blades spiked less than straight blades, but i no longer believe that to be the primary factor--it comes down to odd vs. even.

judging by the fact that the upcoming 24-70 f/4 has a 9 bladed aperture, i suspect it'll have sharp points (and lots--18!--of them). my toke 116 has 9 as well, and i do like the bursts from it.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/ken-gilbert/3799300056/

wouldn't any of the 9-blade aperture lenses work better as the bursts wouldn''t be doubled up

new 24-70f4IS
24-702.8MKII
tamron 24-70VC
even the sigma 24-702.8 has 9...

24-70 II is wonderful for starbursts.

awesome, thanks Ken. Sounds like the 24-70 f/4 IS might do it, I'll wait out it's release (-vs- getting a 24-105 now) and see how it goes. Steve, I'd love to see some samples, but I'm afraid I can't afford one even if it was the only answer.

like ride5000 said, from my understanding, odd numbers of blades double the number of star points, whereas even numbers of blades have the same number of points as blades. so ideally (if you want a lot of points), you want a 7 or 9 bladed aperture (for 14 and 18 points, respectively).

From what I see, the rounder and/or smaller (further away) the source of light, the better.

Ben,

Here is one example I have showing the starbursts... Not as significant in this picture, but you can still see them!

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/invertalon/8114​784830/

OK, looking at some of the specs of lenses I've owned Ken's onto something. Seems like 9 is the magic number which both new canon 24-70s have as well as the sigma and tamron versions. The tamron 24-70VC just became more interesting...

you should get one.

so i can try it out.