Lens choice?

Hey guys, I have been thinking of getting a lens for night sky shooting. I have narrowed my list to a few lenses:

Tokina 11-16 f2.8 (but its double the price)
Rokinon
Samyang
Bower

All are 14mm and F2.8. Any info or pointers will be appreciated.

I have the Tokina and it is a great lens. When I was looking to purchase mine I found reviews saying it was worth twice what it costs. I use it for wide-astro, daytime, to get pictures at work...everything.

Not sure about bower but rokinon and samyang is the same company so rokinon 14mm and samyang 14mm is basically identical lens with just different name. perhaps bower is another name of samyang also (not 100% sure about this)
Tokina is great lens for astrophotos. The only thing is that samyang 14mm is, I believe, is for 35mm of full frame sensor. So if you have crop body, it is going to be somewhere around 22mm which is little bit narrower angle compared to what tokina 11-16mm can provide you. But certainly samyang 14mm is also great lens that many people use. It has very good price w/ fairly good performance.

Look up the Samyang 14mm thread. I'm sure it would be fine for night sky and boy is it amazing on everything else! Plus you can spend around $10 to make it AF. It's on my "want list" for sure right now.

Africanphoto wrote in post #16299536
Hey guys, I have been thinking of getting a lens for night sky shooting. I have narrowed my list to a few lenses:

Tokina 11-16 f2.8 (but its double the price)
Rokinon
Samyang
Bower

All are 14mm and F2.8. Any info or pointers will be appreciated.

The Samyang 14mm is a popular UWA lens. However, this is the PHOTO SHARING forum. Your question may be best served in the TALK forum, see link - .

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdis​play.php?f=153

Good news for you if you are serious about ultra wide night shooting.

HERE is The LINK Rokinon 8mm fisheye Manual focus gem.
Free shipping, No tax.

This is the 8mm fisheye Rokinon super doper lens for extra wide shooting and a lot fun, all under $200. Deal wont last long (Daily ebay deal by well reputable USA authorized seller) and you may not see this price in near future. F stop is 3.5 so not as wide as Toki or other wide ones but still a fantastic deal for what it is offered and a must for any night or landscape photographer. You can accommodate most if not all of milky way in only one frame with no need of pano. Only thing is this is the version of lens with non-detachable hood so if you attach it to a full frame body, though you still can take picture, you will see part of petals in corner of picture that is preferably to be cropped in post processing but a perfect lens for cropped format sensor cameras. Again at this price you can probably make a tad of profit to resell it after some months of use, even if you are not a happy customer. So pull the trigger quick if you are serious and judge later to keep or let it go at the same price or even a bit profit later on. People who listen to me usually wont regret. Have fun.

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #16300004
Look up the Samyang 14mm thread. I'm sure it would be fine for night sky and boy is it amazing on everything else! Plus you can spend around $10 to make it AF. It's on my "want list" for sure right now.

Can you provide a link to this $10 device? Thanks

the jimmy wrote in post #16327816
Can you provide a link to this $10 device? Thanks

Sorry if I am leaving you link to $3.99 one and not $10 but guess in this case you should be even happier

LINK

Things to remember:
1- You need to install it so take cost of epoxy etc in mind.
For installation you can get DIY tutorial on youtube or likewise (Not difficult).

2- In reality the AF confirmation is at best rough and an estimate... You are better off with LiveView mag technique for manual focusing than anything else. I saw you left comment for someone to use Bahtinov mask on telescope, that is of course the other good way to manual focus on stars when using telescope as lens so I guess you know you stuff well.

3- The link above is for the fixed F stop exif version. That means no mater what you do, your exif will report F stop of lens used as F1.4
If you need to have a user adjustable F number that you can set according to true F of you lens (Say 2.8 or likewise) then you need the versions that are under label: "EMF"
These are more expensive (In my link $5.30)
Setting up that right F number is a hassle unless you love to be puzzled and be challenged!

4- This (Or any other device) will not make you lens AF (Unless in your dreams) and all that is provided is AFing confirmation. That is the tiny red dot that sometimes shines (Sometimes not) when subject is in focus as you are doing the manual focusing, slowly.

LINK to EMF version

My half a penny opinion and advise: You are a lot better off without these AF confirming chips.

the jimmy wrote in post #16327816
Can you provide a link to this $10 device? Thanks

http://www.ebay.com …-camera-/220630037320?ss= This is the actual item I was speaking of. Looks like it's pretty much the same as the item in the other link, except I know of an actual user on POTN using this chip and I've never heard any complaints about AF inconsistency.

samsen wrote in post #16328334
Sorry if I am leaving you link to $3.99 one and not $10 but guess in this case you should be even happier

LINK

LINK to EMF version

My half a penny opinion and advise: You are a lot better off without these AF confirming chips.

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #16328437
http://www.ebay.com …-camera-/220630037320?ss= This is the actual item I was speaking of. Looks like it's pretty much the same as the item in the other link, except I know of an actual user on POTN using this chip and I've never heard any complaints about AF inconsistency.

Thanks to you both.

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #16328437
http://www.ebay.com …-camera-/220630037320?ss= This is the actual item I was speaking of. Looks like it's pretty much the same as the item in the other link, except I know of an actual user on POTN using this chip and I've never heard any complaints about AF inconsistency.

I am personally using all sort of these chips that is from the very first day they were available I believe version 1 up to latest version EMF type. All are crap. Believe me or waist you time and money to figure it out the hard way.
Most important thing is that on Wide or Ultra wide angle lenses, you really do not need to focus too often if you know the physics and they key word: "Hyperfocal distance". On a tele lens or anything larger that 85mm yes, that might be a rough indicator of focusing but again best as described above is to use your LiveView x10 mag and then check the obtained few sample images on the cameras LCD with max mag to verify correct focusing. I don't know about you but I certainly do not like to spend entire night taking numerous long exposure images of dark sky, only to come home and see all my stars and galaxies are OOF. Trust me when I am telling you I am talking of experience.