Camera and lens options for some specific shots

I'm taking a trip to New Zealand and wanted to get some night sky shots. I don't have any experience with night photography. I'm primarily a birds and mammal guy.

I have three final products in mind.
* Star trails around the Southern Axis
* Detailed shot of Milky Way
* Time lapse showing star movements - probably 6-10 seconds final product at 24 fps

I have a Canon 5D3 and 7D2 and assume the 5D3 would be the camera of hcoice for all three. Is that right?

On the lens options I have the Sigma 35mm f1.4 and the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 . If I use the Tokina I would be at 16mm on the 5D3 to avoid part of the image getting cut off. Not sure if the 35mm would be wide enough for Star trails of the time lapse. However on the Milky Way I could use it and then stitch the photos togther to use its better light gathering capabilities.

Any thoughts on the lens choice for the 3 final products I'm interested in?

Thanks
Doug

What time of year are you coming ?
The 11-16 is a really good astro lens and is sharp to the corners wide open and zoomed back to 11mm on a crop. I don't know if it's still as sharp at the corners of a full frame at 16mm.
The 7D2 seems to have a good low-light sensor so probably the main difference between the two bodies would be that the 35mm would give you longer exposure times before trailing shows on the 5D3. That would also be easier for you milky way panorama. The sky is awfully big at 35mm focal length.
You're pretty much set with what you have.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

I'll be there from Dec 17 through Jan 8th. I'll be in Kaikoura and Dunedin around the new moon time frame, Dec 20 to Dec 27.

You won't be able to get the biggest and brightest part of the Milky Way but you will be able to the bit that you don't get to see from your home - The area around the Southern Cross. The later you can stay up the better as it starts off low on the Southern Horizon and becomes vertical by about 2am. Before then will be good for your star trails and get some shots of the Magellanic Clouds. You won't have any trouble finding them if you're out of the town.
Have a good trip.

Steve.

Do you have a tracking mount? If not, buy / rent one if you can (Astrotrac, for example). It really makes the diffrence between ordinary and fantastic shot, because you can get very long exposures with it. Ive done 18 minutes with 105mm lens and no trails at all.

Thanks Steve for the advice. I hadn't research timing during the night yet so that helps.

Photo123abc, I don't have a tracking mount. My plan for star trails was to take a series of 100 to 200 photos and stack them to create the star trail final image. I haven't done a lot of research on the process but I thought it was a decent way to do it. Do you think this is a poor way to do it?

Thanks

You dont need tracking mount to get star trails, it prevents you from getting the trails.

But for the milkyway shot you mentioned above it will make huge diffrence. And you can shoot nebulas, galaxies, everything thats up there without trailing.

For the startrails I have done it both ways, by stacking and by single long exposure. There is not much of a diffrence between these two, of course stacked one has less noise, but its also more effort to create. But thats not something a little noise reduction wont solve. I use single exposure because its easier and trails look smoother to me.
You dont need ND filters or anything for 2-3 hours at all, depends on how much you can stop down your lens. I calculate proper exposure with "Exposure calculator" software that I downloaded (free) to my smartphone. Remember that you can over expose the image as long as you dont blow out your hinglights.

I prefer to stack several short exposures, for a couple of reasons. Unless you have very, dark skies then light pollution will build up during a long exposure and wipe out anything interesting. And you can also have a single exposure ruined by other people (idiots using their P&S near you - with the flash on).

After reviewing some star trail tutorials I think I'll try the multiple 30 second shots and stacking them in startrax. I have a Radian Timelapse head that can give me camera rotation. I'll try that for some night sky timelapse.

I might try some telephoto night shots but to keep with the rule of 600 I'll have to shoot pretty high iso to keep the stars sharp without a tracking motor.

Not sure which lens camera combo from my first post will be best but will probably experiment a bit.

Thanks for everyone's comments.