Rokinon 14mm f2.8 - Newbie Question

I hate coming across this stupid, but I couldn't find an answer to this question....

I just purchased a used Rokinon 14mm f2.8 lens for my 6D to start trying to take night time milky way landscape pictures. It is in EXCELLENT condition! I decided to look at some YouTube videos just to learn about basic settings. In one of the videos, the guy mentions making sure to mount it on the camera at its max aperture of f22 to help the camera calibrate to the lens. In the comments under the video he even says...

So what I am looking for is an explanation for this. This is my first full manual lens, so I just want to make sure I use the lens properly. My camera doesn't register an aperture value. It reads "f00". Since the settings for taking milky way shots call for f2.8, how do I get there?

Thanks in advance for helping the rookie!!

Isn't this the way it usually works! I do a little more reading and finally see there is a version of the lens that has an "AE Chip". Is it safe for me to assume that this is the lens version this guy was reviewing on YouTube?

Since my lens isn't the "AE Chip" version all I need to do is just install the lens, manually set the aperture and focus on the lens, adjust shutter speed and ISO on the camera, and click away... correct?

It is easiest to focus with the aperture at f/2.8, the widest choice, because you have more light coming through the lens. The camera reads f/00 because the lens has no electronics to be read. Put your camera in Av mode. It will take care of the shutter speed, and ISO if using auto-ISO, when it meters the scene. Just make sure you set the aperture where you want it for the photo before metering and/or releasing the shutter. You have a great lens, there. Enjoy it!

I think there's some confusion here.

You should do the metering at the aperture you want to use. What I think the comment gets confused about is that you want to do the white balance (if using auto) using the widest aperture on the lens. The sensor will perform the best analysis only if it has enough light. So you open it wide, set the white balance then close it back up for the metering/shot.

I agree with wunhang, as far as it goes. Its not should do the metering at the selected aperture. It is HAVE TO do the metering at the selected aperture. I generally use this lens with my camera in raw mode. Since I use it outside in daylight, the WB set to AWB works just fine. I need raw to apply the distortion correction profile in LR. AFAIK, there isn't one for jpg.

When the cameras aperture readout indicates "00" that means the camera is in stop down metering mode. Normally, the aperture in your lens is wide open until you press the shutter button. The camera meters the scene and then calculates what the exposure will need to be at the desired aperture. In stop down metering mode the camera reads the scene and that's it. It assumes you've already selected your desired aperture so no correction calculation follows. WYSISYG essentially. Just make sure that before you meter the scene you select the aperture you plan on shooting with, otherwise you'll end up with an incorrect exposure.

Thanks for the comments. I got home this afternoon and played with a lot of setting in "M" mode. Once I set the aperture and focus, I was able to adjust shutter speed and ISO to get get the exposure I was looking for. I also played with the RAW files in Lightroom and was able to optimize to my liking.

The lens is definitely too wide for general outdoor shots. I can see how it would be good for much larger landscape spots, but I will use it more for the astrophotography (milky way) photos that I originally bought it for.

Thanks again!!

In many of the older mechanically connected manual focus lenses, if you needed to use aperture priority AE, you would need to set the aperture of the lens to the largest value/smallest opening for the camera system to be able to close the aperture down by the desired amount. otherwise the set aperture could prevent the camera from stopping down enough. As well as this, Nikon Ai lenses also needed the aperture to be set to a specific value before mounting the lens, otherwise there was a potential for issues with the correct functioning of the mechanical aperture control system. Even though the lenses were fully mechanical, they still had systems that allowed full aperture metering, with automatic stop down as you released the shot.

When Canon moved from the fully mechanical FD lens mount to the fully electronic EOS mount, all of the mechanical options were removed, so for Canon you have to stop down before metering.

Back in the film days I shot with Pentax, and other brands that used the Pentax K mount system. When Pentax introduced a camera with program mode, the Program A as I recall, they introduced an electronic connection to relay the lens information to the camera, and so introduced the KA lens. This had an A setting which was just past the minimum aperture setting, and allowed the lens to work on standard K mount bodies. I had a camera from another manufacturer that was able to manage to do the same, but using the standard K mount. For program or aperture priority you set the aperture to the smallest setting.

I guess that the writer of the quoted pice must have gotten confused by these earlier systems, especially the Nikon one.

Alan

sounds to me like the author was referring to using an F mount AE version of the lens on a Nikon body.