Wednesday, April 10, 2013

What are the best FX Nikon lenses for photographing the Milky Way?

What are best FX Nikon lenses for photographing the Milky Way?
I shoot with a Nikon D800 and earn my daily bread by taking portraits, and urban wildlife (50mm 1.4, 70-200mm). Those subjects are fine I guess but are getting a little dull. I want to try out landscape photography - specifically 'nightscapes' featuring the milky way.

I'm not too keen to spend too much cash on a lens as this is a dabble.So far I'm considering the following lenses:

Nikkor 24mm 2.8D - seems to produce fine daytime landscapes, but how does it behave at night?

Nikkor 28mm 1.8G - I've heard that this is a fairly sharp lens, but is it wide enough?

Any Nikon shooters out there who are into photographing the Milky Way? If you've shot with either of these two lenses, please feel free divulge honest feedback; if not, please feel free to brag about your glass where I hope to learn from your answers.

Many thanks in advance!
Added (1). FYI: I've shot the milky way before using an entry D5100 with a basic kit lens (18-105mm). ISO was 3200, focal length: 18mm, aperture: 3.5 stops (max on that lens), exposure was 30 seconds. Camera was tripod mounted and controlled with a shutter release. I'm not really after technique tips as getting that right is fairly straightforward. Just lens advice thank you! I avoided using the term astrophotography as that genre is very broad: I'm not interested in amount of detail on specific celestial objects, rather, I'm interested in the photographic compositions including the milky way. I'm after a lens that will not display too much barrel/pin-cushion distortion when, undesirable coma, and vignetting when used at wider aperture values.

Edwin, you're answer concerns technique, and the tips you've shared here are helpful; however the exposure settings and general camera configurations are not ideal as they will lead to star trails unless I use a tracking
Added (2). … mount (don't own one of those, don't plan to buy one). Thanks for sharing your Flickr photos!

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