32mm - Milky Way at f/1.4 tonight (PICS)

bmike wrote:

Praefos wrote:

Marco Nero wrote:

If you have the 22mm, it's a wonderful Astro lens and you probably don't need the 32mm lens if you already own the 22mm lens... although it's so darned bright that you may find use for it with comets later this year... or for creative photography in low light. I'm just happy to have a bright lowlight lens to work with that's much faster than f/2.

I also did some astrophotography, but I always had the problem of manualy focusing with this lens. In my opinion it's quite tidious with EF-M lenses in general. Do you have any special tips for this topic?

Agree. One of the reasons I picked up the Rokinon 12mm and adapted the Sigma 35. The focus by wire lenses are tough for astro.

EOS M6 + EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens ready for an Astro shoot.

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To focus the lenses (eg 32mm and 22mm) I simply locate a bright star. Switch the camera to MF (in the menu) and then use the Magnify Feature to zoom in on the star. If your focus is very close, and you are using 10x Magnification, you'll find that the star will be easy to focus on. If it's slightly too far one way or the other (too near or too far yet not quite in focus) when turning the focus ring, the star will produce either a red or a blue halo around the star as the refraction produces Chromatic Shift. If you gently tease the focus ring left and right until you have a minimum of both red and blue shift, you'll find your lens is then in perfect focus. It only takes a moment. I sometimes bring a set of magnified $6 reading glasses with me to act as a visual assistance when doing this... or a jeweller's loupe. I keep one in my camera bag for this purpose although you may not need one yourself.
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* Mount Camera to Tripod.
* Switch to M-Mode (Manual Mode).
* Select your Aperture (ef f/2), Shutter speed (eg 10sec) and ISO (eg 1600).
* Turn on Timer (i use a 2 second delay but 10 sec is often fine).
* Aim camera towards a bright star.
* Turn focus ring until you can fee it faintly.
* Try to center the star in the middle of your LCD.
* Use touch screen and activate the Magnify feature (lower right corner).
* Now focus the lens on the star with the focus ring.
* Twist left and right until red and blue shift is minimal.
* Now your lens if manually focused - even if you turn off the camera. (unless you bump the focus ring)
* Take a picture or two and take a look at the results. Zoom in on the image to examine basic details. Don't be afraid to adjust your focus more than once during a shoot... although you'll get more confident with your procedure as you do this more often.  Nailing the focus should only take you 15 seconds or so.  It really is pretty quick to do.
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Taken (by accident) on my first evening shooting the Milky Way with the EOSM. I was overseeing my wife (crouched) who was setting up her DSLR to do the same. My flashlight was on since I wasn't aware I'd triggered the self timer on my own camera at the time.

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In the years I've been shooting the Milky Way with the EOS M cameras, I've only once had a shot slightly out of focus. As I said before, it doesn't hurt to make a second attempt to refine your focus later during the same shooting session. The trick is the play with the focus and slowly narrow it down until the least amount of red/blue shift appears around a star.  Lenses like the 22mm and 32mm lens for the EF-M mount have more play than the EF lenses but they are still impressive to work with.  The 22mm lens is slightly more forgiving than many other lenses.
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EF lenses (including my favorite, the EF 24mm f/1.4L USM II lens) often range PAST the Infinity setting.  This means that when you reach infinity focus, if you keep turning the focus it will travel past this notch and your focus will be spoiled slightly.  There's a mechanical reason why they were designed like this but you'll find that there's a spot on the lens window that allows you to settle on that brings the lens into focus.  Not all lenses are the same so using non-Canon lenses might prove to require a different method for manual focus.
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Astro photography can produce some interesting and sometimes beautiful results - even more so if you are prepared to experiment a little.  On a moonlit night I often use the moon as a focus target to lock the focus of my lenses.    If the moon is bright enough to ruin any chance of photographing the Milky Way I might experiment with using it to illuminate my scene.  If you have long lenses or wide lenses you can time the rising of the moon to include it in a landscape.  I've even mounted my EOS M to the back of a spotting scope for more dramatic effects of moonrise shots.