Astrophotography with Sony NEX

[justincarlson]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if any of you use a Sony NEX for astrophotography. I'm not looking to use external telescopes or anything fancy right now, just my camera and a tripod. Maybe this is considered "night sky photography" and not astrophotography, if so I apologize for posting to the wrong forum. I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a lens/lenses that would work well for shooting landscapes that capture the stars as well as photos of just the sky. I know that it needs to be wide-angle and fairly fast. I've seen Rokinon lenses be recommended for astrophotography but I'm not sure whether they are compatible with the NEX or if adapters need to be used. Below is an example of the types of photos I'd like to shoot, this one was taken with just my kit lens and required a massive amount of noise reduction. A faster lens I imagine would help quite a bit in this regard.

Thanks,

Justin

 

[narenek]

Hi

Thats a nice shot. I notice of the exf that you've got it stopped down to 5.6, maybe having it at 3.5 would have helped as that extra stop would have allowed you to take the ISO down to 400. Other than that not much else i can say other than maybe a slightly shorter exposure as this would have reduced the noise.

Rokinon (also called Samyang in some places) do lenses for the Nex and have some wide angle lenses just for this sort of thing. I can't remember exactly the speed they get but i think can be 2.8 on some of them. Cheaper alternatives might be old film lenses off ebay and you can find out a lot about that in the nex forum here (old minolta lenses are cheap/ish and go nicely with the Nex).

 

[RustierOne]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if any of you use a Sony NEX for astrophotography. I'm not looking to use external telescopes or anything fancy right now, just my camera and a tripod. Maybe this is considered "night sky photography" and not astrophotography, if so I apologize for posting to the wrong forum. I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a lens/lenses that would work well for shooting landscapes that capture the stars as well as photos of just the sky. I know that it needs to be wide-angle and fairly fast. I've seen Rokinon lenses be recommended for astrophotography but I'm not sure whether they are compatible with the NEX or if adapters need to be used. Below is an example of the types of photos I'd like to shoot, this one was taken with just my kit lens and required a massive amount of noise reduction. A faster lens I imagine would help quite a bit in this regard.

Thanks,

Justin

Hi Justin,

Quite a number of people use the NEX and similar cameras for astrophotography. They are relatively low noise at higher ISO, and have the manual mode needed for that type of imaging. The NEX's bulb-mode allows for long exposure astrophotography. Another plus is the fairly large APS-C sensor which will give superior results in many types of imaging versus point & shoot sized sensors. There are trade-offs in all cameras - such things as cost, weight, ease of use, noise levels, spectral response, etc. The NEX cameras seem to strike a happy medium in regards to most of these trade-offs.

I like your nighttime scene above! Thanks for sharing.

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Best Regards,
Russ