Nice shots, shire guy.

​

mccasi said:

Sorry to be that guy, but the Sony 14 1.8 gm is half the price, 2/3 the weight, smaller and famously has no aberrations wide open on a 60MP sensor… the canon 14mm has to be stopped down to 2.8 to be even remotely where the Sony is… and that’s before you consider the a7cr has 1 stop better noise performance - which gives it 2.5 stops advantage … the comparison is so ridiculous that CR has ignored it from the comparison

Click to expand...

On which planet is the Sony A7CR 1 stop better? So you telling me that ISO 6400 on the Sony is as clean as ISO 3200 on Canon?

shire_guy said:

Australian Brush-turkey

View attachment 228005

White-faced Heron (with lunch)

View attachment 228006

Click to expand...

More like a snack! Nice and sharp to see it so clearly.

Ian K said:

If you want to focus correctly for astro work, you can’t do better than a bahtinov mask. Use the rear screen to zoom in to a bright star and centre it in the screen. Then place the bahtinov mask in front of the lens. Or simply hold it there, if like the RF 14mm there are no threads. Now manually focus until you have a sharp star. You now have perfect focus for Astro, remove the mask.

For example the Kase Night Focus Tool or Kase Bright Star circular filter. I’ve used the Bright star to great effect.

Batinov Masks

Click to expand...

100% absolutely .. tried and true and works on literally anything.

mccasi said:

Sorry to be that guy, but the Sony 14 1.8 gm is half the price, 2/3 the weight, smaller and famously has no aberrations wide open on a 60MP sensor… the canon 14mm has to be stopped down to 2.8 to be even remotely where the Sony is… and that’s before you consider the a7cr has 1 stop better noise performance - which gives it 2.5 stops advantage … the comparison is so ridiculous that CR has ignored it from the comparison

Click to expand...

that's cute but what does it have to do with the RF mount? it was literally in the title and I'm not sure you actually read the article. Comparisons were not even a core part of this article.

sorry to be that guy, but no, you re a little wrong on - everything?

Let's see coma.


while, "okay" .. it's certainly not "nothing".

secondly on what planet is 1750 50% of 2600?

third:



I am looking for that miraculous 1EV better high ISO.

and finally.

60MP means if you are concerned about point sharpness (which you mentioned) your light gathering aka exposure time would be shorter. around 8 seconds versus 10 seconds for 5 trailing pixels.

Australian Brush-turkey



White-faced Heron (with lunch)

A good overview.
The Sony/sigma options are substantially cheaper if you already are in that system.
Getting the RF20/1.4 + RF14/1.4 locally would be about the same cost as a A7iii (new) + 14/1.8 + 20/1.8. Or even a second hand A7iv. The Sony stuff gets on sale and available second hand. The RF14 and RF20 won't be discounted or available used (for a long time).

Canon threw everything into a great 14mm but if they asked me (and they didn't), a better astro lens would have been manual focus with dew heater and focus lock as you mentioned. the cost would have been a lot cheaper.

If you can afford or justify its use then it is a great choice but there are only ~10 new moons a year to use it - if the weather cooperates.
Coma isn't everything but it is annoying if substantial. All depends on stitching for corner sharpness.

The alternative is to get good at tracking and use a slower lens for a longer exposure. The Samyang 14/2.8 and lots of trackers would be a cheaper option. Of course, certain foregrounds don't lend themselves to tracking/longer exposures especially trees reaching up in the sky.

m4ndr4ke said:

I like the idea, I don't like the controls. Requiring two dials to operate such a simple design without at least trying to match the previous arrangement is diabolical to me

Click to expand...

I agree. The M-Fn actually requires two dials and you have to press the M-Fn button to switch to the next selection. I always forget that and confuses me over and over again. Atm, it is not intuitive to me. Hopefully, it'll change.

m4ndr4ke said:

It would be nice if it could be operated with the joystick, in four directions, like the menu.

Click to expand...

Yes, please!

m4ndr4ke said:

I prefer the power switch on the left, but I know I could use it on the right, I would easily deal with that. However, it's not on the right, currently, it's at the top and aimed at the front. The thumb can't get there, the index finger needs to bend, it's just not a good design, in my opinion.

Click to expand...

I agree 100%!

alFR said:

I guess your choices are:

• Ebay
• Local dealer who buys second-hand kit (in the UK there are loads e.g. Wex, LCE: assume there must be some in Belgium?)
• MPB etc.
• Other online marketplace e.g. Facebook

EBay / Facebook come with the attendant hassles of time-wasters and scammers. You’ve already rejected MPB so local dealer? Odd that the MPB price was so low though, there’s a like new one on their UK site for £5749 - that’s a lot of margin (unless yours is trashed ).

Click to expand...

Their mark up tends to be a about 40% in the UK (that of course allows for VAT, postage and warranty). WEX and MPB seem to offer the same price in my experience. I've sold over eBay with no problems and very satisfied customers, but I then found it easier to take a slightly lower price with less hassle from MPB. But eBay is now more competitive as they have lowered their fees.

mccasi said:

Sorry to be that guy, but the Sony 14 1.8 gm is half the price, 2/3 the weight, smaller and famously has no aberrations wide open on a 60MP sensor… the canon 14mm has to be stopped down to 2.8 to be even remotely where the Sony is… and that’s before you consider the a7cr has 1 stop better noise performance - which gives it 2.5 stops advantage … the comparison is so ridiculous that CR has ignored it from the comparison

Click to expand...

On paper that Sony lens does not impress me


But we have to see the real world tests/examples

Ian K said:

If you want to focus correctly for astro work, you can’t do better than a bahtinov mask. Use the rear screen to zoom in to a bright star and centre it in the screen. Then place the bahtinov mask in front of the lens. Or simply hold it there, if like the RF 14mm there are no threads. Now manually focus until you have a sharp star. You now have perfect focus for Astro, remove the mask.

For example the Kase Night Focus Tool or Kase Bright Star circular filter. I’ve used the Bright star to great effect.

Batinov Masks

Click to expand...

I looked into masks some time ago but the problem I have is that it makes the process more complicated rather than less. Focus on Stars has an option for 14mm that might work but some sort of adapter would be required.

If you want to focus correctly for astro work, you can’t do better than a bahtinov mask. Use the rear screen to zoom in to a bright star and centre it in the screen. Then place the bahtinov mask in front of the lens. Or simply hold it there, if like the RF 14mm there are no threads. Now manually focus until you have a sharp star. You now have perfect focus for Astro, remove the mask.

For example the Kase Night Focus Tool or Kase Bright Star circular filter. I’ve used the Bright star to great effect.

Batinov Masks

mccasi said:

Sorry to be that guy, but the Sony 14 1.8 gm is half the price, 2/3 the weight, smaller and famously has no aberrations wide open on a 60MP sensor… the canon 14mm has to be stopped down to 2.8 to be even remotely where the Sony is… and that’s before you consider the a7cr has 1 stop better noise performance - which gives it 2.5 stops advantage … the comparison is so ridiculous that CR has ignored it from the comparison

Click to expand...

Are you sure that the Sony A7CR is a stop better? and compared to what? I just compared it to the R5 and the R5 looked better to me in every scene at ISO 6400 and both cameras had about the same iso range.

I guess your choices are:

• Ebay
• Local dealer who buys second-hand kit (in the UK there are loads e.g. Wex, LCE: assume there must be some in Belgium?)
• MPB etc.
• Other online marketplace e.g. Facebook

EBay / Facebook come with the attendant hassles of time-wasters and scammers. You’ve already rejected MPB so local dealer? Odd that the MPB price was so low though, there’s a like new one on their UK site for £5749 - that’s a lot of margin (unless yours is trashed ).

mccasi said:

Sorry to be that guy, but the Sony 14 1.8 gm is half the price, 2/3 the weight, smaller and famously has no aberrations wide open on a 60MP sensor… the canon 14mm has to be stopped down to 2.8 to be even remotely where the Sony is… and that’s before you consider the a7cr has 1 stop better noise performance - which gives it 2.5 stops advantage … the comparison is so ridiculous that CR has ignored it from the comparison

Click to expand...

Assuming that’s true (I’m not familiar with the noise data on the Sony, sorry) it would cost me £4000 (approx) to buy that lens/body combo. The Canon lens is £2400. Given I’ve already got Canon kit, even if I was “Astro-curious” and flush with cash so wanting to buy something wider than the Rokinon 2.8 I’d have a hard time justifying buying the Sony.

Sorry to be that guy, but the Sony 14 1.8 gm is half the price, 2/3 the weight, smaller and famously has (almost) no aberrations wide open on a 60MP sensor… the canon 14mm has to be stopped down to 2.8 to be even remotely where the Sony is… and that’s before you consider the a7cr has 1 stop better noise performance (source:https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/RN_e.htm) - which gives it 2.33 stops advantage …

if you do wide angle Milky Way photography normally:
1. set the aperture to acceptable aberrations canon 14 1.4 @ 2.8, Sony 14 1.8 @ 1.8
2. Star tracker MSM nomad or something
3. 15-30 sec sub exposures
4. Stack the foreground and background etc
Then this lens needs somewhere between 2.33 to 3.33 the integration time for the same results!!

Buy this lens if you’re happy to spend EXTRA 13 sub exposures for EVERY 10 sub exposures you would take with the Sony setup.

the comparison is so ridiculous that CR has ignored it from the comparison

… avoid the ad hominem attacks guys. @Canon Rumors I’m disappointed you participate in pure tribalism

Richard CR said:

maybe contrast detect and the smallest point source?

but a hard and/or fixed infinity stop would be problematic for sure.

Click to expand...

Yes, something like that would be fantastic. Although I have to say that at least Canon has a good zoom in ratio on the R5 and other bodies. It makes it reasonably quick to get focus in the dark.

neuroanatomist said:

Most lenses can focus beyond infinity (insert Buzz Lightyear motto here, if you like), because the position of the focusing group(s) for infinity focus varies based on the temperature of the lens. Does Hasselblad take that into account? Warm night? Cold night? Lens heater? For astrophotography, I would not rely on a preprogrammed infinity focus.

Click to expand...

maybe constrast detect and the smallest point source?

but a hard and/or fixed infinity stop would be problematic for sure.

benperrin said:

One thing about these calculators that people seem to miss is that resolution plays a part. It really does seem like 8 seconds is a good exposure time without a star tracker. PetaPixel was really defensive when people called them out in the comments.

Click to expand...

Our calculator takes into account resolution (or more accurately, the pixel pitch) as well as the target declination. Writing up the description of that calculator gave me a headache. I think with a 24MP sensor, you could get away with around 14 or so seconds, but if you want to pixel peep with a 45MP sensor, yeah you are looking at around 8 seconds.

I purposely left out peta pixel as the source, but yeah. i'm not sure what was going on with that review.

benperrin said:

However one feature I'd really like Canon to implement is an infinity focus recall/set button. Hasselblad seems to have that feature where you press infinity and it focuses for you. If anyone knows how to do that on a Canon I'd love to know. It would save some time.

Click to expand...

Most lenses can focus beyond infinity (insert Buzz Lightyear motto here, if you like), because the position of the focusing group(s) for infinity focus varies based on the temperature of the lens. Does Hasselblad take that into account? Warm night? Cold night? Lens heater? For astrophotography, I would not rely on a preprogrammed infinity focus.

Richard CR said:

There were other aspects as well, lens profile (they used the RF 16mm profile), focusing, etc., on that image that I won’t get into. The workflow and exposure settings were not optimal decisions, so it seems odd to conclude it was a problematic lens.

Click to expand...

I had thought PetaPixel was reasonably reputable. The wrong profile, and one for a relatively cheap, 2-stop slower non-L lens. He also applied additional manual distortion correction, which is linear and barrel only, while a proper profile corrects for the nonlinear nature of most distortion and any mustache components. The only conclusion I draw from that review is that I will no longer consider PetaPixel as a trustworthy source of information. Personally, I would not repost images from the review...it's not as egregious as some other misinformation that has been spread around over the past several years but better to be part of the solution than part of the problem, IMO.

One thing about these calculators that people seem to miss is that resolution plays a part. It really does seem like 8 seconds is a good exposure time without a star tracker. PetaPixel was really defensive when people called them out in the comments.

However one feature I'd really like Canon to implement is an infinity focus recall/set button. Hasselblad seems to have that feature where you press infinity and it focuses for you. If anyone knows how to do that on a Canon I'd love to know. It would save some time.

Click said:

The bee cannot land on the plant, the FAA has closed the control tower. Very nice series, ISv.

Click to expand...

By reason: it's very windy in the last several days!

AlanF said:

I prefer it to be in the 5-series. At least one of us will be happy if they do make a higher resolution sensor in one of the series!

Click to expand...

Of course I can live with a R5 body, as I am doing now. If they will release a higher mp R5 I will seriously consider it.
I would still prefer for the same camera to be in a gripped pro (whatever that means ) body...