The Canon RF 14mm F1.4L VCM is Right Around the Corner

[David - Sydney]

The peak of the aurora activity is usually 1 year AFTER the peak of the solar cycle which is measured by the sunspot numbers. That is related to more frequent coronal holes after the sun-spot maximum and the move of the sun-spots to the solar equator over the solar cycle. The effect also depends on the terrestrial latitude with the aurora oval only little affected by this variations while locations further away from it (e.g. central Europe or the mid- and southern US) being more affected.

The southern hemisphere aurora also has differences eg kp index intent really useful, bz numbers are more important instance.
Given the number X class flares recently, the sun is still pretty active! Just need them pointing more our way and less moonlight

 

[David - Sydney]

While I also like 14mm for aurora, I find the light-gathering capacity of any 14mm too poor for the milky-way.
14/1.8 = 7.8mm so open aperture proportional to 7.8 * 7.8 = 60
Compared to a fast 24 or 35mm lens:
24/1.4 = 17, so open aperture ...... = 294
35/1.4 = 25, so open aperture ..... = 625
So the 35/1.4 is collecting 10x more light than the 14/1.8 lens and that's what you see on the pictures.
So it's a compromise between a more-easy but darker 14mm image or more time-consuming but brighter (better s/n) stitched 35mm images.
I don't like this strong digital image correction, so I will rather wait and hope for a pure photography 35/1.2 lens.
In practice the manual focus for astro-images is usually more simple with full-manual third party lenses, but the selection is limited and most of them are rather budget-oriented lenses.

My multi panel Milky Way panoramas have way too many pixels so pixel peeping would be hard to tell the difference. A lot of my shots used the 14/2.8 so it is still possible for a decent result.
My sigma 20/1.4 doesn’t have great coma so I generally stop down anyway when tracking 1-2 minute exposures.
Would a rf35/1.2 have great coma performance as one of its design priorities?
Personally stitching multiple row panoramas is a pain in my butt YMMV

 

[Malm]

My multi panel Milky Way panoramas have way too many pixels so pixel peeping would be hard to tell the difference. A lot of my shots used the 14/2.8 so it is still possible for a decent result.
My sigma 20/1.4 doesn’t have great coma so I generally stop down anyway when tracking 1-2 minute exposures.
Would a rf35/1.2 have great coma performance as one of its design priorities?
Personally stitching multiple row panoramas is a pain in my butt YMMV

Hi!
Just different ways of working (and many roads lead to Rome).
I like the better s/n ratio to get more structure out of the nebula with stretching. I prefer natural colors.
And yipp, the Sigma 20/1.4 doesn't has a good reputation for coma. I'm using the Sigma A 28/1.4 (but 28mm isn't 20mm).
The coma of a potential RF 35/1.2: Good question! To be honest: the 'old' Cano EF L 35/1.4 II is a very good lens for panoramas of the milkyway, so I would only go for another 35mm lens if I see a clear advantage (like f/1.2 and similar low coma and vignette).
Stitching: Well yes, it is some additional work, but I'm used to stitch my aurora pictures, so it's relatively easy for me (and PTGui is your friend).

Happy chasing!