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Had to pick between a cheap zoom lens and a prime lens for my first nebula shot
I went with the prime because it was faster, and honestly the Andromeda core came out way sharper than I expected. Has anyone else noticed a big difference switching between lens types for deep sky photos?
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jamesfox12d ago
Nah I gotta disagree hard here. I've been shooting with a midrange zoom for years and the difference is way overblown by people who spend too much time pixel peeping. The zoom is so much more practical for framing targets that move across the sky, and modern lens coatings have closed the gap a ton. Plus you can stop down the zoom to f/5.6 or f/6.3 and get perfectly round stars across the whole frame, while a fast prime wide open will have coma and astigmatism in the corners that's honestly worse than any softness from a stopped down zoom. I know people love their primes but for a first nebula shot the flexibility of a zoom would have saved you from missing half the frame because the target drifted out of view while you were composing. Not everyone has a fancy tracker setup, you know?
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king.wyatt13d ago
Man that's a good call, the prime was definitely the way to go for sharpness. I did the same thing a couple years back and the difference in star clarity was night and day even compared to a decent zoom. Once you see that Andromeda core pop you never wanna go back lol.
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