Canon 16-35 f4 IS: Astrophotography Talk Forum Forum: Digital Photography Review (2024)

Tom59 wrote:

Hoping to acquire this lens soon mainly for daytime landscapes and miscellaneous shooting. Curious how it would be for astro use. Mainly milky way and astro/landscape shots. Would be using on a tracker. Anyone have any experience with it? If so yay or nay? Thanks

I asked about lenses in the Canon EOS R forum and many told me that this lens was a gem. It appears to review better than the F2.8 version.

F4 is a bit slow but you can simply do 60 second exposures with a tracker instead of say 30 seconds.

F4 lenses are typically decent in the corners. The 24-105 RF lens is quite good. Some distortion in the stars near the corners but really very little. I would expect something similar.

Greg.

A friend of mine has a Canon 6D plus the 16-35 f4. I have the Sony a6000 plus Samyang 12mm f2. Difference is AWESOME favoring my much cheaper kit. He plans buying the Irix 15mm f2.4 fo fix it.

However, I've recently bought a tracker (Star Adventurer) and both did some quick tests with both kits. Of course he needs to expose more time and I close down the lens and lower the ISO. Difference is much lower or even minimal. But take into account f2-2.8 is pretty convenient as you (probably) don't want to carry the tracker on every photoshoot. Just my opinion.

aleixandrus wrote:

He plans buying the Irix 15mm f2.4 fo fix it.

I would advise against the Irix 15mm - I tried 3 of them (2x Firefly & 1 Blackstone). The first Firefly was awfully decentred, and the other two didn't focus far enough to infinity to provide a sharp image at infinity (or maximum focus ring travel).

I ended up with a Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP and it is a much better lens.

To the OP - the 16-35mm f4 gets great reviews from almost everyone, but I have not seen many (any ?) reviews for astro work. The lens is sharp, the IS is good for daytime use, but I have no idea what it is like for stars though - aberrations etc.

Yes, f4 is slow (which I would suspect is the poster aboves friend's issue) but if using a tracker it matters less.

Colin

Andy01 wrote:

aleixandrus wrote:

He plans buying the Irix 15mm f2.4 fo fix it.

I would advise against the Irix 15mm - I tried 3 of them (2x Firefly & 1 Blackstone). The first Firefly was awfully decentred, and the other two didn't focus far enough to infinity to provide a sharp image at infinity (or maximum focus ring travel).

I ended up with a Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP and it is a much better lens.

Thanks for the comment. Very valuable, I'll tell him. Some friends of my friends had the Blackstone and they are happy. I suppose control quality can be an issue.

aleixandrus wrote:

Andy01 wrote:

aleixandrus wrote:

He plans buying the Irix 15mm f2.4 fo fix it.

I would advise against the Irix 15mm - I tried 3 of them (2x Firefly & 1 Blackstone). The first Firefly was awfully decentred, and the other two didn't focus far enough to infinity to provide a sharp image at infinity (or maximum focus ring travel).

I ended up with a Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP and it is a much better lens.

Thanks for the comment. Very valuable, I'll tell him. Some friends of my friends had the Blackstone and they are happy. I suppose control quality can be an issue.

If he is going with an Irix (or a cheaper Samyang/Rokinon - the premium XP/SP series seem OK), I would strongly advise buying through a seller with a great (no cost) returns policy.

Colin

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