Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM - First Look - Is it the perfect astro lens?

[@derrickrr5516]

Has everyone gone away from the 500 rule? With a 14mm lens the 500 rule suggests you can use a shutter speed of 35 seconds before streaking is observed. I typically use 20 to 25 seconds so I can keep the ISO lower. However, I noticed you said you should have used 12 seconds. I also recently saw another KZbin video where they were also saying to use something like 10 seconds. What’s going on here? Did I miss the boat? When did things change so drastically? My A1 SUCKS at higher ISO. WAY too much noise. I need to keep it at 1600 or less or the image is completely blotted with magenta noise.

[@AstroRoad]

500 rule is good for film, NPF (as Luke mentioned) is designed to take the camera sensor resolution into account. Much more accurate for those high res sensors.

[@AstroRoad]

Thanks for doing the review Luke. I am so tempted by this lens, it is just the cost :( . Have you ended up buying one for yourself?

[@tscharke]

you're very welcome! I haven't purchased the lens yet myself, and my reasons are cost as well! I think it would be fantastic to have in my bag, however I've been able to make do with my FE 12-24GM for the moment.

[@AstroRoad]

@@tscharke wow, nice! The 12-24GM is no slouch. Turns out there was a 20% off sale on ebay ending tomorrow (22nd Feb) so I decided to get the 14mm GM while the chance was there. Can't wait to see what it can do with some tight perspective astro.

[@sic04250f]

I'll definitely be getting this lens, thanks for the review Luke.

[@nightscapeimages.richard]

Thanks for showing us this lens Luke, looks like a great option for the Sony system moving forward. Richard

[@tscharke]

Absolutely

[@UdoKellner]

Bester Review dieses Objektives über Astrofotografie -top. Grüße in den Süden! Udo

[@tscharke]

Thanks very much Udo!

[@UdoKellner]

@@tscharke Nu problem! I am joking - no problem and really very good und practicable review. Udo

[@derrickrr5516]

Haida did design a filter holder kit. You can buy it from them direct. I got this lens a couple weeks ago for two reasons. Astro photography and indoor video. I haven’t had a chance to try Astro yet but it’s excellent indoors as long as you don’t get too close. The 1.8 aperture will narrow the depth of field a little too much. As long as you keep a distance of 6 to 10 feet you’ll get an acceptable depth of field. I don’t mind a narrow depth of field but if I’m filming a person I want all of them in focus.

[@timelapsebylkunl72]

Thanks for a great review. I really like that you show star image sample.

[@tscharke]

Glad it was helpful!

[@msmarji]

Nice review, this lens will be a killer underwater lens. Underwater every 8 feet = 1-stop of light.

[@PoliticalMatter]

Interesting!

[@F4H33M97]

Would you recommend the Sony F1.8 20mm G over this lens?

[@tscharke]

They are both very different focal lengths and both 14mm and 20mm are useful for astrophotography. From an image quality standpoint I wouldn't pick one over the other. If I had to choose I'd go with the 20mm as it has the front filter thread so you can use filters with it as well. You'd be happy with either though!

[@oliverwhone]

Ha! Looking for insights into this lens for astrophotography specifically and here I come across one of our local legends! Fantastic review, mate. Looks like I should start saving! PS: I'm pretty sure we bumped into you atop the mountain during the super moon the other night 😉

[@tscharke]

Aha that was you! Thanks heaps for the kudos mate.

[@johncallery814]

Thanks for the review. How easy was the lens to manually focus on the stars. My vision is not great and the ability to focus manually is so important when shooting the stars.

[@tscharke]

it's pretty good for focusing on the stars if you magnify the live-view and pick out a star. Rock the focus dial back and forth until the stars move from being round balls to tiny pin points - and then you have your focus point. Focus peaking can also help a lot. You may also have luck autofocusing on a bright star believe it or not, but this doesn't work all the time, and works best if you magnify live view and put the star right in the centre before using autofocus.

[@johncallery814]

@@tscharke Many thanks for this detailed explanation of focusing. Amazing to think that under some conditions you might be able to auto focus on a star.

[@ferrzriz]

Good review mate. It does seem to have some aberrations in the corners dolefully open. Do you know if they become better if you start stopping down?

[@tscharke]

I didn't do much testing stopped down as I don't want to stop down the lens in order to use it for astrophotography. The aberrations were really in the extreme corners and they weren't in every image. I'd like to test another copy of the lens down the track to see if there is much variation in this respect.

[@alexfox575]

i just bought this lens sony 14mm. I noticed a sound when you press shutter button i hear mechanical "chik" of closing aperture sound in lense while focusing. Is it normal?

[@EricKrolak]

Subbed to ya and thank you for the review! 🙏🙏

[@pjbiggleswerth8903]

This vs the 24gm for astro

[@tscharke]

I'd actually look into the 20mm G, the performance is on par with the 24mm GM but you have that extra 4mm width which helps a lot for nightscape scenes 👍

[@nickmorgan5933]

Gotta be honest, this looks pretty disappointing. The lens is significantly lighter than the Sigma 14mm 1.8, but there is some serious star distortion outside the center. The Sigma has pretty bad coma, but it stays super sharp. Unless I was just desperate for the extra light collection @1.8, the nikon 14-24 2.8s does much better than this at 14mm @ 2.8 for sharpness and coma .

[@tscharke]

As you've mentioned, you can't really compare an f/1.8 to an f.2.8 so I'm not sure if it's a surprise that an f/2.8 could do better. Sharpness at f/1.8 is going to depend on how well you nail focus and I'm not sure how well I really did that in the examples. I've been using the Sony 12-24GM for most of my astro still as I haven't got my own copy of the 14mm GM yet, and I'm pretty happy with the versatility and performance of it so that's my staple at present. Cheers for the comment mate.