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Got a Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f/2.0 Lens? get in here!


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The Samyang 12mm f/2 is very well suited for astro and it's quite easy: put your A6000 on a sturdy tripod or on the ground and set it to M-mode. Set aperture to f/2 and put shutter speed at around 15-20 seconds. Any longer and you'll begin to see startrails and stars are no longer 'dots'. Try a few shots and crank your ISO up a bit until you get a proper exposure.

 

Tricky part with the Samyang f/2 is to set the lens at infinity focus. My sample is fine and infinity is right at the hard stop, but I've read some reports that it may focus beyond infinity if you focus at the hard stop. Be sure to check your sample. Otherwise, use focus magnification and point your camera at a bright star to find the right focus point. Though it can be challenging to manually focus in really poor light.

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Cheers! Sometimes I have found it hard to focus on a star if it's really dark and the focus magnifier is in any way off.

 

Sometimes they disappear from view also even when in view. Looking forward to giving this a go though.

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I just picked up the lens. Seems real nice. The focus scale seems to be right on. I just wish is had more marks on the distance scale. It goes from 3ft/1m to infinitiy real quick. I wish it had a 10ft/3m mark. Otherwise pretty nice lens. Good colors. Easy to use with focus magnify. Peaking is useless on the a6500. Even with low peaking level it indicates stuff is in focus that isn't even remotely acceptable.  But that's a camera thing. I've read that others have had the same experience. 

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I just picked up the lens. Seems real nice. The focus scale seems to be right on. I just wish is had more marks on the distance scale. It goes from 3ft/1m to infinitiy real quick. I wish it had a 10ft/3m mark. Otherwise pretty nice lens. Good colors. Easy to use with focus magnify. Peaking is useless on the a6500. Even with low peaking level it indicates stuff is in focus that isn't even remotely acceptable.  But that's a camera thing. I've read that others have had the same experience. 

Opening the aperture to maximum may help when trying to focus using focus peaking. When set, then you could stop down to where you need to be...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Firstly I LOVE my Samy 12!

 

My 12mm was quite a bit off from infinity. I set the camera on a tripod and used focus magnification on a distant powerpole (during the day), adjusted the focus, then marked the lens barrel right above the "centreline" printed on the lens body with a sharp needle. Now I can see it in the dark with the faintest of light. Using focus mag for astro photography is pretty hopeless in my experience, and using peaking is impossible. I also use that infinity mark for hyperfocal doing landscapes.

 

On my copy, all apertures from f2 to f8 are pin sharp, softening from 11-onwards.

At f8, the infinity mark can be lined up with the 5.6 marking on the aperture ring to give DOF from 1m to infinity, at optimum sharpness.

At f11, line it up with 5.6 mark to give DOF from .5M to infinity (albeit with less overall sharpness).

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  • 3 weeks later...

You may want to have a look at this article: http://geartacular.com/how-to-guide-astrophotography-with-dslr/

It's very compact and very usefull.

 

For the Rokinon/Samyang focusing put in the MF assist and crank the ISO up to 3200/6400. Focus the lense with the viewfinder using the MF assist untill stars aiming at look as sharp as possible.

Switch back to ISO 1600, go one stop over 2.0 and try at 15 to 20 sec's. If you focused correctly put a mark on the focus point. It should be infinate but it's probably not. With the mark next time focusing infinate is easy (as putting it on the mark).

For now I did not do postprocessing (must work my way onto that) on my images but they were sharp only using a tripod.

 

I bought my a6000 3 weeks ago and with the timelapse app and standard kit lense I got a nice feeling of what the cam is capable of during a trip to France Burgundy. With the Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f2.0 it should even get much better so it's on it's way.

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........... The focus scale seems to be right on. I just wish is

had more marks on the distance scale. It goes from 3ft/1m

to infinitiy real quick. I wish it had a 10ft/3m mark. ........

   

Try looking at it this way: Samyang have no way of  

predicting exactly which marks any individual needs, 

so it's up to you to add those marks. Eazee Peazee. 

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I love this lens: for all the sharpness, etc, already mentioned. For all the benefits of mirrorless, the cost effective performance of these manuals lenses does not get enough attention. Just felt like saying that...

 

I notice elongated stars after 7 seconds. It may have to do with location (Newfoundland) vs more southerly locations. Just a guess.

 

Check your infinity in daylight. It the lens over stops, mark i finity on the barrel. Heck, scratch it.

 

PS. I posted in another thread. My wireless flash does not work with manual lenses. It's a high disappointment as a full spread of quality manual primes was my original goal.

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Here's a couple a6000 astro tips.

  1. High ISO noise reduction off
  2. Steadyshot off (use a stable tripod, this will be off with a manual lens)
  3. Long exposure noise reduction on
  4. Plan on short battery life if you're taking a lot of these shots
  5. Largest aperatures
  6. 4-10s shutter, preferring shorter
  7. Increase ISO until 0 EV exposure
  8. Experiment with -1 -2 EV exposures and compare image quality, with exposure increased in post, versus 0 EV. On some cameras, this is better. I'm not sure about the a6000.
  9. If you're doing star trails, I believe there is a helpful app.
  10. Use 2 second shutter release or, #11
  11. Consider an intervalometer. I use a Newer model that's about $20. You can set exposure duration, count, and intervals. Easy to use. Everyone should have one.
  12. Shield the camera from wind.
  13. Don't upset the ground by walking around the tripod.
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  • 1 month later...

The 12mm focal length is short enough that you should get away with 15 or 20 seconds and not see much (if any) visible trailing of stars. 

At ISO-1600 you should get good night skies.

 

This is a composite:  the foreground was 4½ minutes, f/2.5, ISO 200; the sky 10 seconds, f/2.5, ISO 3200. 

The sky is rather noisy, so I recommend no more than ISO-1600, at least with the NEX-6.   

Both exposures taken sequentially from the same setup, so it's honest enough I think...

 

35312536872_5ef205f269.jpg

Columbia river from Rowena Crest, Looking East by Alan Davenport, on Flickr

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