Aurora

[Stu2fly]

Good evening everyone, I’m new to the forums so this is my first post.

I’m hopefully going to Lapland in Dec and need a high quality lens to capture the Aurora if it appears. What lens would you all recommend?

Thanks

Stu

[felipe]

Hola,TOKINA 11-16MM,salu2 de Felipe ?

[icc]

Shoot Raw. Manual Focus. Tripod.

You'll want to go ultra-wide, i.e. below 21mm. Of course, you can use a larger lens but the difficulty of getting a good composition will increase.
Here's a 28mm sample: https://www.instagram.com/p/BZwiIL0FiRg/
And here a different night, a few meters back and 15mm: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu63ighAYVY/

The lights vary from night to night. Usually when in a dark area, away from any city lights, you will see the more or less static "beam" across the sky which you can capture pretty much with any aperture.
"beam" sample: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsTmD3-HugA/

However, if you'd like to capture the rapid "explosions" and "dancing" which you'll likely be experiencing if you're far enough north, you're going to need f2.8 or faster, or you'll just end up with a big bright spot. You're going to be using shutter speeds around 1s - 4s. Also, if you're using a newer Sony be mindful of having the ISO too high as you'll only blow out the highlights. I never go beyond 1600 when shooting auroras. 

Personally, my favorite aurora lenses are the Laowa 15mm f2 and Sony 24mm f1.4.
The Samyang 14mm f2.8 will work but there is a lot of distortion and stars do not look as good. 

The auroras are unpredictable but more or less travels east to west(like the sun).
You're going to need a bit of luck and to have the weather on your side. Do not stress and take a moment to live the experience.

Lastly, here's a sample of 2s shutter and ISO 800 with the Laowa at f2.8: (no layers, image merging or any of that)
It's almost sparkling.

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Edited June 17, 2019 by icc

[Stu2fly]

Thank you for the responses, especially your detailed response icc. ??