Samyang 14 mm lens

Shetland has wide open skies that are just waiting to be photographed either day or night. One thing you want to do is have the biggest view and you can only do this with a full frame camera.

For sometime I have been saving for and have just bought the Nikon D610 with a 14 mm Samyang Lens.







By doing this I also had to update from Lightroom 4 to 6 as the camera wasn't recognized in the old software.

                                                                                                           St Ninian's Isle

For many years I have used a cropped DX Nikon camera with the Tokina 11-16 mm wide angle lens which has been very good. There has always been something missing, a wider view either to capture the Milky way or a dramatic sky.

                                                                                                                Lerwick Museum

I had read many reviews on the Samyang 14mm lens, its the same lens as the Rokinon, Vivitar and Opticka 14mm. For the money it has had some top reviews but some have said you have to watch out for soft edges.

                                                                                                                        Mareel

The lens arrived and I was soon out undertaking test shots and instantly you could see very soft corners, which was nearly blurred. I sent this back and ask if others they had were from the same batch, they said not so asked for a replacement which came quick. Exactly the same problem occurred on the second lens, so this went back. I received excellent service from the seller not his problem, the lenses were below par.

I then move onto Amazon with a high turnover on lenses. This came in a different box, sealed with a 5 year guarantee so i was optimistic. Straight away it appeared sharp on the rear screen, so I did more test shots even though the weather wasn't great and downloaded them to find the corners were actually alot better, so third time lucky.

I was out that night hoping for an aurora or stars but neither appeared so I had to make do with some low light photos near the harbour. I was very impressed , it was very sharp at f/5.6 to f/8 and easy to find the focus (manual) with the chip (AE) in the Nikon version. (Canon have just released an AE version)

I didn't find flare a problem like some and it revealed pleasing colours and contrast. It covers around 115 degrees, so you get lots in . Then a better clear night arrived and I was out photographing the aurora and stars- you can see more examples on my last blog. I will also be looking at taking more landscapes with this lens

You have to get used to being close to objects, its all about getting to grips with the enormous field of view. I work alot with an 800 mm lens doing wildlife photos (shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk) so the field of view is about 2 degrees - some difference.

                    One of the first ones received but was very soft in the corners at f/8 - this bottom left

I decided to get the new filter holder for the Samyang 14mm lens, mine from Slovenia. It arrived quickly well packed and for 10euro it was an excellent find. Most in the UK come in around £27. One thing though, it is massive.

You have to fit an attachment over the lens hood, then attach the filter holder from the back of the lens, which I am not too keen on doing as it means you have to detach the lens allowing possible dust into the camera.

Another issue might be the wind, here in Shetland it can always be a problem, and with a massive hood it is going to collect alot of wind and could become unstable even if using a tripod, more later.

The other day we went to a very interesting talk on the moon, given by Mike Briemann and his wife Anna. Rather than delivering it the conventional way Mike brought a number of models made on his 3D printer together with video and slides, it worked very well

                                          A landscape photo at Nibon with the 14 mm Samyang lens

Activity again

Its been a great week in Shetland and the rest of Scotland for seeing the Aurora. Judging by the number of photos I have seen on Facebook a good part of the population has been out taking photos. The weather has played a part with a run of three excellent nights, clear, still and reasonably warm.

                                                                               St Ninians Looking north to Bigton & Ireland

The only draw back was a half moon, although there was some benefit as it tended to light the foreground.

Although we have been  restricted with the times we could go out, due to concerts, it is still great to be outside any night. Tuesday night we managed an hour out at St Ninian's, but the main activity seemed to be after midnight.

Wednesday we got out slightly earlier due to a shorter concert but the largest activity was about 1/2 hour before we started photographing down at Mareel, it was already fading when we started. The forecast had been for the greatest activity to be between 9-12 midnight, you just need to have the time to be out ready. On the way back from Lerwick we did see one burst of very bright activity as we passed Sound.

                                                                                                       Looking north from St Ninian's

The KP level had been 5 on Tuesday and Wednesday, but in Shetland people didn't seem to capture the colour as further south on mainland Scotland. March and September are the best months for seeing the aurora here as the earth tilts towards the sun providing the biggest contact with any solar flare.

With several alerts during the day with a KP 5+ you always want night to come sooner, but the nights in Shetland are drawing out quickly so it becomes darker later and will not be helped by the change, on Saturday 26 March when the clocks go forward.

The Aurora  is possibly the main item on a person's bucket list, it was on mine but even though we have seen it more than two dozen times since we moved here back in 2014 we never fail to be impressed.

                                                               Lerwick - Aurora still visible even with light Pollution

Don't forget tonight is Earth Hour a global event when people turn off their lights for an hour between 8.30- 9.30 pm. This is to show that we care about the future of our planet. Now 172 countries are taking part. It first started back in 2007 in Sydney Australia and is expanding all the time

Opportunity missed

What can you do when you have guests and you find out that a massive 6.7 kp aurora is taking place outside.

Well not alot until they leave, but peaking outside you could see some activity behind the clouds.

This is the first time I have seen the aurora over a light polluted area. It was so bright green but i missed the colours which had taken place earlier that evening. Not the best aurora I have photographed but never the less still spectacular

 I couldn't really jump in the car and head out but I did go to the bottom of the road and looked out west

 Cloud was coming over and eventually the aurora was lost behind the grey mass. Further south in Scotland a great display took place, many colours visible. Many nights we miss out when a massive aurora takes place as we have cloud cover

The best time and the biggest auroras for us in the UK, tend to take place either in March or September when the earth is turned towards the sun

The following night I was out and only found a weak aurora , just a thin green band across the northern sky, still great to see

Star trails

The lack of posts have been down to the weather, we have had a lot of gales and the other week Storm Gertrude hit with 120 mph winds. In addition to that it has been very cold, most of the time hovering around freezing both day and night, so night driving has been an issue with icy roads.

Any way I did  get out to do a bit of star trail photography down the road in Sandwick next to the beach. It was dark with no moon so I set the wide angle lens up on the Nikon D7000 and left it running at 30 second intervals for an hour at ISO 800 looking out over a couple of boats.

                                                                                Sumburgh with Iridium Flares

After I also took 15 dark frames to reduce the noise. Its no good using noise reduction in the camera as the camera would be unusable for another 30 seconds after the photo was taken so would produce large gaps in the star trail. Ideally it should be at the same temperature so a dark frame subtraction would  be better to use but I have found it better to take dark frames after the session.

                                                                                                  Sandsayre Normal mode

The last couple of days have produced weak auroras but these have been in the very early hours  when I have been asleep. I have been out in the day and now have found a couple of locations I would like to take either star trails or aurora photos, its always nice to have something in the foreground.

                                                                                                       Comet Mode

Focus issues still confuse people, even after explaining it a few times. Something I will be covering again in the next intermediate photography course next month which is now fully booked.

I finally after a lot of saving and debating, purchased a Nikon D610 (full frame) and a Samyang 14 mm lens. These have both been highly recommended for astrophotography, although in some cases the lens produces some very soft corners so I will be testing this out very soon.

                                                                                                     Aurora down at Sandsayre

What a night

It seemed quiet fitting that having just delivered an astrophotography training session to my intermediate photography group in Lerwick , the conditions for astrophotography that night was just perfect.

After a few very cold night with lots of ice about, Monday finally warmed up and it promised a reasonably clear night/ Monday was of course the night for the Geminid Meteor shower so I kept locally and headed down to the coast a short distance away with good all round views.

At 7.00 pm I pulled up and instantly saw the aurora, it was too much of a temptation so I brought out two cameras and mounted them on  tripods. The 18-200mm lens pointing out to the aurora which continued to develop, the second with a 11-16 mm lens pointing towards the sky.

For the second time in a couple of nights it started to rain, but this was brief thankfully, the clouds clearing. The brightness of the aurora began to change and curtains of green waved across the sky , shafts of green reaching high into the sky and also below.

As usual the lights from Cunningsburgh caused light pollution and made the clouds orange but I think this added to the photos. This aurora was the second best I have seen this year, but this one had little other colour than green visible. This wasn't the case further north and west where purple banding and shafts of light could be seen in Unst and Walls

The Aurora can last several hours or a few minutes, this one was visible throughout the three hours I was out. At nearly 10 pm it started to fade, but others saw it well past midnight. I could have well missed the whole events had it not been for the meteor shower which I intended to photograph.

Using multi shooting at 25 seconds I captured many frames but only two with meteor trails, I did however see dozens, some very bright. Most tended to be short in length, but a couple very long trails came through very bright.

Its difficult capturing meteors even with a wide angle lens, even pointing to the source did not really help and looking at what happened last night I will in future point the lens away from the centre. At over 100 per hour the Geminid Meteor shower is the best chance to capture one or more of these beauties.

Normally I am down at this spot by myself but on this occasion several other people including photographer took the opportunity of a still moonless night to see the spectacle. It was good to get out at last but the forecast for the next 10 days looks poor with gales and rain returning so this may be the last chance to get out for some night photography

It was good to see a few of the photography group managed to get some Aurora photos of their own. If you want to come on an Adult learning course either beginners - know your own camera or intermediate course ( 3 different 6 week courses) covering a wide range of photography, then contact Shetland Adult Education in Lerwick . Note the January 2016 Intermediate course is full, only a few left on the Intermediate course commencing end of February. A new beginners course starts in April

Milky Way over St Ninian's Isle

Its been a very frustrating time missing out on auroras and various conjunctions due to a combination of things, mainly the weather.

I am sure many of you will have the same problems, everything looks good, no moon and cloudless skies, but then - Its gale force winds, the cloud moves in (is any weather forecast correct in Shetland?) and no aurora appears even though it has just forecast a KP7

Astrophotography certainly tests your patience, especially when you see other people posting great photos from cloudless, wind free sites. At least we can dream  a little and when everything does come together it makes for a truly memorable night.

The other night it started foggy in Sandwick but with a high aurora predicted we decided to go to the west side on our way to an event. Just as hoped for the sky was clear and it was fairly calm. My new Gitzo tripod is a big help, it weighs a ton, very handy to stop any movement.

No Aurora activity on arrival, but it can flare up anytime, so we waited and in the meantime the Milky Way looked absolutely stunning. Although its not a true dark site its one of the best sites to visit if you only have a short time period.

I never get tired looking at the Milky way , the cloudy band of millions of stars, perhaps around 400 million  and a 100 million planets arch across the sky from east to west. The width is approx 150 million light years in diameter. It has a low surface brightness and needs a dark sky to see the best.

I set the camera up, the Nikon D7000 and the Tokina 11-16mm lens at 11mm and started to shot at 25 seconds to avoid star trailing. Instead of the normal ISO 1600 I took it up to ISO 4000 to bring out the star fields which it did. The one draw back is the noise, you wont want a lot of noise reduction as it kills the stars, so its a balancing game.

Its all down to processing and personal preference on how much you want to bring out the Milky way. I don't use Photoshop preferring Lightroom.

Well the aurora never appeared that night as it was delayed, making an appearance the following night, unfortunately for us in Shetland it was thick cloud with fog, so its back to a waiting game.

Would have been due to go out Thursday & Friday night with another high aurora predicted but having seen the forecast and confirmed by me stepping outside for a few minutes, i think it may have been too windy with a Force 10 hitting Shetland, this one called Abegail -or A BIG GALE