alpenglow

Hi Donald,

No need to shoot wide open. If you stop down one or two stops, the images will be much sharper and the stars won't exhibit coma at the edges of the frames as they will if wide open. With your Leica 35mm lens, you can expose up to about 20 seconds before the stars will begin to show "trailing", and with your Hassy 80mm, you can expose for about 12 to 15 seconds before trailing. For film, the newish Fuji 400X is hard to beat for chromes, and for print film, any 100 to 400 ISO will work fine (no need to go faster than 400 ISO, but if you shoot with 100, you will want to shoot wide open and deal with the coma). Try and shoot on nights with some moonlight to give detail to the landscape. While the aurora viewing is better at new moon, the photography will be better with some moon. Watch you horizon lines as it is difficult to see through the finder at night.

Good luck and have fun!

Mike

Robert,

Certainly the term "cheap" is always relative... especially in the current economy. But used medium format gear is realtively very cheap compared to what they use to cost new and used. You should be able to find a Mamiya 1000S body with a non-metered finder for between $100.00-$200.00. The Mamiya 35mm lens would be about a 22mm equivalent in the 35mm world, but they cost about $350.00 used and it's not my personal favourite lens. I much prefer the 45mm (equivalent to about 28mm in 35mm terms), and they can be had for about $200.00. I also like the 55mm, (35mm equivalent), and they cost about $125.00.

You are dead on correct about my startrails photo, in that it would have been much better if I had used a slower speed film. But this particular photo was not "planned" to be a startrail image. I was actually out that night trying to capture some meteors during the Perseid meteor shower, and the faster film would have been an advantage if I had actually "caught" any of these faint streaks. But, alas... no luck, and it just ended up being a simple startrail shot. On those occasions when I do set up for startrail photography, I always use a 50 or 100 ISO film, and then stopped down to f/5.6 to minimize reciprocity failure and sky-fog.

BUT... a good/simple 35mm camera would still work fine for you. Even a very cheap, ($50.00 or so), Minolta SRT series camera, or XD-5, will work perfectly, (see some of the images in my night gallery made with this simple camera), it's just that the medium format images are so much nicer and the equipment is so reasonable.

Best of luck,

Mike

As has already been mentioned... keep the camera cold rather than keeping it next to your warm body. Also try to use prime lenses rather than zooms, as the cold temps will make the lubrication very stiff, and trying to turn a zoom ring in this state can cause damage.

Also good advice about watching your breath. I also hold my breath when I'm close to the camera.

Mike

Certainly I agree that film is the way to go for the long exposures. But I would consider getting a medium format camera rather than 35mm. There are some great, and cheap Mamiya 645 systems that will work wonderfully for this purpose... as will as the Pentax 67.

Mike

And I too will put in my recommendation for Mark Hama. When I got my 124G a couple years ago, I had exactly the same problem as you. I sent it to Mark for a CLA, and the camera came back looking and working like new. He is awesome.

Mike

Thank you Bruce for that suggestion. I'll look into the possibility of picking up a Biogon. I'm not interested in movements as I was looking at mostly press type cameras. I'm also not particularly interested in having a shutter, so maybe I can find one in barrel for less. I'll check it out.

Mike

Thank you Aaron for sharing your experience. Maybe trying this type of photography is just not going to be possible/easy with large format lenses. I really need that speed, since my exposures are not all that long. I need the stars to appear as points, not trails. And I'm not tracking the sky since I'm also including the foreground landscape as part of the composition. So my maximum exposures can only be about 25 seconds (with a 90mm lens), I can push them to 35 seconds with a 65mm lens. So f/8, or so where the quality will get better, is just too slow for these exposures. Maybe I just need to stick to the 645 system I have with 2.8 lenses. But it sure would be nice to make some of these images on 4x5 film.

Thanks again,

Mike

Thanks all for those observations. I wish I could try a few examples of the Nikkor lens like Bruce suggests, but I think it will be a challenge for me just to try and find one, since I believe they can no longer be purchased new. For the imaging I want to do, I need a wide angle lens, so the 210-250 choices really won't work for me.

And thanks Michael for the advice. I have also done tests with 35mm and medium format lenses and found the same general results you did. The biggest aberration that really is a concern with stars is coma... especially off-axis. I just wonder how bad it gets with the large format lenses. I suspect not nearly as bad as 35mm lenses that have to project their images at such an extreme angle to the film plane.

Mike

Greetings all,

I'm considering getting a 4x5 system to use for some of my night sky photography. Therfore, I would like to use a

fast lens as wide as I can, and still retain quality. I was looking at the Nikkor 90 SW 4.5 Anyway... can I shoot this

lens wide open, or will the quality really suffer?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Mike

Doug,

At this time, there is not a back that will work with the ProTL,... but Mamiya has been hinting that their ZD back will be made compatible with this camera in the near future.

Mike

The Efke film does not respond well to a red filter... it has to be opaque like an R72 or darker. I use my Yashica Mat 124G for IR with the Efke films and a Hoya R72 filter, and it works great.

Mike

Well said John. I agree with you completely.

Mike

Ewa,

I have both, and like both for different reasons. There is no denying the appeal of the 6x7 neg, but a 645 neg is also wonderfully detailed and capable of huge enlargements. When I travel, go hiking in the backcountry, or need the extra speed of the 645 lenses, I take my Pro TL. When I don't have to travel too far from the car, I like to play with the RB. Both take wonderful photos in the right hands and with the right eyes. So choose based on which fits your style better.

Mike