Star trail help

[Mongwopman]

Which would be better?

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

or

Sigma 55-200mm f 4-5.6 Dc fit Canon eos

[Colin Southern]

Which would be better?

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

or

Sigma 55-200mm f 4-5.6 Dc fit Canon eos

Personally I stick to Canon lenses for Canon cameras, but the short answer is if we're still taking star trails, then both of those options are too long.

[Mongwopman]

Too long? What would you recommend then for a begginner? Lens on a budget?

[Nass]

<cheekyPentaxPlug>

Egads, I do feel the pain for all you Canon and Nikon folk in situations like this. Being a Pentaxy person, it means I can pick up a used lens for a tenner and it'll do the job for me (The Pentax mount has always stayed the same so you can use any of the 50million produced, saves a bleedin fortune). Anyway I'll shut up now

</cheekyPentaxPlug>

[Mongwopman]

Anyone want to point me in the right direction? I got £120 odd to play with.

[Colin Southern]

Anyone want to point me in the right direction? I got £120 odd to play with.

Sorry, but it's an "end of the market" that I'm not familiar with ... add a zero to the end of £120 and I might be able to help!

[Mongwopman]

HAHA! Fair enough! Send me a couple of zeros and we can have a chat!

[JonathanC]

If you can autofocus on something a long way away during daylight and then turn off autofocus, it should stay where it is (close enough) unless you knock it.

[koolkat]

I've shot several star trails here in Arizona. Most of them were 60 minutes+. And then couple that with the 60 minutes+ for the noise reduction process. I also shot with the 400D. My shots were using the Tamron 18x270. Manual focus, tripod weighted down. Mirrow lock up, using a shutter release with the slide to lock it down. Be sure and put a towel over the camera for extra light blocking. I shot in RAW for any WB processing. By the way, I developed a method of using a 12V battery to power my camera so power was never a problem. If you can find or shoot towards the north star, the trails are reall cool. I'll try and upload a picture. I shot this at F5 ISO 100 30MM aperture open 3,702 seconds, manual focus @ 9:43PM

[ktuli]

Thats a wicked photo Colin!

How do i go about setting my MF to infinity if i dont have any infinity marker on the lens?

Damien,

This is actually pretty easy to do. Switch the lens to MF. Focus on something as close to you as possible - preferrably at the minimum focusing distance. You should find that the focusing ring hits a stopping point very close to that - rotate it all the way to the other end, and that's infinity.

I have the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 I version, and for me focused to infinity is to have the focus ring twisted all the way to the left (if I am looking through the viewfinder, the focus ring would turn as far as it can go counter-clockwise). Since those lenses do not have a USM focusing motor, the focus ring actually stops at both ends of the focus range.

Hope this helps.

- Bill

[Mongwopman]

Thanks for the heads up.

Anyone have anything to say about this lens : Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-210mm f/4. EF.

[Nass]

Don't know about the lens - but 70mm isn't going to give you much of a star trail view. Typically mine are between 10 and 30mm.

[Mongwopman]

So saying that, what sort of lens should I be looking to get?

[Nass]

I don't know the canon range well enough to be able to comment - but your average kit-type 25-70ish used at the 25 end would give you a star trail and enough to judge whether you want to make a subsequent wider investment like sigma 10-20. I'm sure a person with knowledge of the Canon system will be able to help you much more.

[Colin Southern]

I'm sure a person with knowledge of the Canon system will be able to help you much more.

Canon have lots and lots of lovely lenses, but unfortunately, they're probably all going to be outside of Damien's £120 budget

[Mongwopman]

bummer.... i guess no star trails for me!

[Nass]

What's wrong with using the 18-58 lens you already have, should be absolutely fine? You don't need the very best lens to do this at all - from looking in the thread looks like all you need to do is make sure you focus ok using it manually which really isn't rocket science. =). Just practice a bit tonight, pick a star, focus, take a few pics.

[Colin Southern]

bummer.... i guess no star trails for me!

Just try with what you already have -- nothing to lose, and you're sure to learn a lot.

[Mongwopman]

Great, thanks guys!

[Mongwopman]

Ok, so let me just run through a couple of checks.....

Using my current kit to experiment with (which is what i'll be doing) Canon 400d and 18-55mm lens

1.) Set camera to "bulb" mode.
2.) Open up the apeture completely.
3.) Manual focus on Infinity.
4.) Set remote (not so sure on this step actually)
5.) Depress and slide lock.

Am i correct? Obviousloy setup on tripod as thats a no brainer!