[Nitrogliserin]

^I think it's more than OK. At least you nailed the infinity. Did you do any calibration for it?

[Na Horuk]

Well it finally happened. The craptastic hood that shipped with my 35mm finally decided to set off into the world on its own. Would one of those cheap rubber hoods work with the 35mm or should I try to hunt down a new craptastic hood from Samyang to replace it?

Ah, that's too bad. Does the lens have bayonet? If it does and you use filters with it, you might want to get a lens that fits the bayonet. If not, one of those cheap screw-in hoods can be easier and cheaper to get. And if the lens is only used on APSC, you can get an even tighter hood to get better protection. I only have the Samyang 14mm and its hood is non-removable, has no filter rings, so I can't give any better advice than some thoughts. I'm interested in how it works out, though

First outing of the 16/2 at night. Still a lot of experimentation to do, but for a quick test it is OK-ish...

I think its great Got lots of stars, and they are bright and sharp

[splash_fr]

Thanks. No calibration, focussed with LV at 10x magnification on a bright star...

[wkraus]

First outing of the 16/2 at night. Still a lot of experimentation to do, but for a quick test it is OK-ish...

Rgds,
Gerd.

I was going to post a few night skies but you beat me to it. Great result indeed for a quick test! The Samyang 16mm is a magnificent lens for astro shots, and the astrotracer seems to work pretty well. However, I feel you are overdoing the exposure (although this is obviously a matter of taste). In my mind, the impression of some stars shining much brighter than others should be kept if possible.
I don't have the astrotracer, so I resort to burst mode series of shorter exposures that I merge in PP. Hugin (the free panorama stitching software) does a great job aligning the individual images. Here is a shot from the recent Perseid meteor shower, fused from 11 shots in lighten mode to keep the meteors visible (K-5 II, Samyang 16mm at f/2.4, 10 sec., ISO 800, crossposted from https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/12-post-your-photos/301523-night-perseid-...ml#post3354384). Averaging works even better to get rid of the noise, which allows you to really bring up the exposure in PP.



This is from the Samyang 8mm fisheye which allows for longer exposures before the movement of the stars becomes visible (K-5 II, f/5.6, 30 sec., ISO 1100, fused from a 39 image series but skipping those with planes or satellites in them):



This is more tricky: to keep the foreground sharp while aligning the stars, a lot of manual PP is needed (K-5 II, Samyang 16mm at f/2.4, 10 sec., ISO 1600, 8 shots):



With exposures of several seconds the camera in burst mode goes on shooting uninterrupted as long as the power supply allows. With such serial images I can do all kinds of weird and wonderful things: star stacks as described above, star trails, time lapse videos and even star trail time lapses. Here's an almost 3 hours' series of 306 shots fused in lighten mode (K-5 II, Samyang 16mm at f/2.8, 30 sec., ISO 400):

[splash_fr]

Thanks a lot re my exposure problem, I think you're right! I might stay at that maximum Astrotracer exposure time but reduce ISO! I'm not used to fast lenses, with the DA15 at f/5.x I tend to get as much exposure as possible and it's never enough...

rgds,
Gerd.

[Sage97]

14mm

[wkraus]

Casablanca, Morocco. Samyang 1:2.0 16mm, K-5 II, cropped for a non-symmetrical composition.

[excanonfd]

Capilano River, North Vancouver. Rokinon 8/3.5 Fisheye, K10D IR Converted.

[zzeitg]

Samyang 14mm

[zzeitg]

one more, same lens

[Sagitta]

Here is one I just got around to processing from late August.

Bower (Samyang) 35mm, f/11 1/125 sec, ISO 400. I took brackets of this scene from a few angles, and I think this one came out about the best, balance-wise for what I wanted. I suspect this is where I lost the lens's (very crappy) hood as well, since I probably would have noticed it missing if it was earlier.

[Sagitta]

It was an 85mm sunset today...

[splash_fr]

Another one from the airport with the 135/2...
I didn't see the planes wheel being directly behind her boot when I took the photo... Oh well...



Rgds,
gerd.

[Auzzie-Phoenix]

Samyang 10mm f/2.8. f/2.8, 30s shutter, ISO 1600, AWB, +2 E/V. No post other than resize to 25% of original, so no sharpening or NR.

[Sagitta]

A bit of in-camera fun. Only post processing was to lighten the shadows a bit to seperate the tree from the trestle in the background.


Tree, Trestle, Sky; Fairfield, Maine by Jody Roberts, on Flickr