Astrophotography with 4x5

[dslater]

Hi Danny,
Just wanted to say I love that pic of Orion with the 300mm f/5.6. I had a 300mm f/5.6 Caltar that I sold to buy a fuji 300mm f/9 - the caltar was just too big and heavy for my Linhof 4x5. Now I wish I had kept it for this purpose .

[konakoa]

Daniel, Yes. No. Maybe. Honestly, after reading everything here I don't know what to think anymore. But If I had to guess I'd say sure. I just dove in and started shooting with the kit I had. There comes a point where you just have to go for it and try it. IMHO for your folding field camera that lens would be a good fit. It'd be nice for landscapes too.

I haven't used one, and I only know a little about the telephoto lens designs from what I've read about them. All I know is that they have a different design that puts the optical center of the lens somewhere out in front of the lens itself; that lens tilts and swings are a little different and you won't have as big of a image circle to play with. I'm afraid you'll just have to go for it and see -- then post back here what you find for the rest of us to mooch off of.

dslater, I feel your pain. I nearly got a 300 f/9 myself - but at the last moment I went the step up to the 300 f/5.6 just because of my interest in astrophotography. It was dumb luck that I went for the 5.6 as it works so well for this purpose.

[konakoa]

By the way, I don't mean to be daft to the incredibly detailed postings here on why this stuff works the way it does. The formulas and theories posted are really interesting; they're just a bit difficult to comprehend.

It feels a bit like when we were all learning lens apertures for the first time. "f/16 is a bigger number than f/2, so that's what I want in low light!" .... not quite, yet with time it gets more clear.

[25asa]

My head hurts after reading all this stuff.

Would my f/2.5 Aero Ektar work?

[George]

It surely would, it has been used by astrophotographers for that purpose. But the sky glow could be a problem (depending where you take pictures) with long exposures as the f/2.5 is quite open. Just go for it.

[Raphael]

hi all,

My head hurts after reading all this stuff.

Would my f/2.5 Aero Ektar work?

Surely, but I know people who made an astrograph with an Aero Ektar, and they used to stop it down to f/4 or f/5.6, because they got strong astigmatism, i.e not-round shaped stars on the film.
Maybe I have a link about that somewhere...

In addition, advancements in optical design and making do that a f/2.5 lens of this age old doesn't perform as well as a "modern" f/2.5 lens.

best regards,

Raphael