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Thanks for watching! Yeah, we are very lucky in Australia for night sky and Milky way photography. May 11th was something else, I'm not sure what I expected, but it exceeded it. Only time I've ever seen naked eye visible beams and colour.

I agree that the Viltrox here really shows that price does not necessarily equal performance. If you're yet to get an ultra wide and looking for one, the Viltrox is definitely the way to go unless you are absolutely chasing all the weight savings you can get and price is no issue. I will say though that the Viltrox does seem to have a stronger vignette wide open than the Sony 14mm GM.

Yep, I have the 24,mm too and had high hopes for it given its astrophotography focus at launch. Pretty much use it for time-lapse only these days. Pity given its tiny size and surprisingly useful infinity focus button.

Thanks Paul, appreciate the feedback. As with everything astro, those few seconds of time-lapse equate to hours of acquisition and processing. The Nomad is so solid, very little I'd change with the unit. Having come from the original MSM rotator, the integrated arca swiss plate and completely reworked camera mount are absolutely mint.

Thanks Jeroen! Sure is a great little tracker 🌌

Thanks Richard. It really is a great little device, really looking forward to capturing some Bortle 1 skies if I can make it work with the family agenda 🌌🤔.

With some good tracking and a well refined post processing workflow, there is no reason you can't produce stunning results with micro four thirds. My favourite budget lens would be the Sigma 16mm f/1.4, I could use this lens with wide open aperture in a pinch. I suspect it is because this lens is designed to project an APS-C image circle, which is obviously a decent amount more than micro four thirds. All the worst lens aberrations for astrophotography tend to live out in the corners, so I think this is effectively cropped out for the micro four thirds version. For the camera, have a look at any of the 20MP offerings. The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mkii or Mkiii or if looking for more compact the E-M5 III. I do find the asking price for used Olympus cameras in my area is too high. The original Panasonic G9 uses the same 20MP sensor and can often be gotten quite cheap on the used market. Hope that helps!

@@AstroRoad I've looked up the tracking system you reviewed and I'm gonna save up for it. One more question. I'm very interested in the Nikon P900 and P1000 for the compact zoom. But I'm a total newb, so I don't know if those cameras even have a place for astrophotography. Can you comment on this? I'm trying to prioritize budgeting for several things and a clarification would help.

The Nomad is a great little unit. The best compact tracker on the market in my view. The P900 and P1000 are very popular for moon photography. I'd personally favour the P1000 for the BSI sensor (cleaner, higher efficiency signal) and has raw support, though the P900 is quite a bit more compact. Really depends on what you intend to use it for.

The Fornax has an incredibly low periodic error for a portable mount, however not so much an advantage when you're shooting wide angle. I rarely track shots above 85mm, so Nomad is perfect for me. Only thing that hasn't seriously impressed me about the Nomad is the janky screw in plate design to attach the polar alignment tools. I think MSM are in a class of their own for super compact trackers.

@@AstroRoad I got 3min at 50mm with a laser, which is more than enough for my work :D. I will still use the Fornax, but not on long hikes. I do love taking panoramas and on Fornax you just press a button and you are releveled. This is the only thing I dislike when it comes to my Nomad pano setup, as the levers are quite small on V plate, which I use to get a level base for panos.

Thanks Greg. Yeah, it's a great little tracker. Will be ideal for your trip to Indo. Their tiny EQ wedge is on the edge of being great too if they can refine that slackness issue out of it. Still, nothing that can't be worked around. Huge few months ahead of me, I'm really hoping we can line up schedules when I hit the mid west coast 👍

@@AstroRoad Did you see Richard Tatti's latest video. He added some additional thicker washers to the wedge to resolve some of the sloppiness.

I did see Richard's video, I had taken mine apart and wondered the same thing. I'm assuming he just used some Bunnings style nylon washer. Will have to find out as that is something I can fix while travelling.

Thanks Paul, not quite as good a show at 37° South as your 52° North, still the most amazing Aurora I've seen. Amazing how familiar places can seem so alien in the dark, but man the rate of vegetation growth there was stunning 😂

Wow Brian, that sounds near life changing 😊. Thanks for watching 👍.

Thanks heaps Jeroen 👍! I'm a sucker for a time-lapse and you don't get much better subject matter than this 😊. Location ended up being pretty good, I went to a dam wall the following night which was going to be my choice for the main event. Usually I'd have the place to myself, that night though it was full of people. No way I would've been capturing clean time-lapse there with all the car headlights. Fantastic to see so many people captivated by the night sky though!

Thanks Lawrence 🙏. Yeah, I think the strength really took a lot of people off guard when it was clearly visible over city light pollution. Would have been amazing to be closer to the poles to see corona. A lot easier for you to get north than for us to get south I suspect, anything further south than 43° and we're getting wet 😊.

Thanks heaps Richard 👍! I couldn't believe my luck when it cleared, I was hoping for a few small windows in the clouds at best. Fact it cleared almost entirely was like winning the astro lotto 🏆

Thanks Greg 👍. I was around 37 degrees south for the Aurora, the beams were truly like nothing I've seen with the naked eye. Love my longer focal lengths for time lapse, didn't really nail the beams with them as I'd hoped, but I think it is a great way to add emphasis and detail when mixed with wider focal lengths.

@@AstroRoad We were at -33 degrees. I'm definitely going to play with some longer focal lengths like this - I use my 85mm a bit.

Hey Greg, absolutely still of the opinion that the Viltrox is the best budget fast UWA out there. Used it just this weekend gone for the Aurora in fact, my strongest and only real criticism of it is the strong vignette, though it is hardly on its own here. For the Z mount I'd think the Viltrox has no real competition for what it is.

Yeah, it was pretty amazing 😊. Thanks, think I still have refinement ahead of me to get better H-alpha, possibly could have done with more exposure time on this one. Great night out though.

Thanks for watching. Actually, I think you'll find in terms of total light (photons) collected from the scene it is not, which is the equivalence I am talking about here. I should have been clearer about that, the brain does tend to fog up in regard to detail on these late nights. With the F-ratio just being the relationship between the lens focal length and the entrance pupil diameter, and the larger the entrance pupil resulting in more total photons being captured from a scene for a given exposure time, then we can use those parameters to compare these two different lens formats. The 35mm full frame lens with an f/1.8 ratio will have a 19.44mm diameter entrance pupil. 35 / 1.8 = 19.44. For the M43 lens to have the same field of view will have a focal length of 17.5, which at f/1.8 it will have an entrance pupil diameter of 9.72mm. However, open that aperture up so the f-ratio is f/0.9 and that entrance pupil diameter is now 17.5 / 0.9 = 19.44mm. This is all assuming a uniform exposure time of course. This is why a star tracker is so great at levelling the playing field in astrophotography. Your camera's exposure time is no longer restricted by the combination of lens focal length and rotation of the earth. With a star tracker your exposure time is now only limited by your ability to get an accurate polar alignment and the accuracy of your tracker's internals.

It is my understanding that similar apertures regardless of sensor size give the same exposure. Therefore a 9mm f1.7 m4/3 will give you the same exposure as a 18mm f1.7 ff at the same shutter speed. What will change is the dof between the two images. Its exposure is the determining factor for photography not light gathering so saying you have get a 0.9 to match a 1.8 is wrong, again to my understanding.

Really need to redo this to make it clear I'm talking signal equivalence 🤔 Per unit area you are correct. F/1.7 on M43 will (with all other factors/variables being the same) give you the same exposure (that being light captured per unit area) as full frame. What we are really talking about here is light density, not the total amount of light that is captured. For the above example where both cameras are shooting at f/1.7, the FF camera will gather 4 times more light giving it a far greater signal to noise ratio. With Astro, SNR is what it is all about. F/1.7 is just the focal ratio, i.e the focal length divided by the lenses aperture (physical lens opening that allows light in). As with my other comment, 18mm divided by 1.7 gives you a physical lens opening (i.e aperture) of around 10.6mm, where 9mm of the M43 divided by 1.7 gives you about 5.3mm. So while the lens aperture and sensor surface areas are proportional (FF sensor 4x as big, FF lens gathers 4x as much light) resulting in the same exposure, the signal to noise ratio is not. The FF will have much more to work with here. To obtain the same SNR, the M43 camera must have the same aperture (physical lens opening) as the FF camera, hence f/0.85 in this example. In real terms it rarely impacts any genre of photography outside of astro where every photon counts. Would be worth having a read of Roger Clark's (PHD in planetary science) website at Clarkvision.com as he has loads of great (albeit some quite complex) articles there on the topic.

@@AstroRoad Thanks for your comprehensive reply. Totally understand ff as greater sensor area and will capture greater detail because of reduced noise, I question would any mythical M4/3 lens match that, I would think not. I think the greatest improvement in M4/3 astro photography has been the new ai noise reducing software.

Some would say FF has reduced noise, I would say FF has increased signal 😉. FF, generally speaking, is a better starting point for landscape astrophotography than M43. It really comes down to lens aperture, size of projected image circle and inherent lens aberrations. The shorter the focal length, the harder it is to bring all these together. Longer focal lengths is a different matter, however this is more the domain of telescopes though than general use interchangeable lenses. The Panasonic 12mm f/1.4 is about the best wide angle M43 native lens I'm aware off. Given that is a 24mm equivalent FOV on FF, FF has many wider and well performing lenses available. That all said, once you put star tracking and mosaics into the mix, there is no reason M43 can't produce decent results (as hopefully demonstrated in the video). If you have bought into the M43 system, I would be going this route before swapping out systems to FF.

Yep, see following video. Short version being great on price, size and weight, not so good on optical performance. ruclips.net/video/aEB0jDnQU7U/видео.htmlsi=GdH6dpBP1VYKVPeb

Thanks for watching and for the feedback 👍

Thanks! Really happy with the way both of these images came out, the GX85 definitely needed more convincing in post processing. Thanks for letting me know about the website, should be sorted now 👍

Thanks a lot Paul, glad you like them 👍. We are pretty lucky here with both views of the core and how accessible dark skies are.

Hi Ray, app I'm using to record my SQM-L readings is called Light pollution map. There is a small cost associated with it from memory.

Thanks a lot 👍. I do love a good time-lapse 😊

Yeah, those trucks didn't do a lot about slowing down either. Certainly kept me on my toes. Only ended up with very short exposures of the Milky Way compared to my usual, takes all types though.

Thanks 😊. Consistent cloud can be such a bummer. Hoping it clears for you soon 🤞

Thanks Richard, certainly had more time than I was expecting to get some time-lapse sequences in. As annoying as they were, I have to admit I love the effect some light cloud like that had on a time-lapse sequence. Loving the Zeapon for light slider duties, so much easier to deal with than my Syrp and so much more compact than my old Konova. Good eye on the tracker, it is indeed a SA Mini. Still working out how I want that setup with mounting plates and the like. Seems to track pretty well and is only marginally larger than the MSM. So how we go with it.

Cheers Alyn, pretty much a standard bit of kit for most these days I'd think 😉. Thanks for watching 👍.

@@AstroRoad My pleasure :) PS. the pain of connecting an app every time (and sometimes failing to do so) was the reason I got rid of my SAM very quickly. Same reason I can't trust the Benro Polaris. I just want an on/off button and a track button :)

Yeah, the lack of physical controls has emerged as the biggest drawback of the SAM for me too. Have been able to "get around" it by setting up a long exposure and then setting the "auto-run task" option to on. A band-aid fix to problem that probably shouldn't exist in the first place.

G'day from Aus 😊

Absolutely, that lens is a light magnet 😁. Also use it with my a7s II as well with a follow focus. Can be a touch tricky to nail focus in the dark with it though, not much depth to the focal plane when wide open.

@@AstroRoad Nice! This might be my favorite video of yours now, the place was splendid and the a7s camera work was really good. So relaxing to see all those stars in real time. Ever thought of sacrificing just one or two thirds of stops to get smooth video with 1/25 shutter? I think the environment was bright enough here that losing a bit of light would've not changed much :) Thank you for including so many real time shots of the skies!

Thanks so much 👍. Yeah, definitely could've bumper the shutter to 1/25 on that night. Really not used to shooting with that much light 😂

2i is a great tracker for sure. The mini really is proving to be a good step up from the MSM, surprising given they are not miles apart on what I paid for them.

@@AstroRoad In hindsight, I don't think the MSM was particularly good value by the time you factor in the required extras. I think the laser is a nice feature for northern hemisphere but not useful in Aus, and maybe it's compact size if that is an issue but otherwise 🤷

Absolutely. My MSM is pretty beat up and I definitely learnt a lot with it. Looking now though the same unit I have is $209USD, same as their new Nomad tracker. Cost me $20 more to get the SAM. Hard to recommend the MSM in that scenario.

Thanks so much 😊!

Thanks Richard, always appreciated 👍! I've done the same with mine too, though I think I'll still use the app pretty often as I do love the intervalometer control. The SQM is a live reading. It is the L version, so should be only measuring around about 10° of the sky where it is pointed. I waited a while between the moonset and taking my measurement, the light source at the end there is actually Bendigo.

I'm certainly loving it so far, it really is quite a feature rich little unit. Coming from the MSM (and even the 2i), perhaps my only observation is the app only design. You can't just plonk the unit down switch it on and start tracking. There is a work-around of course, however that still requires setup via the app first. In the scheme of things though this is a tiny issue compared to the lack of locking mechanism on the MSM or the dial on the 2i which switches itself on while in your bag.

It would be nice if it just remembered the last setting and started with that. I just set it to track and use an external intervalometer/wireless remote to run the camera. I had to use painter's tape to keep the regular StarAdvenurer from turning on in the bag. I do that or flip a battery so it won't run.

Definitely a great aurora option. I've since gotten the newer Sigma DC DN 20mm f/1.4 which is in my opinion the best 20mm. Looking forward to an opportunity to get out and test that one.

Great to hear!

Thanks, glad it was of use 👍. Viltrox is about the best value for money of any new lens purchase I've made for full frame. My video here is taken with a Sony a7s II using a Laowa 35mm f/0.95.

My first ever lens purchased purely for astro was the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 M43, so I have a real soft spot for them. That said, in this particular case there simply is just no comparison, especially given the cost, similar build quality weight and size. For astro the Viltrox is a significantly superior lens.

@@AstroRoad Thank you once again. But I've heard the mix receives about Samyang. Bad comma, fringing CA, distortion. Idk you're considering Samyang because it's 1.8? I've checked multiple videos, many of them are sponsored so can't trust their reviews. Kudos to the reviewer like you, who own/ rental lens for the reviews and presents the truth.

@@AstroRoad Also Tmaron has 15-30 G2 for Canon, Nikon, but for Sony they've launched 17-28 it's not that wide, also idk which one perform better in night scapes. Sigma 14-24 Art 2.8 vs Tamron 17-28 G2 f2.8. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. Love from India 🇮🇳

Assume you are referring to the Samyang tiny prime series here? I have the 24mm and 35mm and they are great lenses, just not for astrophotography unfortunately. They show considerable CA and average levels of coma.

I had the Tamron 15-30mm G1 for some years, it really is a great lens. I expect the G2 is much the same. Not used the 17-28mm, so can't comment there. The Sigma 14-24mm is an excellent zoom for astro, this would be close to my pick of the bunch overall of the modern mirrorless lenses.

No problem at all, I hope you find it useful. For live plate solving I believe you do need a network connection as the app uses neural networks for this. Would be worth asking the developer about this though, I find the SkEye subreddit is usually pretty good (although a bit quiet of late). www.reddit.com/r/skeye/s/xyfWuwmNgD

Developer here. Sorry for the late reply, saw this comment just now. Network / WiFi is not required, the image solving happens entirely locally on device. @AstroRoad the term Neural Network is not related to Internet / connectivity. It's just a different way of programming that is inspired by our biological neural networks

Thank you very much. Good to know.

Thanks Greg! Crazy how many satellites are in the sky now, I do wonder what our skies are going to look like in 10 years time 😬. Plate solving is generally the domain of deep sky stuff as landscape astro doesn't need the precision. Definitely a great tool to have at your disposal though for when wanting to venture into longer focal lengths.

@@AstroRoad Yes, I had heard of plate solving for telescopes connected to laptops but awesome that there are now phone apps as well. I do like to use 35mm and even 85mm at times. Might try it out on Orion over the summer months

Thanks as always Richard 👍. I certainly agree, I think there is often a discussion lacking from Landscape Astrophotography in terms of application and acquisition. As I've started shooting a lot more tracked panoramas I've really come to realise the diminished gap between crop sensor and full frame.

Thanks, it certainly does take many hours to produce a video of this genre, and certainly agree that the focus issue does knock it on the head a bit. I don't think it is a considerable reduction however, I certainly wouldn't have posted it if I did. Plenty of detail in there to judge the merit of the Viltrox itself and the 14mm GM which is its closest competing E-mount lens. Hindsight I probably should've just discarded the 20mm shots altogether as it's not really a direct competitor to the Viltrox anyway. Maybe I'll do another comparison next Milky Way Core season and see how other cheap UWA lenses stack up.

Thanks Richard, really appreciate it. Yeah, it is great for a 1 man development. You can even use telephoto lenses for your phone to get the solving even more accurate. Yeah, really happy with the final image. Loads of air glow that night.

It is soooo much the lens, and as shown acquisition technique, and as you say post processing. My GX85 isn't going to be replacing my a7s series cameras as my primary nightscape video / time-lapse rig, but shown here results are determined by a lot more than sensor size.

Oh yeah, definately a huge advantage. I can't actually think of another lens off the top of my head that is this wide with front screw on filters that also has really good optical performance.

@@AstroRoadLaowa 15mm F2 is another lens that can use screw on filters but the optical performance is bad. I use Sony 14 1.8 + H&Y magnetic 100x100mm filter system + NDs, GNDs, Polarizer, black mist 1/8 and black mist 1/4 in 100x100mm format, shoot ton of astrophoto but as I shoot more and more video, I find even 100x100mm filter become cumbersome. I’m planning to sell the Sony 14 1.8 and get the Viltrox 16 1.8 for both photography and videography.

Yeah, that Laowa is built like a tank, but very optically compromised. I'm currently pondering the same decision as you. Hard to justify keeping the 14mm GM when the Viltrox has those advantages and not giving away much optically.

nikon z 20mm 1.8s One of the best 20mm lenses @@AstroRoad

Sure is, I know a few Nikon shooters using this lens. I think the best 20mm at the moment is the newer Sigma f/1.4 DN, which is a good thing as it is available across L and E mount. Not Z mount unfortunately, though I believe there is an adapter to mount Sony E mount to Nikon Z. Not sure of the details though, I imagine the tolerances are pretty tight.

Haha, thanks very much 😁! Doesn't happen too often, we get maybe half a dozen nights or so a year under 0c. Always going to be when there are clear skies of course 🥶!

Optically I think the gap is so close that the Sony 14mm GM is only really worth it if you absolutely need the wider FOV and/or looking for any and all weight saving you can get. 20mm is different enough I feel that they aren't as directly comparable. Wider than 20mm I'm more inclined to use for motion time-lapse. Still very close optically, definitely not reflective of the price I paid for each of them.

Thanks Greg 🙂👍. Sounds like your Benro head is well worn in 😂. It is a great bit of kit. Not sure what John is using, but I'm using the 1fps mode in S&Q on my Sony a7s III. Sometimes I'll speed it up in post too, really just depends on what is happening in the scene.

@@AstroRoad Had to Google S&Q (I'm a Nikon shooter 😊). I'll explore that further with the Nikon timelapse mode - it's a great way to present an activity like capturing a pano where there isn't a lot of action.

Thanks Greg! I still think the MSM is a great device in its simplicity and size, just not quite there on what it needs to be though. I have the Sky Adventurer 2i and Sky Guider Pro as well, I find they are just too heavy and bulky for my light pack setup. I plan on replacing my MSM soon with a Sky Adventurer Mini.

Thanks for watching! Delivery delays are so frustrating, wouldn't be surprised if Viltrox has quite the order book on this lens as I've not seen a bad review of it yet. I'm sure you're planning compositions in the meantime. One thing I'd note is this lens seems pretty susceptible to fogging up. So if that sounds like your sort of climate, I'd pan around having a lens warmer on hand for this one.

@@AstroRoad I have a lens warmer, but don’t often use it. I live in the high deserts of Utah and even when it is bitter cold there is no condensation. UPS just messaged me that delivery is today! Thanks.