Nikon 35mm 1.8 S Review - The Best Z Mount Astrophotography Lens?
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- Опубликовано: 19 июл 2024
- The Nikon 35mm 1.8 S Is in my opinion the best astrophotography lens available on the Nikon Mirrorless Z Mount currently. In this video I outline the case for why this lens is so strong for night time shooting and explore the reasons for why it is largely overlooked. Let me know your thoughts on the 35mm 1.8 S and whether you have any experience with it for astrophotography. As always thanks very much for watching and I'll see you again soon.
#astrophotography #35mm #nikon
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This is outstanding. I love straight forward, to the point reviews. 10/10!!!
Well done video. Your style of editing astro photos is perfect, not overdone. Beautiful scenes all.
Excellent review. I bought this lens a few months ago and have been very pleased with it as an all around fast, flexible prime. I look forward to the opportunity to try it for astrophotography.
It’s a fantastic lens and good to hear your views on it James
Stunning portfolio dude. And you have convinced me to buy this over the tamron 1.4
Thank you for this. Great review on this lens, I own the 50 1.8 and the 20 1.8 and i have the 24-70 f/4. I was thinking to upgrade my zoom to the 24-70 f2.8 for this use case, panoramas, which you talk about. Although it is more than a stop lower I think it will do the job more than fine. But thank you for this point of view, very interesting! Always those choices:)
This video is spot on from my experience. I have been shooting with the z 6 11 with the 35 mm 1.8 lens for the past year Astrophotography panoramas with a tracker and a genie 11 rotator. The quality of images far exceeds anything I have done before.
how many stacks per panel of the pano do you do Derek ?really considering this lens
Hi i dont stack my panos at all as I always use a tracker and over lap images by about 45% usally shoot around f2.8 120 secs. i also have the 24 mm and 50mm z lenses great lenses but the 35mm still my favourite@@benboy80
I'm just moving from D600 & Tamron 35mm 1.4 lens to Z6 and it's great to see that a 35mm S will be a great pick for me (even more so because it is a native lens with auto focus to infinity). Many good points in this review and I do agree with you on all of them. 35mm focal length is perfection for panoramas for Milky way arch when if comes to details one can capture and the time needed to capture all the images.
Great review!
I don't James, I own 50mm 1.8 and use for astrophotography and love it. The results I got last weekend were great. I was debated between the 2 and went with 50mm.
Good points, well made! No control ring I see. Super images.
I love the 35mm focal length for astrophotography and 100% agree with you in this video! I have always used the Tamron 35mm F/1.4, however, due to its weight and FTZ adapter, I will sell it and buy the 35mm F/1.8 Z lens.
James, You make some really intriguing points. I too bought the Nikon 20mm S lens intending it for a combo of wide landscape and also night sky, but i opted to return it as just not versatile enough for my needs. I’ve had the Nikon 40mm ordered for near two months but it remains back ordered and unavailable. I’ll consider switching to the 35mm. Appreciate you sharing this, Craig
Thanks Craig. Give the 35 a try 👍
Fantastic review… I naturally went to 35mm for night photography, always feeling like a rebel 😂
I love James Brew's videos. I bought Nikon 24-120 f4, after I saw his video. He convinced me! Interesting. Now I have to buy the device. Z6iii when will it appear!
The Nikon 35/1.8S is an incredible lens. Such mojo.
I have both the Z 20 and the Z 35, and have also extensively shot astro with them. The Z 20 is a lot sharper all around below f2.8. Center sharpness is pretty even at f2.8 and above. However, the Z 20 is sharper in the corners at f2.8 and above. The Z 35 has well controlled coma at f4, which is to say that it is pretty good by traditional standards. The Z 20 has well controlled coma performance at f2.8. That's a whole stop faster. The Z 35 also has more tangential astigmatism than the Z 20 (which is clearly shown in many of the images in this video, btw, the Z 14-24 f2.8 suffers the same problem). This is actually the thing I hate the most about the Z 35 when using it for astro. To speak to your point about the Z 35 and Z50 combo, I agree except that if you were to only have two Z f1.8 primes it should be the Z 20 and Z 50. The Z 20 is just so damn good that even cropping in to near 35mm effective, you basically cannot tell the difference between it and the Z 35 at 100% view. So why bother with the Z 35? As it stands, I own the Z 20, Z 35, Z 50 and Z 85. If I were to sell one, absolutely the Z 35 goes first. But I do like that focal length for certain things, i.e. general video. Its a nice sweet spot between too inclusive and not inclusive enough.
I agree that the 20mm is optically better in the corners buts its only fractically better for me based on what I've experienced. By the time the lens is stopped down to f2.8 the difference really is quite negligible. Pano a number of 35 images together and any corner issues are pretty much eradicated altogether. Cropping a 20mm to 35mm loses an enormous amount of resolution - therefore it makes no sense anyone doing such a thing also being concerned by small fractional pixel width differences in coma performance in the corners. You can use that same cropping argument against the 50mm too using the 35mm. I think we're ultimately being spoiled by these lenses as they really are light years better than every other lens i've ever used historically for astro. Most people don't have the luxury of being able to own the 20, 35 and 50 - I myself sold the 20 as I could no longer financially justify it for how little I was using it. In my opinion if you're going to own just one lens for astro - the 35 is the one due to its massive versatility right in the middle of the focal range. That being said - they are all awesome, so really you can't go that wrong 👌
@@JamesBrewphoto "By the time the lens is stopped down to f2.8 the difference really is quite negligible." Yes, I agree with that. At f2.8, especially in the center, they are both really sharp. However, the coma difference is not negligible at f2.8. The Z 35 has a lot of it, and the Z 20 does not. The argument of cropping the Z 35 to to Z 50 field of view is not the same, because the Z 50 is way sharper all around than the Z 35. The sharpest of these three are Z 50, Z 20, Z35 in that order from best to least best. But there is some truth to being spoiled with the Z lenses. One lens that could come along and displace the Z 20 f1.8 as the undisputed king of FF astro would be if Nikon released an ultra wide or wide f1.2 Z lens. But it has to check the boxes. Its not just speed. It needs to have all the other aspects well controlled and as close to the widest aperture possible. This what the Z 20 does that others do not, and what makes it worthy of the Godzilla title. It really is an incredible lens once you realize just how many things Nikon had to get right.
Thanks James for sharing. May I ask if you use multi row pano head like the really right stuff pg-01? How did you manage to take that stunning 6*2 pano? It would be very much appreciated if you can share some experience with that. I own the 20 1.8s and 35 1.8s, but just find stitching images coming outta the 35 is pretty challenging for the software. Thanks and best wishes for the new year.
Elevn from Sydney
I don’t have any kind of specialist pano gear. I shot that image on a ballhead. The key is to allow for around 50% overlaps across the scene. I did a video on milky way panos early in 2021. Take a look back at that as I will cover my process 😊
I bought the 35mm from Samyang for the price, and I am increasingly sure that I have made a mistake. It's a good lens, but it doesn't come close to the quality of the 20mm S that I suspect the 35mm S matches, if not beat. Thanks for the review. I think I will have to save some money and buy well on the second try.
Convincing, well illustrated, use-case based assertions, James. Epic photos. Timely, too - Quadrant meteor shower on tap. Will you be shooting it? BTW, ever recover the missing tripod? Cheers!
Thanks Paul! I get about 5 clear nights a year in the Isle of Man, so probably not haha. Never found the tripod head 😞
Excellent commentary and I love your astro portfolio. I’m still shooting astro with a D810 and the Rokinon / Samyang 14mm. For DSLR shooters, what’s your experience with the AF-S 35mm 1.8?
Thanks! I don’t have any experience with that lens but I do have experience with the sigma 35 1.4 which is pretty fantastic once stopped down a bit. That would be my recommended choice
@@JamesBrewphoto thanks! Take care.
Thanks for another great video, this really got me interested in trying star photography. For someone on a budget what do you think about the z 40mm f2? Similar focal length and aperture!
Hi Jeremy, is suspect the 40mm will be no where near the optical quality of the 35, particularly wide open and in its corners. Which is to be expected given the price difference. That being said if you are looking for an affordable lens to practice and experiment with, the 40 looks like a good buy 👍
@@JamesBrewphoto thanks for the fast reply. I thought that might be the case regarding optical quality. You get what you pay for I suppose! I might give it a go and if I get the bug for astro photography I’ll have to save and upgrade! Cheers!
Really prefer 35mm over all the 24-50mm range. I feel more comfortable with that aspect and seem to end up there more often when using a zoom.
James, thanks for this and you peaked my interest in the 35mm. I returned the 20mm 1.8 before the return date as I didn't want to spend the $$ as I already had the z14-30 f4. I was going to start using that for astro also, but I know I'll have long shutter speeds and/or high ISO with that. I just got the MSM tracker so will see how that goes. Question, I like astro photos with interesting foregrounds and love the compositions you've shown over the years. Do all or most of them involve additional processing such as blending or stacking?
Thanks Gerry! Yes Astro images generally need a fair amount of processing work. I’ll often expose separately for the foreground and then blend that in separately. I’d suggest when you approach an Astro scene, try to think of the sky and the ground differently and optimize settings to get the best for them accordingly. This will always give better results then single exposures where you are always optimizing for the sky to the detriment of the foreground. Good luck
@@JamesBrewphoto Guess I need to bone up on my blending videos to figure all that out. I just need some clear skies here in SoCal U.S.
Impressive astro photographs!
Agree - the 35mm/1.8 ist a phantastic lens - like all lenses of Nikon's f/1.8 lineup. I use it often for portraits. I shoot mainly landscapes and nature, mainly with the Z 24-120 f4 S, which is the most versatile lens in my backpack. But too slow for astrophotography.
Hi James, thanks for the video. hey i just watched your video on " Astrophotography with the 35mm Sigma 1.4 ART...WOW!!!" How do these 2 lenses compare?
I don't care about optical performance since I don't use the images SOOC. But the focal length is a great factor to consider when buying a lens, I guess you just nailed it - the 35mm is really the best of all worlds ( astro, group shot, portrait, street, landscape etc.. ) well can't afford the z version so sticking with the AF-S version i just got for about $300.
How does not using SOOC mitigate any benefit to good optical performance? I bought in to the Z system after years with F just for the optics and I shoot only RAW. Your comment makes no sense.
Dear James, bumped into your video as I recently started diving nosedeep into astrophotography. I currently own a z50, next step will surely be switching to ff, possibly nikon z7 but we'll see. I don't own a great variety of lenses, but following a friend's suggestion I started astro using only my 16-50mm 3.5 - 6,3 kit lens., and with a couple arrangements it did surprisingly well on the field. Of course this is only temporary, but I had my eyes on both the 20mm 1.8 and the 35 1.8 for a while now. A friend of mine owns the 35mm 1.8S and I can get access to that lens whenever I wish, so here's my question: considering the crop sensor of the z50, could the 35mm still be viable for astrophotography? I get the lens wouldn't be as wide, but maybe working on the composition could help me grab some nice detail anyway? Is the 20mm unavoidably better for a z50? Do you have any tips for a beginner starting astrophotography with a crop sensor camera :) ?
The 20mm is the better choice for the Z50. No particular tips for crop shooting other than watch your shutter speeds as star trailing will occur more easily. Good luck
Hello james, thanks for your video. Is the 12 images panaramic on your screen a 6*2 shots or 4*3 ?
6x2 👍
Hi, what monitor is that in the background? Thanks!
How do you find the fly-by-wire focus system for dualing in the focus for maximum sharpness? toying up going for this or a manual focus lens, or one better suited for manula focus. Thanks.
I find it pretty good - just zoom into a bright star and turn until its at its smallest. Works well
@7:30 how did you make it? Can you make a tutorial..thanks!
have you used the Tamron 35mm f1.4 lens, adapted onto a Z camera? I have heard that the Tamron is outstanding at Astro.
Thank you for sharing. I had the chance to view a rocket launch in 2018. Amazing experience. I posted a pretty fun montage of the trip to my channel.
❤❤❤
Great video ... but now what? My plan does not log great any more ... I was planning to get the 20mm 1.8, but the pictures from the 35 really looked great! I have the 14-30 F4 so a wide lens is not needed for daily work. I also have the 24-70 F4 (planning to replace it with the 24-120 F4) ... and I have the 28mm 2.8 and 40mm 2.0 (bought these mainly for my Zfc) ...So if I get a 35mm ... it feels like the 28-35-40 are too close to each other? The next prime I have is the 85mm 1.8 ... I think I need to test them side by side before deciding. :)
The 20mm 1.8 is still a very good choice - given the other lenses you have, I'd stick to your original plan and get the 20
Very convincing argument, James. But you have now caused me an issue! I use Lumix cameras and the one I will be using for my astrophotography is the S1R. I now need to look at the L mount 35mm Panasonic lens to see whether it’s suitable for the job in hand! Sigh…
Haha sorry John! I don’t know much about the L Mount so can’t really advise on that I’m afraid. Good luck
I will try 35mm on my 24-70 f2.8 S on my Z7 and report back but my 20mm is in my bag as my Milky Way speciality lens>> look at Richard Tatti's Y Tube Videos >> 20 mm F1.8 but I see your point but I still have to learn Computer Skills at 70 re Stitching Panos etc which terrifies me
Haha yeah the stitching can be a bit scary but honestly it’s not too bad with a bit of practice. Hope you enjoy your 35mm shooting 🙂
stitching is fun, drag your guide down to the plane of focus, add layer mask, paint to reveal and merge down, iterate with the next layers on top.. ( that what i do in Gimp ) but PS has an automated way of achieving this.. It fun doin it manually otherwise I use hugin focus stack
I think you should have kept the 20mm, when you get back onto the mainland the 20mm will be missed. Panorama is useful, very nice images.
Thanks Derek! Could no longer afford to own both. Sorry to see it go. 2 years I’ve been trapped on the isle now 😂
@@JamesBrewphoto Very sad to see it go too, When are you coming over?
@@derekgillan7314 unlikely anytime soon for photography. Very long story. I’ll explain all one day hopefully
Have you considered the 24mm 1.8 S ?
I have this lens and it’s awesome. Wide enough but not crazy wide.
I’ve never tried it actually. It tends to get overlooked I think. What’s it’s Astro performance like?
@@JamesBrewphoto Thanks for you quick response :) In fact I bought a Nikon Z5 with only the 24mm 1.8 as I plan to do landscapes and astrophoto. Aperture >2.8 is mandatory for astrophoto. I had budget only for 1 lens so I went for what would be the best for me at this point in time. But sadly it's cloudy or too cold to get out for over a week in Quebec, Canada). I haven't tried it yet for astro, but I'm sure it'll perform well.
I'll let you know as soon as I get a chance to try in night photography or astrophotography.
Cheers :)
I'm torn between this lens and the 20mm for astro. The 20mm is $300 more??. Need to really think about which lens would suit me best.
Both are good choices in different ways - you can't go wrong really
How on earth do you focus with the Nikon Z lens for astrophotography??
Zoom in to a bright star and turn focus ring until star becomes smallest it possibly can be in frame - that's your infinity point
@@JamesBrewphotoand then zoom out again before shooting? How is focus then?
Perhaps there is a difference between different copies of lenses, but 35mm disappointed me. Coma is up to 2.8f and worse than 20mm1.8S and Sigma 28mm1.4, as well as 50mm 1.8S. I'll leave all of the above, but I'm going to sell 35mm.
Hello ilove you ineed of job
I mean, I can clearly see cases of coma and astigmatism in the photos you are highlighting in this video. I dont think this lens is worth the price.
The BEST Nikon S Astrophotography lens is the 20mm f1.8 S lens >> No Competition at all ..
With the 35mm F1.8 you can only shoot at 14 sec before stars start to smudge into lines. With the 20 mm F1.8 you can take up to 25 secs , Letting MORE light in before smudging starts and you get more of the Milky Way in etc plus Buildings , Windmills etc
The 35 is a great lens but its no Astro lens
All Z Lenses have zero Coma in the corners especially the 20mm >> corner stars are PIN sharp
@@Mr09260 star trackers nullify that advantage. They are both great lenses (I’ve owned both) but you’re wrong in your assessment of the 35 not being an Astro lens. It’s every bit as capable and as I explain in the video, extremely versatile. I’d highly recommend giving it a try. Take care Peter 👍
@@JamesBrewphoto Yeah, but then you need the star tracker.
@@JamesBrewphoto star trackers aren't free though
Why would anybody be interested in buying dedicated 35mm lens when you can get 24 -200 mm lens which includes 35 mm?? Plus you don't have to change lens in the field if you have 24-200mm lens.$800 for a 35mm lens??? Ouch !
Great point. Why do manufacturers bother making any other lenses full stop. The 24-200 is all a photographer will ever need… it’s f4 to 6.3 will be an Astro dream… 🙄
I use the 24-200 as well, if you love post processing you can get cleaner outputs than the 1.4f equivalent ( capture about 10 images with iso 6400 and blend them in sequator or use Gimp ( blend mode and average it out starting from the bottom layer with aobut 10% opacity etc... )Great thing about that lens is I stopped doing spot removal because of the most annoying thing called DUST, Just imagine taking a panorama ( horizontal && vertical ) with dust on your sensor.. that's the nightmare of postprocessing.
I'm using the Samyang 35/f1.2 and this thing is a Milky Way monster. Best Bang for the buck