Lens recommendation for Iceland (travel + aurora photography)

[nohoho]

Hello All,

I am planning a trip to Iceland for end of November, and I am confused about the lens that I should buy for the trip for my Canon r50 apsc camera.

I want something that helps me capture the northern lights and the majestic landscapes. For this purpose, I have short listed:

Canon rf 16 mm f2.8,

Rokinon 14mm f2.8, and

Tokina 11-20mm f2.8.

My concern is that Rokinon and Tokina seem to flare up when exposed to a beam of light, show a bit of vignetting and chromatic aberrations. And, Canon rf 16mm might be narrow, given the 1.6x crop factor of my apsc lens. Therefore, I would like to get some advice on what best lens to buy.

Additionally, I am looking for a lens for travel photography, and I wonder if any of the above lens would suffice. If not, I was thinking to canon rf28 mm or Canon ef24 f2.8.

Please advice! My budget is $500-600. And, at the moment, I just have the Canon rf18-45 mm kit lense (something that I already find pretty boring)

[Tronhard]

What do you find 'pretty boring' about the RF 18-45?  Is it the range, the aperture or something else?
If you are travelling to Iceland, you will want a range of focal lengths to capture the gamut from wide skies and scenes, to pulling in waterfalls that you can't get to.  Also Iceland has some unique and interesting wildlife.

First off, you need to know that 3rd Party lenses are not supported by Canon, and they are not designed for the Canon MILC focusing system, so if you have questions or issues about them, you will need to go to those lens makers.  The exception is the set of lenses currently being released by Sigma.  These are well-proven optics for APS-C bodies like yours that have been licensed by Canon to work with their R-series bodies.  They have an excellent optics and build, but they are not image stabilized, so you will have to have a steady hand and good holding technique if you are going to Iceland in November, when it is quite dark a lot of the time.
SIGMA Canon RF Mount lenses | Contents | SIGMA Corporation (sigma-global.com)

Of the group, I would recommend the SIGMA 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | Contemporary.  You can get it from reputable dealers for just within your budget.

Your budget is, TBH, too small to get the range of lenses you really need because I suspect you will also want a lens with more reach.  However, you could try this combination:
RF16mm F2.8 STM (canon.com) ($299) and the RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM (canon.com) ($499)
This pairing will give you a super wide angle, fast lens and the second will give you a much wider range of subject possibilities.  New, they would come in at $800, but if you go refurbished - usually over-stock but new, unboxed but unused, demo or show units, but 'good as new' with a warranty, you can get a deal:
Shop Canon Refurbished RF16mm F2.8 STM | Canon U.S.A., Inc. - saving $60.

Since the 18-150 will render you 18-45 obsolete, just sell that to help with the cost.

[ebiggs1]

IMHO, since I have done this before your lens and several of the mentioned choices are too slow. But what you have will pretty much work as well as anything you can buy in the $500 or under budget. Again, IMHO, f2.8 is the slowest aperture I would want or consider with f2, f1.4 being even better. The Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Lens is a good choice and I don't know where you are claiming it has "flare up" and vignetting it does not. At any rate any vignetting it may have is very easily corrected in post.

Not to sound like a downer but in your case the R50 isn't this best choice for this type shooting either. A full frame camera would be the better way to go. One that has good to extremely good high ISO performance.  ISO 6400 and even higher.

Exposure times will be somewhere between 1 and 15 seconds but it will depend on the speed and strength of the aurora, this is trial and error. Another setting you’ll need to consider is white balance. WB will affect the aurora's true colors. Moon or no Moon will affect both exposure and WB and again this is trial and error. 

Don't give up on the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Lens. it is a good lens. Lots of astrophotographers use it. It is totally manual but that's OK for this type work.

[Tronhard]

Ernie, I agree that the camera is going to be challenged, especially if the planned trip is happening in the dark days of winter or late fall way up north - but I admit that is good for aurora shots.  If I had the choice, I would recommend a FF camera but it is what it is...  Certainly, the budget is very, very lean, but short of telling the OP to increase it, this is the best I can see to help them out.

[ebiggs1]

"...but I admit that is good for aurora shots."

Well the fact is you can get aurora photos with an iphone. It all depends on what you want. If you, and/or the OP, are asking what are my best choices without breaking the bank, it is the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens or the RF16mm F2.8 STM. Certainly not the RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM which offers nothing his kit lens doesn't except for the FL which for auroras isn't going to help.

[Tronhard]

I am suggesting that when the OP gets to Iceland, he will find that there is a lot more to the place than just auroras and it's a long way to come to not have a lens with the focal length to do some of those other features justice.

I know you like to differ from me on any advice I shall give, but I hope you see that logic - the focal length is a big differentiator.  TBH, I am just as inclined to suggest the OP rent the better gear for the job and that would open up a whole new range of possibilities for gear to make the most of the trip - which is, in itself, not a cheap endeavour.

[ebiggs1]

I like the suggestion of the RF16mm F2.8 STM but I don't like the RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM for this job. I do agree it is an all around better lens choice but it will be of no benefit for aurora photos.  Again too slow and the OP already has a slow lens but for GP work I am all in for it. For this the RF16mm F2.8 STM or the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Lens are better.

Rokinon has a 16mm f2 lens but I have not used it. I suspect it will perform as well as the 14mm and give you an extra stop. I still think I would go with the 14mm vs 16mm on a cropper as you need the extra WA.

[ebiggs1]

"... I hope you see that logic - the focal length is a big differentiator."

No, no I do agree the extra FL is the better lens for GP. I am all in for it. My answer was specifically aimed at aurora photography. Having done this, neither of those lenses would be my top choice for aurora work though.  But sometimes you have to make do. Using what you have is always better than wishing you had something better.

" I am just as inclined to suggest the OP rent the better gear for the job ..."

I would be against renting. I don't like to nor do I recommend folks rent the cheaper lenses. It is wasted money that could be saved and spent on owning. But in general I am not a renter. I don't rent anything if I can help it. The Rokinon  lenses I suggested are $300 dollars or less and the RF16mm F2.8 STM is less than $300 (I think?). These will do the aurora better plus they'll be great landscape lenses.

[BehindTheLens]

I just got back from Iceland and hope you have a fantastic time. I wasn't able to catch the Aurora there (it rained virtually the entire time), but did get lucky in Norway with the following setup: Canon EOS R10 (APS-C) and Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16mm f/2.8 (IF) DX II with the Canon EF-RF adapter. Some notes for you:

1. Bring a tripod!
2. I also found it handy to get a hot shoe mount adapter (e.g., ASIN B00HPAPFNU) so I could mount my mobile phone for parallel shots and eliminate the need for a 2nd tripod.
3. I'd recommend installing the Canon Connect app. Not only can you connect to your camera for GPS data, but you can also use as a remote shutter control (use a second device if you plan to use your mobile phone for photos).
4. Our Aurora event was a Kp=6 (quite bright) so I used the following settings: f/2.8, 11mm, 3sec, ISO1600. This was well below the 500-rule for Astrophotography (https://www.space.com/astrophotography-for-beginners-guide) where I had previously using 25sec for astrophotography shots.
5. Learn how to use the Interval Timer Shooting, it beats mashing the shutter button manually and let's you sit back and enjoy the show while your camera snaps away.
6. Shoot in RAW, you'll want to be able to post-process for better results. The on-board JPG conversion didn't do a good job based on my comparison. This was my first time shooting in RAW and post-processing with the Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (it's quite slow, but free).
7. I LOVE my 11-16mm and it's the lens that I use the most because it's fast and ultrawide. Especially with my APS-C crop, the ultra wide angle works great for capturing the landscape without needing to stitch photos. However, as others have mentioned it does NOT have lens correction data 😞 Additionally, I get a lot of chromatic aberration (CA) when I shoot in JPEG and so far working with RAW is able to fix that. Oddly enough, I never had any CA issues with my previous Canon EOS 60D. Maybe the other guru's here might know why switching from an SLR 60D to mirrorless R10 might cause this? Now I'm considering this https://www.sigma-global.com/en/lenses/c023_10_18_28/ because it will have the lens correction data and hopefully solve my CA issues.
8. Everyone has a budget for a reason, but it's worthwhile to stretch it on the lens if you plan to stick with photography for a long time. Aside from the recent CA issues on the Tokina and R10 combo, I've been extremely happy with this for the past 9 years and many more to come ... unless I get that Sigma 10-18 native RF 😛

Hope that helps!

[ebiggs1]

Number 6 on your list should be number 1. Always, always use raw.

CA is a lens artifact not a camera issue. Generally lens correction in either DPP4 or Lightroom corrects it.