I live out in the sticks and its difficult to find them in the viewfinder. They have to be really bright and even then its not easy.I'm going out Sunday night for my first time attempting to photograph the Milky Way.
We're driving about 2 hours outside the Bay Area, getting into a reasonably "dark area."
I did a practice run last night and found focusing WAY too hard.
While I could see stars with my naked eyes, I couldn't see shit thru the viewfinder.
(Let alone using Liveview + magnification to fine tune.)
I'm hoping the cityscape just makes it waay harder to see anything in viewfinder and getting "out there" will make the stars at least somewhat visible in viewfinder so I can then adjust focus.
I live out in the sticks and its difficult to find them in the viewfinder. They have to be really bright and even then its not easy.
I'm going out Sunday night for my first time attempting to photograph the Milky Way.
We're driving about 2 hours outside the Bay Area, getting into a reasonably "dark area."
I did a practice run last night and found focusing WAY too hard.
While I could see stars with my naked eyes, I couldn't see shit thru the viewfinder.
(Let alone using Liveview + magnification to fine tune.)
I'm hoping the cityscape just makes it waay harder to see anything in viewfinder and getting "out there" will make the stars at least somewhat visible in viewfinder so I can then adjust focus.
My kit lens doesn't have an infinity mark
Please tell me you weren't trying to shoot with a slow kit lens? Try reading this: http://www.lonelyspeck.com/lenses-for-milky-way-photography/
My a6000 + Rokinon 12mm f/2 would apparently be good for astrophotography but I can't seem to find the time to go during new moons lately to test it out yet. One really good thing about old MF lenses, or modern MF lenses like the Rokinons is how they have distance markings on the lens barrel. I know from experience that my Roki's infinity mark isn't quite accurate, so I just turn it to the infinity market minus a fraction of an inch and leave it there. Great for set-it-and-forget-it astrophotography where the distance to the stars is basically infinity. Distance marker also works well for setting hyperfocal distance.![]()
None of my lenses have an infinity marker either, it's just a ring that you turn and it eventually stops in either direction. The point where stars seem the most in focus is around the middle. Hard to tell with the naked eye through the view finder if it's dead on though till you check on the computer.
Yes, I was using a kit lens