Question about that lens I tried at a star party last Friday

I borrowed a friend's old Takumar 135mm f/2.5 lens at a star party last weekend to shoot the Milky Way. I figured a vintage manual lens would be soft and full of coma, but my shots came out surprisingly sharp with almost no star trailing. I used it on my Sony A7III with an adapter, shot at ISO 1600 for 8 seconds each. The only weird thing was how the colors looked a bit warm compared to my regular glass. Has anyone else had good luck with old lenses for astro, or did I just get lucky with that specific one?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren97626d ago

I used to think old lenses were just for hipster portraits and couldn't hang with modern astro work, but then I tried a vintage Helios 85mm f/1.5 on my Nikon and it changed my whole mind. That warm color you're getting is probably from the older glass coatings they used back then, mine does the same thing. The Takumar 135mm f/2.5 is a real gem for the price, some of those old Japanese lenses were built way nicer than people give them credit for.

rivera.henry26d ago

The helios 85 1.5 is a beast. I grabbed one for 60 bucks at a pawn shop. People sleep on those old takumar lenses hard. The coatings from that era give everything this weird glow. Perfect for night shots with city lights. Modern lenses are too clinical sometimes.