The TOP 3 Lenses for Milky Way Photography
Updated: Jun 5, 2023
The Milky Way, our galaxy, is the most photographed by amateur astrophotographers, or even "regular" photographers who enjoy night time photography.
Many people may not realize it, but it is extremely easy to get a beautiful photo of the Milky Way, it mostly depends on the quality of the sky, and one more thing: the LENS.
Here are our top 3 most affordable and totally "worth it" lenses for capturing the Milky Way.
I - ROKINON 10mm F/2.8
This lens is fairly big and heavy, but its result is awesome! The main reason why it is in our top 3 is because of its wide angle, meaning you can see more of the Milky Way band in a single shot.
At 10mm, it almost gives you a fisheye effect, but not quite. Based on your preference, it may be a good or bad quality.
Click HERE to see it on Amazon.
The Milky Way using the Rokinon 10mm f/2.8 lens.
II - CANON EF-S 24mm F/2.8
This lens is top choice when you have a great foreground or accent piece, like a tree, a cabin, or any object really.
For the price, the Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 is just as awesome as the Rokinon 10mm and is ideal for those who do not like wide angles.
It is also much smaller and lighter than the 10mm lens.
Click HERE to see it on Amazon!
The Milky Way using the Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 lens.
III - CANON EF 50mm F/1.8
Many people would say that a 50mm lens is way too much of a focal length when it comes to milky way photography, but there are several reasons why one would use this lens.
The first one being that it is perfect for capturing close-up shots full of details in the Milky Way band. The second reason is that experienced photographers can do a bunch of those close up shots, and assemble them into a mosaic, to get an entire Milky Way with very little noise, and jaw dropping details!
Click HERE to see it on Amazon!
The Milky Way using the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens.
COMPARING THE LENSES IN VIDEO
If you'd like to see more examples of each lens, watch the video below, where we go out in the field and compare each of the three lenses!
Those were our top 3 picks for the best affordable lenses for capturing the Milky Way. Remember that this is our personal opinion, and we'd love to hear which lenses you recommend for photographing our own galaxy.
Hoping this will help you in your Astrophotography journey,
Clear Skies,
Galactic Hunter
YOUR PHOTOS
Below you will find photos of the Milky Way taken by Galactic Hunter followers, with different lenses that the ones listed in this post, so you can see if you prefer those more!
The Milky Way while camping (Bastien Capron) - Tokina 11mm f/2.8 lens.
The Milky Way from Wyoming and South Dakota (Luke Arens) - Rokinon 14mm f/2.8.
The Milky Way from the Badlands National Park (Luke Arens) - Rokinon 35mm f/1.4.
The Milky Way from the North of France (Jean-Philippe Catteau) - Samyang 8mm f/3.5.
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