Andromeda at 50mm. So for the most part not many people recommend a 50mm lens for astrophotography. it is not wide enough for dramatic night sky pictures and not telephoto enough for seeing wonders too small for the naked eye.
So here is a 50mm picture taken with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L lens. The Andromeda galaxy is visible with the naked eye and resolves fine with a 50mm lens. I used a 10 second exposure and held the camera still on the rail of my deck. I stopped the lens down a tiny bit to f/1.8 because this lens is not the sharpest animal at f/1.2! The image turned out fine in my estimation – not great but pretty good.
So why did I use a 50mm lens and not a more ideal focal length? Simple, if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with! I had the 50mm with me and I didn’t have a more “ideal” lens available.
So, what is the lesson here? First, 50mm is a great walk around lens that can produce a wide range of images whatever the situation. Second, there is a lot of benefit from a low f-stop lens because it gives you a lot of optionality. And finally, work with the tools you have!
Canon EF 50mm F/1.2 L | Canon 5d mkIV | 10sec at f/1.8
