Something for the Northern Lights

[Harpooner]

It's looking likely we'll spend a few nights looking for the Northern Lights in Finland early next year.

The best choices out of my existing kit bag would seem to be the SAM 35mm f/1.8 or CZ 16-80mm. Would anyone suggest something faster or wider (to go on my a550)?

Potential options so far look to be:

• Sigma 20mm f/1.8
• Sony 20mm f/2.8
• Samyang 14mm f/2.8

GAS allowing, I'm not sure the 20mm options offer much more than my existing SAM 35mm but all suggestions welcome.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Greg Beetham]

The Aurora critically depends on what the sun is doing, or having recently done, i.e. a coronal mass ejection that happens to be aimed at Earth will produce lots of northern lights, and southern ones as well (but too far south for me to see).
The spaceweather.com site is usually pretty good for sun news and forecasts. http://spaceweather.com/
As far as the lens selection goes I guess it depends how extensive the particular display is and how wide an angle one would need to cover it. I have never had the opportunity to photograph such a thing but it sounds like fast lens and high ISO territory too me.
Greg

[Birma]

Hi Harpooner - I envy your trip to Finland at this time of year - sounds brilliant. Your CZ is pretty wide angle already at 16mm and also meant to be good (aperture) wide open. I wouldn't rule out telephoto options as well in case you want to isolate parts of the sky. Some good gloves and spare batteries for the cold would be top of my list (and a tripod easy to operate in the dark with gloves!). Perhaps you could try shome regular sky pictures on clear nights at home and see if the current line up cuts it or not. For ultra-wide angle on APS-C the Sigma 8-16 is rated very highly by owners on this site (including DK).

Very interesting site Greg. I have seen glimpses of the Aurora while in Northern Scotland and so I will keep this web site in mind when we are up there next.

[Harpooner]

Thanks for the pointers.

We might end up going to Swedish Lapland rather than Finland, partly to make life easier with flights but hopefully our luck will be in. From reading around it seems the cold shortens battery life, so it's best to keep spares inside your clothes rather than in a camera bag.

I'll probably pack my Sigma 100-300 f4 so that would cover telephoto options. The Sigma 8-16 is an interesting option to look at further...

I've been after a new tripod for some time, so will sort that out in time as well.

[[SiC]]

Welcome to Sweden
Sadly I'm too far from Lapland to offer an on-site hearty welcome, so I hope this will do

Looking forward to your pictures!

BR,
/Zeb!