Vedauwoo Northern Lights

[JimFox]

Back in January, on the 19th I was in Colorado at my daughters and saw there was an alert for Northern Lights. But like recently, clouds were an issue. I wanted to drive 5 or 6 hours and get up to Montana, but they were socked in, even the middle of Wyoming was showing clouds, so Chugwater and Glendo were out. Basically anything north of Cheyenne was showing clouds. So I just kept checking and looking as the day went on to see what was the northern most area I could get clear skies.

Cheyenne Wyoming seemed to be the dividing line, so I picked Vedauwoo Recreation Area it's part of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. If you have driven on the I-80 in that area you will hopefully notice all of the cool rocks to the north of the freeway. This is a location I stop at pretty frequently, again I have lot's of spots picked out along the ways I normally drive, so that when sunset hits and I am on the road, I have known places I can aim for to then capture the sunset. But in this case it was for the Northern Lights.

I would have liked to have gone further north to get the lights even stronger, but this was still a decent showing, and I will pick a weaker display over no display because it gets clouded out.

Nikon Z8
Sigma 14mm f1.4 with Sony Adapter

All comments are welcome,

Jim

 

[AlanLichty]

Just enough foreground light to pick out the dirt road on the left side of the frame. I like the result from this spot. Neat colors.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Quite a color show.

 

[Kyle Jones]

I really like the colors and stars in the sky. I'm not a fan of the foreground - it just looks messy to me.

Is that really the f/1.4 Sigma and not the 1.8? If so, how do you like it?

 

[JimFox]

Just enough foreground light to pick out the dirt road on the left side of the frame. I like the result from this spot. Neat colors.

Thanks Alan. I didn't get there until after dark, so I didn't have a lot of time to pick out spots.

 

[JimFox]

Quite a color show.

Thanks Jameel.

 

[JimFox]

I really like the colors and stars in the sky. I'm not a fan of the foreground - it just looks messy to me.

Is that really the f/1.4 Sigma and not the 1.8? If so, how do you like it?

Thanks do much Kyle. I might go back and just leave the ground layer dark as I kind of felt the same way. But initially I thought the large rock was cool, so I wanted to work it in.

The Sigma 14mm f1.4 is a very good lens. It deals with flaring better, so if the moon gets in the image that's better.

What I didn't like is it's a mirrorless lens. So it has focus by wire, so there is no taping the focus ring so the next time you use it it's in focus.

Now it does have a focus lock switch, the problem is it only "locks" while the camera is turned on. So it's great while it's on. But if you change the battery during the night it loses focus. I use a dummy battery and a power supply so that's not an issue, but it can be for others. I just wish they had designed a clutch or brake so that when there is no power, the focus is locked into place.

But on the other hand, this lens keeps me in practice for focusing at night, all of my other lenses are manual focus, so I keep the focus taped, and I know where on the focus ring to focus the lens at without having to take any photos.

It looks good at f1.4 too. But I often just use it at f1.8 so I keep the exposure settings the same with my other cameras/lenses.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Thanks do much Kyle. I might go back and just leave the ground layer dark as I kind of felt the same way. But initially I thought the large rock was cool, so I wanted to work it in.

The Sigma 14mm f1.4 is a very good lens. It deals with flaring better, so if the moon gets in the image that's better.

What I didn't like is it's a mirrorless lens. So it has focus by wire, so there is no taping the focus ring so the next time you use it it's in focus.

Now it does have a focus lock switch, the problem is it only "locks" while the camera is turned on. So it's great while it's on. But if you change the battery during the night it loses focus. I use a dummy battery and a power supply so that's not an issue, but it can be for others. I just wish they had designed a clutch or brake so that when there is no power, the focus is locked into place.

But on the other hand, this lens keeps me in practice for focusing at night, all of my other lenses are manual focus, so I keep the focus taped, and I know where on the focus ring to focus the lens at without having to take any photos.

It looks good at f1.4 too. But I often just use it at f1.8 so I keep the exposure settings the same with my other cameras/lenses.

Thanks for that - I'm not at the point where I'm ready to take on the expense and weight of the f/1.4 vs. the two copies of the 1.8 that I already have. Rumor has it that Canon is setting up to launch an RF 14/1.4 which, if it performs like their other VCM lenses, could be very interesting. I hadn't thought about that with the focus. I always use back button focus with AF lenses so I don't expect the focus to shift once I set it, but the focus by wire could definitely mess with that. That may explain some behaviors I've run into recently

If I have any luck (i.e. clear skies) on Friday I'll be trying out Sigma's mirrorless 24/1.4. I'm expecting good things.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks for that - I'm not at the point where I'm ready to take on the expense and weight of the f/1.4 vs. the two copies of the 1.8 that I already have. Rumor has it that Canon is setting up to launch an RF 14/1.4 which, if it performs like their other VCM lenses, could be very interesting. I hadn't thought about that with the focus. I always use back button focus with AF lenses so I don't expect the focus to shift once I set it, but the focus by wire could definitely mess with that. That may explain some behaviors I've run into recently

If I have any luck (i.e. clear skies) on Friday I'll be trying out Sigma's mirrorless 24/1.4. I'm expecting good things.

I am looking forward to your report on the Sigma 24mm f1.4.

I just saw an article yesterday about the new Canon RF 14mm f1.4. I didn't get to see any images in the article I saw of it at 1.4 at night. It only had a few day time images to see. But it sounded like a great lens. Small, lightweight. I didn't catch the potential price to see how that lines up. I was thinking it would be cool if Nikon did the same, the problem with Nikon now is all of their better Z lenses seem to be about $1000 too expensive. So I probably couldn't afford it if Nikon put out a fast 14mm.

 

[Kyle Jones]

I am looking forward to your report on the Sigma 24mm f1.4.

I just saw an article yesterday about the new Canon RF 14mm f1.4. I didn't get to see any images in the article I saw of it at 1.4 at night. It only had a few day time images to see. But it sounded like a great lens. Small, lightweight. I didn't catch the potential price to see how that lines up. I was thinking it would be cool if Nikon did the same, the problem with Nikon now is all of their better Z lenses seem to be about $1000 too expensive. So I probably couldn't afford it if Nikon put out a fast 14mm.

Canon did include a starfield in one of their sample images - no sign of coma so that's good.

$2500 = too rich for my blood. I'll re-assess once they start hitting the used market

 

[JimFox]

Canon did include a starfield in one of their sample images - no sign of coma so that's good.

$2500 = too rich for my blood. I'll re-assess once they start hitting the used market

That's good that it's good for stars.

It sounds like Canon is just over pricing their lenses like Nikon is. And both of them are very limiting to 3rd party lens makers, which is bad for us as a consumer.