Can I use the same lens for landscape and star photography?

Question

My wife loves landscape photography and I love capturing the stars. We are both amateurs and we have been using our stock Canon EOS 750D lens (18-55mm) so far with 'ok' results (both kit and user-related of course).

I am actively looking for a nice star lens and my wife is looking for a landscape lens. The current drawbacks of our lens now are:

• Distortion at the edges visible in landscapes
• Aperture too small for low-light conditions and stargazing

Looking at our requirements I have the feeling they are almost equal:

• Prime lens
• Small focal length (<= 18mm)
• No autofocus needed (everything is at infinity)
• Large aperture

As such... I think I can combine them in 1 lens. Am I missing something? I am thinking about buying the Rokinon/Samyang 16mm f/2.0 which is recommended by a PetaPixel blog.

Answer 1

Yes, you can use a wide, manual focus, large aperture, prime lens for both astrophotography and landscape photography.

You can use just about any lens to capture landscape photography, it depends on the vision you have and the scene; but a lens such as the one you described will give you many opportunities for landscape photography and it will capture them well.

Astrophotography really comes down to sharpness and light gathering ability. Assuming that the lens you select is also quite sharp, one with the attributes you described should do quite well.

If you haven't thought about it yet, make sure to invest in a good tripod. It will be key for both endeavours.

See also:

• What lens characteristics are important in star photography?
• What's the difference between a wide angle lens and a landscape lens?
• Tips for landscape+stars photography?

Answer 2

That lens could work. Note that we are assuming wide angle shots of things like the Milky Way, basically you're taking night landscape shots. If you wanted astro shots of smaller sections of the sky then your plan won't work.