Summer’s a great time to get outside and shoot some astrophotography, which is a perennial favorite for print sales. Who wouldn’t love to have a gorgeous night sky photo hanging on their wall?
But if you want to capture a sellable image of a star-filled sky, you’re going to need some quality gear. Along with a pro camera and a solid tripod, you’ll need a sharp lens preferably with a wide focal length and fast aperture.
Our colleague, Jeremy Gray, at Imaging Resource has put together a comprehensive guide to the best astrophotography lenses you can buy right now for mirrorless cameras. We’ve whittled down Gray’s variety of selections to what we feel are the five best lenses for night sky photography in 2022. Our picks include lenses for mirrorless cameras in Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, Fujifilm X, and Olympus Micro Four Thirds mounts.
What makes a great astrophotography lens? Along with the previously mentioned attributes (wide and fast), “there are other considerations that aren’t as obvious when looking at a lens’s technical specifications,” Gray notes.
“As for optical performance, comatic aberration is an aberration that can rear its ugly head during night sky photography. Lenses designed with astrophotography in mind are often constructed in such a way to reduce comatic aberration (coma).”
The five best lenses for astrophotography we’ve picked below are all coma slayers, helping you capture dazzlingly crisp night images that are free from aberrations and distortions. And while these are best-in-class optics, they’re relatively small and lightweight, making them easy to transport in the dark to your next night sky shoot.
