Jump to content

18-135 and astrophoto

Benj2000

By Benj2000
in Fuji X Lenses

 Share

Recommended Posts

Benj2000 Rookie

Benj2000

Posted
Posted

Hi everybody,

 

Last night, I see a beautiful sky and fortunately I just have my tripod and Fuji XT-1 with 18-135 zoom with me. So I decide to take my first shot at night.

 

I was slightly disappointed by a strange artefact I saw on my picture and I decide to ask the question to the expert of this forum...

 

When I put maximum clarity on my shots (and it's also noticeable without), I see a light circle on the picture much more noticeable in the thumbnail or when you are far from your screen.

 

Don't look at the image quality, it was just test shot.

 

EXIF : 18mm 15 sec f3.5 iso 3200 

 

Anybody knows why this circle appears ?

 

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites
Benj2000 Rookie

Benj2000

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

It's a RAW shot edited with LR and the I tried to deactivate lens correction and the circle remain... actually in didn't notice any change in the image by unchecking lens correction profile in LR...

maybe environment light pollution but it was pretty dark around me.

I never noticed this problem in daylight condition.

Very strange ! Did you ever tried to do astrophoto with the 18-135 ?

Edited by Benj2000
Link to post
Share on other sites
Benj2000 Rookie

Benj2000

Posted
  • Author
Posted

To test if that come from light pollution or my lens, I just took a shot of a white wall in low light condition and the same circle appeared (to better see it you have to look a thumbnail of the jpg or step back from your screen)

 

Do you think it's normal for a 18-135mm lens @18mm or is it abnormal and a problem in the lens?

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites
quincy Community Regular

quincy

Posted
Posted

I searched flickr for night shots done with the 18-135, and I didn't find anything that resembles your problem.

 

As Vidalgo said, it might help to see in camera jpegs. Maybe you could put one of the RAW files back on a sd-card and put it in the camera to create two jpegs via the built in RAW converter, one with the lens modulation optimizer turned on, and one without.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Benj2000 Rookie

Benj2000

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Good idea, I've already tried to develop in the XT1 with lens modulation deactivate by with the same issue! :(

What do you think of the white wall image (aka flat frame).

There is some vignetting but I also notice the same dark circle in the center. Especially visible in small format or far from the screen. Is it normal ? The lens modulation have been deactivated....

Edited by Benj2000
Link to post
Share on other sites
quincy Community Regular

quincy

Posted
Posted

If it were a normal feature of the lens (fuji lenses, especially the cheap ones like the 18-135 or the newer 23/2, 35/2, 50/2 rely heavily on postprocessing in software), the lens modulation optimizer should correct it, at least a bit. If it does not, the lens probably has a problem. On the other hand, such high clarity levels are not normal either. Is the white wall image straight from camera? And have you tried other focal lengths?

Link to post
Share on other sites
mcdesign Apprentice

mcdesign

Posted
Posted (edited)

"Did you ever tried to do astrophoto with the 18-135 ?"

 

Not the lens to use, I have the Samyang (Rockinon) 12mm f/2 for astro photography with the XT1, which incidentally is fantastic for astro work, I tried first with my 14mm, I wasn't entirely happy with the results so bought the Samyang.  Sample attached. EXIF 25s @ f/2 ISO 4000, Manual exposure and focus, bulb setting, remote, tripod.

 

Hope this helps, I have that lens that you used and have had no issue with it for normal photography.

 

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited by mcdesign
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
konzy Enthusiast

konzy

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think it's simply a limitation of the lens. I'm not sure it's officially called vignetting, but that's how I call it! As far as I know, every lens has this kind of issue, more or less pronounced, with different shapes and effects.

 

Here is a picture of my wall with my 18-135mm (wide open, fastest shutter speed available). I moved the sliders to extreme values to reveal that ring:

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Now, nobody really use these extreme values in real life. I seldom use the clarity slider...

 

However, you can use the "Dehaze" slider, which does a very good job in adding more contrast and revealing the stars, without turning the photograph into a Jackson Pollock painting. In Lightroom > Develop, it's in the "Effects" menu.

Edited by konzy
Link to post
Share on other sites
Michael McKee Apprentice

Michael McKee

Posted
Posted

I think it's simply a limitation of the lens. I'm not sure it's officially called vignetting, but that's how I call it! As far as I know, every lens has this kind of issue, more or less pronounced, with different shapes and effects.

 

Here is a picture of my wall with my 18-135mm (wide open, fastest shutter speed available). I moved the sliders to extreme values to reveal that ring:

 

attachicon.gifScreen Shot 235.jpg

 

Now, nobody really use these extreme values in real life. I seldom use the clarity slider...

 

However, you can use the "Dehaze" slider, which does a very good job in adding more contrast and revealing the stars, without turning the photograph into a Jackson Pollock painting. In Lightroom > Develop, it's in the "Effects" menu.

Unfortunately, the Dehaze filter adds a lot of noise, which is already a problem with night photography.

Link to post
Share on other sites
konzy Enthusiast

konzy

Posted
Posted (edited)

I really don't think a lens hood could create white circles nor prevents them  :) I haven't use any during my test, and the camera wasn't facing any light source, just the wall. It's just a design flaw.

 

 

Unfortunately, the Dehaze filter adds a lot of noise, which is already a problem with night photography.

 

Dehaze doesn't add any noise. It might make the existing noise slightly more noticeable, due to the enhanced contrast, but so does changing the curve.

 

Here is an example of a SOOC JPEG, and the same JPEG with dehaze at some extreme value (+100):

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

The noise on the right was already there, and is barely more noticeable. Of course, one could diminish the noise on this picture by using noise reduction, or stacking frames.

Edited by konzy
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
JXPhotoGuy Apprentice

JXPhotoGuy

Posted
Posted

"Did you ever tried to do astrophoto with the 18-135 ?"

 

Not the lens to use, I have the Samyang (Rockinon) 12mm f/2 for astro photography with the XT1, which incidentally is fantastic for astro work, I tried first with my 14mm, I wasn't entirely happy with the results so bought the Samyang.  Sample attached. EXIF 25s @ f/2 ISO 4000, Manual exposure and focus, bulb setting, remote, tripod.

 

Hope this helps, I have that lens that you used and have had no issue with it for normal photography.

I use the same lens ie Rokinon 12mm f/2 for all my astrophotography work, as the FX 18-135 and using high ISO is just not the right lens for the job.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...
chris66 Newbie

chris66

Posted
Posted

hi there, i have exactly the same rig as you, and strangely enough, i get that exact anomaly on my images of 15sec or more exp,  on inspection i have determined that the 18-135mm lens feels slightly loose on my x-t1... i`m going to be attempting night shots soon with a 35mm prime lens on the same body to see if the anomaly is still there

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • BIGOAK
      100S Long Write Times

      By BIGOAK · Posted

      so if i'm shooting uncompressed 16-bit RAW files it takes a significant amount of time to write to card. Got the high end UHS II cards, and this does not happen with burst shooting, only single frame shots. what setting am i missing that causes this to happen?
    • Chas
      X-T4 accept external timecode?

      By Chas · Posted

      The Tentacle Sync Timecode tool is the one I tried. I couldn't get it to work. But that is probably my fault, not the software. I seemed to get a file, but I couldn't turn it into anything meaningful. 
    • jerryy
      GFX 100s not connecting to Mac via USB-C

      By jerryy · Posted

      I am glad to read you are able to get this up and running. Pretty much as long as you connect the camera and turn it on and wait a few moments for the computer to register the connection, you can then use Image Capture (which actually is a very decent program with a lot of options for transferring images from cameras to the computer) or Lightroom or other programs to move the images to your library. There are some drawbacks; connecting to the computer while it is in sleep mode will waste your time, the connection will not get recognized— you will have to unplug the camera, wake the computer and start over. Trying to connect while the screen saver is running may work, it may not, often not. If the computer goes into screen saver mode while the camera is connected and sitting idle, it usually stays connected when coming back out of screen saver, but if the computer mputer goes into sleep mode, the connection gets dropped and you have to unplug it and start over. I suggested having the camera turned off while connecting, this is to lower the possibility of static electricity discharges frying either the camera or the computer or both. A lot of times you can connect while the camera is turned on, but not always, sometimes you have to unplug, turn it off, reconnect and turn it back on. A lot of this comes from Apple’s approaches towards keeping USB devices from hijacking your computer, some is just hubris and some is from the vagaries of chance. p.s. Your laptop should be able to connect to the camera.
    • simonhuegly
      X-T4 accept external timecode?

      By simonhuegly · Posted

      Hi Chas, I am just fallen into the rabbit hole of investigating how to upgrade my X-T4's video sound... Loving the idea of time code sync, I am now quite concerned that the X-T4 doesn't support it, although I have already seen different statements on the net, like here:  https://youtu.be/xja27RmvbhE?si=hIch3Tu_MH_pWSBH&t=571 I have to admit, this guy's "explanation" gets quite confusing in his further discourse ...:) BUT, as you wrote that you use Tentacle Sync for Windows!, did you also try with their windows-only software "Time Code Tool" which you find here?: https://tentaclesync.com/timecode-tool   Would love to here if you found a workaround with the XT4 Best, Simon
    • Jk1006
      Focus Sound on NEW XF33mm F1.4 R LM WR

      By Jk1006 · Posted

      It occurred sometime when I focus. It is not silent 
×
×
  • Create New...