Let’s try out four of the best smartphones in a low-light shooting battle. We compare urban nightscape photos from the ASUS ZenFone 4 Pro, HTC U11, LG V30 and Samsung Galaxy S8.
Gear Reviews
Reviews of the gear I use for photographing the Milky Way
Review: Urban Night Photography with the Fujifilm X-T2
Using one of my favorite techniques for astrophotography, I take a shot at shooting ultra high resolution urban nightscapes with the Fujifilm X-T2. In this user experience review, I test the X-T2’s low light shooting performance while exploring the cities of London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland at night.
Rokinon 20mm f/1.8 Astrophotography Review: Joshua Tree National Park
In this review, we put the new full-frame Rokinon 20mm f/1.8 to the test in Joshua Tree National Park, California.
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Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 Astrophotography Review
In this review, we take a look at the ultra wide-angle Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 for full-frame E-mount Sony cameras. This premium ultra wide-angle lens is one of the widest f/2.8 prime lenses available natively for the a7 series of cameras.
We love fast wide-angle primes for astrophotography, so the Batis 18mm quickly jumped to the top of our list of most desirable lenses to test. We push the low-light limits of the Batis 18mm to capture nightscapes around the world in California, New Zealand and Australia.
Sony Zeiss FE 55mm f/1.8 Sonnar T* Astrophotography Review
In this review we take a look at Sony’s Zeiss-branded full-frame 55mm f/1.8. It’s one of the more expensive 50mm-ish primes available for any camera system and is highly regarded for its sharpness. Let’s see how it handles astrophotography.
Hoya Red Intensifier Review: An Affordable Light Pollution Filter for Astrophotography
I don’t typically use filters for the type of astrophotography you see on Lonely Speck. Filtering for specific wavelengths of light is a common practice for astronomy and deep sky imaging. But most filters made specifically for astrophotography tend to be very specialized and very expensive. Luckily, there’s an option for those on a tight budget: the Hoya (Red) Intensifier Filter. In this short review, we test out the Hoya Intensifier while shooting the Milky Way from Trona Pinnacles, California.
Sony a6000 Astrophotography Review
Let’s take a look at Sony’s best selling interchangeable lens cameras ever made: the Sony a6000. In this review we test the a6000’s low light performance and try it out for Milky Way and aurora photography in California, Nevada and Alaska.