Sunstars and Oly/OM lenses

[pdk42]

I confess to being a bit of a sunstar fan. It's interesting to compare lenses for their ability to produce them. Primes generally do better than zooms, but some zooms seem to do a much better job than others. The PL 12-60 that I recently acquired seems to do OK:




As does the little Lumix 20-60 for FF:


Lengthening Shadows by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


Daybreak on a Frosty Morn by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



And the PL 8-16 I used to use a lot does a decent job too:


Lazy Afternoon by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



And the Zeiss 16-35 f4 for Sony really maxes out on them:


Streetlamps by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


Bahá’í Temple, Chicago II by Paul Kaye, on Flickr


BUT, I seem to remember struggling with Oly zooms. This is about the best I can find - off the 12-100:


Chesterton Windmill Sunset by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Anyone got any better examples of sun-stars from Oly lenses??

[ronidog]

They are imppressive and not overplayed.

What is the technique you use to enable that sun star to show?

[pdk42]

The technique is pretty simple really.

- Small aperture (f16 is usually enough)
- Find a point source of light and frame it
- Try to avoid any flares by moving the framing a bit
- Take picture

The only slightly tricky bit is finding the point source of light. Streetlamps etc are usually fine, but full sun is generally too big (except perhaps with very wide lenses well stopped down). So, you need to partially eclipse the sun by putting a tree, building, horizon, or whatever in front of it. It can be tricky to judge how much to eclipse it by, so use aperture preview to stop the lens down as you frame - that way you'll see the diffraction pattern directly.

Hope that helps!

[ronidog]

Thanks for all the detail, I will give it a go

[MJ224]

I managed a sun burst with a 12-40mm I think, I wonder what causes it, ...??

[pdk42]

Sunstars are diffraction patterns. What's going on is that the aperture blades cause diffraction at their edges, causing the light to bend away from the edges. This causes phase differences in the rays emanating from the aperture which in turn leads to interference patterns. It's the interference patterns that we're seeing. It'll happen with any lensing system, but it will be more pronounced as the aperture gets smaller because the diffraction gets bigger. If there are an even number of aperture blades, n, then the number of spikes is also n. But if n is odd, there are 2n spikes. The wonders of physics!!

[MJ224]

Thanks Paul....there was plenty of blue sky and sun today. I must give it a whirl with your 17mm............

[BDennis]

These are good!

I've found the 8-25mm f4 Pro is good for this, a recent one here:

Gamlingay Wood - HDR by Bill Dennis, on Flickr

I've got some with the 8mm FishEye too, but it's very hard to avoid flares with the FoV!

Sherwood Forest by Bill Dennis, on Flickr

Doing some astro with the 300mm f4 wide open I've even had a Mars Star and a Vega Star, not sure if this counts!

Mars Star - OM-1 + 300mm f4 Pro HHHR with some trailing by Bill Dennis, on Flickr

Vega Star Burst by Bill Dennis, on Flickr

And with the 40-150mm f2.8 a Venus star, but I had to stop it to f11

Venus and the Pleiades by Bill Dennis, on Flickr

Bill

[pdk42]

All very nice indeed. Looks like the 8-25 does nice sunstars. I know the 8mm FE is good at them too - but it's a prime!

[MikeOxon]

Or you can cheat by using a sunstar brush in Photoshop

[pdk42]

Wash your mouth out !!

[Ross the fiddler]

Yep, I agree with Paul. 😂

[MikeOxon]

The James Webb Telescope does them well, too - presumably because of its multiple mirrors:



Mike

[drmarkf]

Best I’ve ever used was the Zeiss Loxia 35mm f2 on my Sony, giving lovely stars from around f8, but I sold that lens.

Voigtlander primes are said to be VG for it on m4/3 cameras.

[MJ224]

Nothing amazing, but six for the price of one...

[pdk42]

The little Oly 17mm isn't the best for sunstars, but it's a nice lens in other ways. However, you seem to have persuaded it to play here !!

[pdk42]

Best I’ve ever used was the Zeiss Loxia 35mm f2 on my Sony, giving lovely stars from around f8, but I sold that lens.

Voigtlander primes are said to be VG for it on m4/3 cameras.

Yes, the CV m43 lenses do give good sunstars. These are from the CV 17mm f0.95 on a Pen-F:


Dans la Forêt by Paul Kaye, on Flickr



Morning Sun by Paul Kaye, on Flickr