Well, John, the main reason a 24 f/2 wouldn't be the first lens I'd
purchase for meteor showers is the experience of a fellow amateur
astrophotographer, who purchased one and found it, in his words,
"entirely unacceptable" for this purpose. Granted, this was his *opinion*
with *one lens*, not a scientific test, but he thought the abberations in
the lens made pinpoint stars an impossibility. He sold his, and his
experience spooked me. My additional concern would be that, even if the
Zuiko 24/2 were a fantastic performer, the images would be small and
therefore faint. You see the difficulty: each degree of sky that's
included means the meteor that *does* get recorded becomes that much less
impressive. What I really want, you see, is a wide-angle-telephoto (heh,
heh); but given the imperatives of physics, I'm looking for the ideal
compromise. I didn't see you recommending the 35f/2, is that a deliberate
omission? Do you think the 35/2 would *not* do a good job at this task?
Or were you simply going for the options that showed more sky?
>Why rule out the 24? It may have distortions that are not acceptable wide
>open in terrestrial photography that won't matter in astro work. The
>converse is certainly true. My next choice would be either a 21mm f/2 or
>the 28mm f/2, depending on how much sky you are trying to capture.
>Alternatively, you could consider the f/2.8 version of the 24mm and use a
>faster film to compensate. Perhaps for this application it is a reasonable
>compromise. Like any lens, it is not at its best wide open, but tests I
>recall indicate it is better than its f/2 cousin wide open.
>>Oh, one other question -- I've been looking for a good Zuiko to use for
>>meteor showers. ..... But my question is, what would be the ideal Zuiko for
>>It seems it would be a balance of speed, angle of view/image size, and
>>image quality. ..I have already ruled out the 24mm f/2 because of
>>image quality. I'm leaning toward the 35/2 for this purpose; it seems to
>>perform about as well as any, wide open, based on Gary Reese's tests, but
>>I'd like to hear experiences with the 28/2, if there are any.
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