For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the evenings are drawing in, and we no longer need to wait until the middle of a very short night to shoot a starry sky. Even so, light is arguably the most important raw material for photography, so things get a bit tricky when there’s very little of it to play with. Shooting outdoors at night is particularly challenging, even when the subject in question is the Milky Way on a clear evening. The night sky is not only dim, it’s also vast and constantly moving, so for the best results you need to choose your lens carefully.
For this group test we’ve picked out the best wide-angle prime and zoom options with fast aperture ratings to make the most of the little light that’s available, while keeping a close eye on the budget. Note that while we’re focusing on options for Nikon owners here, most of the third-party lenses are available in a range of mounts.
Viltrox AF 13mm F1.4 Z
£355/$429
Nikon doesn’t make any Z DX format fast primes yet. Viltrox makes four, all with fast f/1.4 aperture ratings. They’re all fully tricked-up autofocus lenses with full electronic camera-lens communication, and all
