D5500

[lizzard427]

I'm new to the PhotoForum.
I have a D5500, after owning and using me D40 for several years. I'm looking at buying a wide angle lens to use during the eclipse in August. We'll be visiting my family in Oregon and plan to stop by one of the towns the eclipse passes over, than down to Crater Lake later that day to do some night sky photography.

I have a few questions I wanted some help with:
1. For photos of an eclipse, would it be better to use a wide angle lens or would a telephoto or zoom lens be optimal?
2. I've been looking at the Nikon AF-S 16-35mm wide angle lens to use while at Crater Lake, as research has suggested using one with even a little zoom allows for more flexibility than a prime wide angle-my question here is would it be better to use this one for that use or would it be better to use a prime lens?
3. This is more of a side note: I was also looking at buying one of those battery packs to attach to my camera-if you use it, is it worth it to you? When I used my D40, I never had problems with the battery dying but my battery died on my 5500 when we went camping. I wasn't sure if battery packs were worth it, I don't know anyone who uses them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[KmH]

If you shoot during totality the scale of the Sun in a shot made with a wide angle lens will be very small.
Though the corona will be visible and very much larger than the Sun. How much larger the corona will be will depend on how long your exposure is.

If you use a wide angle lens while the eclipse is partial and you don't use a solar filter that blocks some 99% of the light, the Sun will likely be way overexposed and won't look like it's partially eclipsed.

I will be using a 400 mm lens (telescope) with a solar filter on it during the partial portion of the eclipse.
I will remove the solar filter to make 1 shot of the fully eclipsed Sun & it's corona during totality.

Since it's the Moon that's eclipsing the Sun I can show you how big the Moon/Sun will be using my 400 mm lens and a 1.5x crop image sensor.
I made these composite Moon shots using the 400 mm lens/1.5x crop sensor so each image of the Moon is as large as the eclipsed Sun will be in August when I photograph the eclipse.

 

[Derrel]

Honestly, look around TPF for posts about the eclipse, and look for TCampbell and KmH posts, as well as one by a British fellow whose name I am drawing a temporary blnak on....go back less than six weeks...

My suggestion: come to Oregon (where I live) and be prepared to camp out or stay in your car, because accomodations are already booked in most cases. WATCH the eclipse, and shoot video of it, and buy some pro-done shots of it, later. EXPERIENCE the sublime weirdness that is a total solar eclipse in real-time, not shooting so-so photos. Eclipse work is demanding. And you will have less than two minutes! We had one here in the early 1980's, and it was SOOOOO COOOOL!!!!!

A wide-angle lens is the wrong tool. See KmH's fine 400mm x 1.5x FOV moon-size.

 

[lizzard427]

Honestly, look around TPF for posts about the eclipse, and look for TCampbell and KmH posts, as well as one by a British fellow whose name I am drawing a temporary blnak on....go back less than six weeks...

My suggestion: come to Oregon (where I live) and be prepared to camp out or stay in your car, because accomodations are already booked in most cases. WATCH the eclipse, and shoot video of it, and buy some pro-done shots of it, later. EXPERIENCE the sublime weirdness that is a total solar eclipse in real-time, not shooting so-so photos. Eclipse work is demanding. And you will have less than two minutes! We had one here in the early 1980's, and it was SOOOOO COOOOL!!!!!

A wide-angle lens is the wrong tool. See KmH's fine 400mm x 1.5x FOV moon-size.

Thanks for the info.
We will be in OR during this time, I grew up in Salem and have family out there. We'll drive from Salem to Madras, not sure where exactly we plan to go in Madras for it but we will figure it out.

 

[lizzard427]

If you shoot during totality the scale of the Sun in a shot made with a wide angle lens will be very small.
Though the corona will be visible and very much larger than the Sun. How much larger the corona will be will depend on how long your exposure is.

If you use a wide angle lens while the eclipse is partial and you don't use a solar filter that blocks some 99% of the light, the Sun will likely be way overexposed and won't look like it's partially eclipsed.

I will be using a 400 mm lens (telescope) with a solar filter on it during the partial portion of the eclipse.
I will remove the solar filter to make 1 shot of the fully eclipsed Sun & it's corona during totality.

Since it's the Moon that's eclipsing the Sun I can show you how big the Moon/Sun will be using my 400 mm lens and a 1.5x crop image sensor.
I made these composite Moon shots using the 400 mm lens/1.5x crop sensor so each image of the Moon is as large as the eclipsed Sun will be in August when I photograph the eclipse.

Ok, I wasn't sure if a wide angle would be better for these conditions or a telephoto/scope. I was thinking wide angle to capture more of the area, but a telephoto/scope does make more sense the more I think about it. Would you recommend a 400mm prime or like am 80mm-400mm?

 

[Designer]

I was thinking wide angle to capture more of the area,

As always, use whatever equipment you need to get the shot you want. If you're more of a "people" person, and intend to capture shots of people out observing the eclipse, then a wide angle makes perfect sense. Get BOTH the eclipse AND the people watching it in the same shot.

Like this:

images of people watching eclipse - Google Search

 

[lizzard427]

I was thinking wide angle to capture more of the area,

As always, use whatever equipment you need to get the shot you want. If you're more of a "people" person, and intend to capture shots of people out observing the eclipse, then a wide angle makes perfect sense. Get BOTH the eclipse AND the people watching it in the same shot.

Like this:

images of people watching eclipse - Google Search

I actually had not even considered getting people within the shot. That's a good idea too.