After a very long time, I finally managed to take an astrophoto with nothing but a regular camera lens again. This time, I used the IRIX Firefly 15 mm f/2.4, which I had originally bought for landscape and architectural photography. I really wanted to see how it would perform at night.
The opportunity came on a holiday night in Scotland. Over Fearnach Bay at the Firth of Lorn, in a dark Bortle 2 zone, the sky cleared up around 1 a.m. – the only starry night during our stay. And that’s when this Milky Way image was created.
The Imaging Session
I didn’t have a tracker or a planned session with me, only my Canon EOS R, the new IRIX lens, and a sturdy tripod. Exposure times was 30 seconds. Thanks to the 15 mm focal length, such exposures are possible without star trails.
The image was created from two exposures: one for the foreground, one for the sky. The pictures were combined in Affinity Photo, with minimal development in PixInsight.
I’m pleased with the result: I like the blue tones, the sharpness is decent – even though I hadn’t adjusted the lens beforehand and focused mostly by trial and error. This shows that while the IRIX does have a tactile infinity stop, it isn’t always perfectly accurate. For future sessions, I’ll fine-tune this properly.
Hochauflösend auf Astrobin:
Session Details:
| Lens | IRIX Firefly |
| Focal Length | 15mm |
| Camera | Canon EOS R |
| Mount | Tripod |
| Photography Date | August 2nd 25 |
| Exposure-Time | 1x30s + Foreground |
| Sensitivity | ISO 1600 |
| Processing Date | 08/23/2025 |
| Software Stack | PixInsight, Affinity Photo |
| Capture Place | Fearnach Bay, Scotland |