What focus screen to help focus on stars? (F5, F3 or F2)

ColdEye · Jul 22, 2020

So I am finally getting the hang of using my tracking mount, and I want to use it with my film cameras. I have a Nikon F5, F3 or F2. What focus screens can help me focus better with the night sky? I am using 3 lenses, an AF 300/4, an AIS 180/2.8, and lastly a Tamron 35/1.8. I am definitely getting a right angle viewfinder of some sort (flip LCD screens with live view have spoiled me).

chriscrawfordphoto · Jul 22, 2020

Stars are so far away, focusing doesn't matter. Set the lens at the Infinity position and you're in focus.

cjbecker · Jul 22, 2020

chriscrawfordphoto said:
Stars are so far away, focusing doesn't matter. Set the lens at the Infinity position and you're in focus.

Yes and no, Some lenses focus past infinity, Im pretty sure the 300 is one. I would think just a normal focus screen without any splits/rangefinders/microprisms would be the best. Like a E screen if you also like the grid.

abruzzi · Jul 22, 2020

how about a Bahtinov Mask in front of the lens:

http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html

ColdEye · Jul 22, 2020

Yeah the 300/4 focuses past infinity, so does the Tamron, tho with that one its a tiny bit easier to focus. With the 180 AIS it does have a good infinity stop/mark.

Ok so screens without focus aids would be good? I will try that. And thank you for the link for the Bahtinov Mask.

cjbecker · Jul 22, 2020

ColdEye said:
Yeah the 300/4 focuses past infinity, so does the Tamron, tho with that one its a tiny bit easier to focus. With the 180 AIS it does have a good infinity stop/mark.

Ok so screens without focus aids would be good? I will try that. And thank you for the link for the Bahtinov Mask.

I would like to see results!

The link on focusing with the mask is really interesting.

ColdEye · Jul 22, 2020

cjbecker said:
I would like to see results!

The link on focusing with the mask is really interesting.

As of right now I only have digital results. Stacking is another method to use if you do not want to get a tracker. Hopefully in the next week I have everything ready.

reddesert · Jul 22, 2020

Several traditional methods:
- Plain matte ground glass.
- Focus on aerial image plus a crosshairs/reticle. For F2, for example, that would be a Type C screen: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/michaeliu/cameras/shared/ff2screens.htm The idea here is that the aerial image is brighter than a groundglass image. The crosshair forces your eye to focus in the correct plane.
- focusing by measuring pupil displacement using masks in front of the objective. The Bahtinov mask is a recent innovation on this technique. An old version of it is the Hartmann mask: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartmann_mask

For any of them you may want to use an accessory magnifier that attaches to the eyepiece.

abruzzi · Jul 22, 2020

FYI, if you don’t want to try to make your own mask like that link, you can buy premade masks from a number of locations.

tbransco · Jul 22, 2020

If you have a cash surplus, like precision, and own a Lee or equivalent square filter holder already, then you might fancy the SharpStar2 from Lonely Speck.

HeikoW · Jul 23, 2020

Hi, I used for this purpose a matte focusing screen (B2) for my FM2 and FE2 plus a DG-2 magnifier. This worked well for me.

narsuitus · Jul 23, 2020

ColdEye said:
I have a Nikon F5, F3 or F2. What focus screens can help me focus better with the night sky?

I use a Nikon F2 and F4.

With Nikon F2, I prefer a Type M view screen.

With Nikon F2, I use a Nikon DW-2 6x Magnifier Finder or a DE-1 viewfinder with 10x eyepiece magnifier.

With Nikon F4, I use a DW-20 waist level finder.

Nikon DW-2 6x Magnifier Finder by Narsuitus, on Flickr

narsuitus · Jul 23, 2020

ColdEye said:
I am using 3 lenses, an AF 300/4, an AIS 180/2.8, and lastly a Tamron 35/1.8.

For capturing startrails with 35mm cameras, I have used 50mm normal lenses to fisheye lenses and any view screen.

Star Trail by Narsuitus, on Flickr

John Will · Jul 23, 2020

Not Nikon but many years ago I used an Olympus OM1n for Asto photos with an 'all matte' focus screen (type 1-8) or a 'micro-prism clear field screen (type 1-7) .

This was taken in 1997 with the OM1n and 135mm f2.8 lens piggybacked on 114mm reflector, hand guided, 25sec @ f2.8. Kodak Tri-X, about 50% crop of original 35mm neg.

Comet Hale-Bopp

xonefs · Jan 12, 2023

Old thread but I found it searching for a Type C screen for my F5...

For my F3 I use type D which is the all clear fine matte with the 6x chimney finder. it is excellent

I need something similar for my F5 but doesn't look like they made that exact one and I can't find a Type C screen at the moment but that looks like what I need

What focus screen to help focus on stars? (F5, F3 or F2)

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