Oprema - Uroš Fink

GEAR

On this page you can see all of the equipment i currently use for astro-landscape photography. Some of the purchase links also contain affiliate links where you can buy products at the same price, but i will get a small commission on the sale with which you will support my work. Some of the products also contain certain discounts that you get by entering the voucher code.

Cameras

Nikon Z6a

My favourite photography toy! With a 24mp sensor it can capture a sufficient amount of data with low noise. It is one of the best camera for astro-landscape photography on the market. I love everything about it, and wont replace it for a long time. It is astromodified by Astrolab Service with UV/IR cut filter ( H-Alpha ).

Nikon Z6a

My second Nikon Z6A, identical to the first one, and it is also astromodified. I bought it because it allows me to shot multiple compositions during the night, and to create panoramas with 2 cameras at the same time. One with Clip in H-alpha 12nm filter, while the other captures only RGB.

Nikon Z fc

Nikon Z fc is hides many convenient features for astrophotography. Besides that it has an apsc sensor, which ads a longer focal length to all of my lenses without loosing too much of details, it also has some nice features like: integrated maximum shutter speed of 900s, charging via powerbank, movie timelapse, exposure smoothing…

Lenses

TTArtisian 11MM f2.8

I am very suprised by the quality of this lens. The ratio price vs. quality is excellent. Stars in the corners looks nice even with wide open aperture. Probably one of the best, if not the best fisheye lens for astrophotography on the market today.

Samyang 14MM f2.8 AF

Samyang is a company where you never know how good a copy of the lens you will get in your hand. With this one i made it in the first time purchase. The lens is small and light, convenient to carry, nice for timelapses or some close up shots. It has a bit more vignetting wide open, but the stars looks pretty nice also in the corners.

Sigma 20MM f1.4 DG DN

A lens that i bought as soon as it came on the market. After testing 4 best wide angle lenses ( Sony 20 1.8, Sony 24 1.4GM, Sigma 20 1.4 DG DN and Sigma 24 1.4 DG DN), this one was by far the best. We have to admit that Sigma has a lot of high quality lenses for astrophotography on the market. With this lens i could shot wide open and got outstanding results.

Tamron 35MM SP F1.4

I could say that this is my flagship of all the lenses. It is also one of my first purchases that i am most happy about it. I simply love this focal range, both for single frames and panoramas. With it i can easily acquire a large amount of data. Undoubtedly the most used lens in my collection. It is just perfect and i can use it at f2 with pinpoint stars and the best sharpness on the market in this focal range for shure.

Tamron 85MM SP F1.8

Like all other Tamron lenses, also this 85mm prime lens is worth every penny. The ratio between price and quality is superb. Nowadays you can get a used one at a very low price. I mostly use it for “deepscape” shots where i want to take a closer shot of object in the sky together with interesting foreground, or even to shot some bigger mosaics. I can use it at f2.5 with very good quality of the stars.

Samyang 135MM F2.0

As you have probably heard many times, the Samyang 135 f2 is the perfect and most used astro lens. You can use it for dso, “deepscape shots” or even some big mosaics where you would like to get out as many details as possible. If you get a good copy of this lens it is already perfect wide open at f2.0. from corner to corner of course with some vignetting on the edges.

Tamron 70-200MM G2 F2.8

In the two years, since i have owned it, i have taken a lot of “deepscape” images with it. If you ask me, there is no better zoom lenses for astrophotography on the market today, especially not in this price range. It is very handy due to the large focal length range. The lens is very sharp and at f3.5 offers very good results from corner to corner at all focal lengths.

TRACKERS

Fornax lightrack 2 ( ambassador )

I am proud that with my work i can contribute one tiny part to such a successful company. Fornax Lightrack 2 is currently the most accurate portable star tracker on the market. The peak-to-peak unguided tracking error of the LighTrack is less than 2 arcseconds. At the heart of the LighTrack is the precision motor and the friction drive. The fine friction strip makes the movement of the mount very balanced. Its compact size, lightweight but robust body paired with outstanding tracking accuracy makes the LighTrack II an ideal choice in the market of portable trackers.

Benro polaris

As soon as the Benro company announced this fully automatic head on the Kickstarter project, i decided to pledge it. To date, i have made many automatic panoramas, mosaics and various compositions with it. It nice because you actually have free hands and do not need to touch a device at all when shooting big panoramas. The accuracy of the tracking depends mainly on the accuracy of leveling under the head. It is good for focal range till 200mm, but i have already seen very good results made with longer lenses then 200mm. You can also create some motion time lapses with, but the software itself will need some more upgrade.

Tripods and heads

Sunwayfoto T3240CK (ambassador)

It is a versatile carbon fiber tripod with a high load capacity of 25kg which makes it perfect for astro-landscape photography. It is waterproof, solid and sturdy, very small when folded:51cm and lightweight: 1,5kg. I can recommend it to everyone who is looking for easy to carry, but at the same time very solid tripod with a good price.

VOUCHER CODE 5%: UROSFINK

Leofoto Ranger LS364C

I bought this tripod because of excellent price to performance ratio. One of the best tripod for this price on the market. With 36mm of max tube diameter makes it very strong and can hold a huge amount of heavy equipment above it. I have been using it in the snow, under the water, in hot and very cold temperatures and it is working perfectly. It is my favourite tripod of all time.

2x Sunwayfoto tilt head dt-03 (ambassador)

A piece of equipment that is indispensable for me. It serves me as leveling base for making big panoramas, or even as wedge for Fornax Lightrack 2. I am just in love in this Tilt head. It is very solid, stable, lightweight with high payload. You could use it instead of a ballhead also. I actually have two of them and i would not defend myself with a third one.

VOUCHER CODE 5%: UROSFINK

Sunwayfoto lb-90 leveling base (ambassador)

This leveling base made by Sunwayfoto is a piece of equipment without which i do not go anywhere anymore. It s a perfect tool for faster assembly photography setup, easier balancing gear on top of it and it is also good for faster polar alignment. With a large platform diameter of 90mm and high payload: 25kg is a great companion for my Fornax tracker. I also love the locking design of it.

VOUCHER CODE 5%: UROSFINK

Neewer Pro 69mm tripod levelling base

This is my older leveling base with 69mm of platform diamater. It still works great after 2 years of usage. Due to the smaller size of the platform diameter i kept it for my Benro Polaris tracker. It is strong enough, a bit akward locking design with knob with which you can hit the platform or gear above it. Maybe a bit too high, Otherwise it does its job.

Nodal Ninja Advanced Rotator Panning Clamp PCD5 × 1

My latest equipment acquisition. Panoramic rotator with an option of presetting the desired degrees. With this tool i am gonna be able to rotate my cameras even faster while shooting panoramas. The quality of the product and material used is at the highest possible level. With 5,10,12,24,30 preset degrees i am gonna be able to use it for focal length all the way from 14mm till 150mm without having to use headlamp or looking for how many degrees i need to rotate my panning clamp.

Neewer Panorama Tripod Head

One of the simplest yet satisfying panoramic head. I had two of this for making big panoramas, but not to long ago i replaced one of them with Ninja advanced rotator. I have been using this rotator for two years without any problem. It is well made and cheap.

Sirui k-20x balhead

This is a classic ball head which i use for deep sky shots or “deepscapes”. With it i can quickly change compositions or find an object in the Sky. It is very solid, pretty heavy and it comes with high payload of 25kg. It is a good choice for heavy equipment or telephoto lenses.

Kingjoy Panorama Base PB-75

This is a panorama rotator which i placed under the tracker. It serves me for two purpose: With it i can find the Polaris ( North Star ) much faster than i would do with wedge only. I do not need to worry how i will place my tracker in advance, plus it is very handy for making tracked reflections in the water.

2x Atoll model c

It’s a camera rotate gadget. Like a tripod collar, but way more lighter, easier and faster to install and you can use it with almost all of cameras and lenses. I use them instead of L-brackets. With it i can place my camera with lens in a more balanced position and easily access all the ports on my cameras. Its a perfect gadget for astro-landscape photographers with nice design and features.

Koolehaoda 240 mm extension Rail with double sided clamps

It is a multi-purpose nodal rail with slide. Together with this extension rail i also bought two Koolehaoda QR-50B double sided clamps which you can slide on nodal rail. I use this for tracked sky panoramas with 2 cameras. High quality aluminum alloy is used to ensure a light weight and high strength support.

Andoer fnr-100 nodal rail

It is a very short nodal rail which i used several times for installing the camera with ultra-wide lens on Benro Polaris automatic head. I used this nodal rail when i did not have Atoll yet.

BAGS

Shimoda x70 starter kit

One of my most difficult, but at the same time one of the best purchases of photography equipment. Difficult, because it was hard for me to shell out so much money for a backpack, and good because i cannot imagine going anywhere without this photographic backpack anymore. With 70L of space and XL insert this backpack is big enough to put inside it almost all of my gear on this list of my gear. With one word: Perfection!

Pouch bags for shimoda

These are additional pouch bags for carrying any kind of gear or even clothes. If i am running out of space in my Shimoda backpack, i tie them at the bottom and sides of the backpack. They are very convenient for few day photography trips.

2x boona bags for accessories

Pouches for storing smaller accessories such as cables, batteries, powerbanks, lens warmers, screws, remote shutters and so on…I put these pouch bags in my backpack always when i go out. In this way i am more organized at night and do not waste unnecessary time for searching smaller pieces of gear all over my backpack.

OTHER GEAR

Focus on stars masks (ambassador)

Focusing tool for Landscape and Deep Sky Astrophotography. Anyone who thinks that such a focusing tool are not needed has plenty of images that are out of perfect focus. If they are just little out of focus, stars may look sharp, but the chromatic aberration will show up on the lenses. It is very easy to use. I simply hold the filter in front of the lens with my hand, while with other one i am focusing. There are 2 different focusing filter: Wide for 14-50mm lenses, Telephoto for 30-400mm lenses.

Techart TZE 01 adapter

This is Sony E – Nikon Z Autofocus Adapter. With this adapter i can use all Sony E mount lenses on my Nikon Z6 without loosing any optical quality. With using this adapter lenses loose their functions, such as FN button, focus does reset when the camera goes to sleep or when you turn it off despite the focus lock function. While AF and all other functions like exif data are working good. It is very thin, and you need to be careful with it to not brake it.

Megadap etz 21 adapter

Sony E – Nikon Z Autofocus Adapter. The same function. It has the same role as the Techart, only that this adapter is even better. Focus lock function is working, does not matter if you turn your camera off, or camera goes to sleep, focus stays in the locked pre-set position which can be a time saviour in the night time. Also AF is much faster then with Techart with all the exif data written in the camera. I do have two of them because i do have two cameras and i am planing to buy some additional Sony E -mount lenses in the near future.

Laser pointer with adapter

Simple green laser pointer with 100mw of power. I use it very rarely. I think i used it only 3 times in 3 years. Some of astro-landscape photographers use such a laser for easier finding the Polaris or even for polar alignment. And that is also my plan for near future. When i will have an adapter for Fornax polar scope arm, i will be able to use it on my Lightrack 2 for polar aligning, which will be precise enough for tracking with ultra-wide and wide lenses.

led light pad A5

Simple led light panel in A5 format for easier carrying around. I am using this panel for creating flat frames when i am shooting with telephoto lenses. This led light pad has the same brightness across all the panel and because of that is very good gadget for creating flat panels. It also has adjustable brightness, very light and it is powering via usb cable.

2x Pixel tw 283

Remote Control Wireless TW-283 allows you to trigger your camera wirelessly, up to a distance of more than 80 meters. I do have two of them for my 2 Nikon Z6 cameras. Without this remote controller i cannot shot in bulb mode or longer than 30s. So this is a must have tool for long exposure photography if your camera does not support internal exposure longer then 30s.

2x pixel tc 252

This is Wired Timer Remote Control for my cameras. I do have two of this just in case if some of my wireless controller would stop working during the shooting. You have to be ready for anything.

3x MSM lens warmer

Lens warmers are also a must have tool for astrophotographers. If there is a lot of moisture in the air, the lens will fog over a time and the images will suddenly become blurry. This lens warmers are great because they do not consume much battery, they are thin and effective even at very low temperatures.

nitecore NU25 USB headlamp

On of the lightest if not the lightest headlamp on the market today. With maximum 360lumen output, CRI LED which produces a warm 20-lumen beam and renders colors and details better than cool white outputs, a secondary red LED for preserving night vision, three special modes (red caution/SOS/Beacon) for emergencies and signaling, long battery life and with rechargeable battery makes it great for astrophotographers.

forclaz trek 500 headlamp

This is my backup headlamp. It has Large beam (200 lm) with 60 m range, rechargeable battery by micro usb, secondary red light for preserving night vision and not disturbing other photographers.

saiyu step up voltage converter cable 5V to 12V USB

This step up cable will keeps your device still workable with a power bank. IC circuit will protect your device over load. It helps the cable in steady current&steady voltage, when your output or input is over the limit of the cable, it will lower the current to protect your devices. I need this step up cable to connect the Fornax Lightrack 2 to the powerbank.

5x powerbanks

I have a lot of powerbanks because I do have three cameras with which sometimes i work at the same time. Three lens warmers, two trackers, one dummy battery, one Iphone, one for reserve. All of this needs a lot of batteries to work smoothly over a night, two, or even more.

digital camera battery charger

With this battery charger i can charge the batteries while i am on the go or even while i am shooting outside. It can charge two batteries at the same time, and the best is that i can connect it to powerbank for fast charging. Really good and cheap piece of gear which comes especially handy for few days trips where is no electricity.

2x dummy batteries

These are batteries that are connected to a powerbank for direct camera charging via the attached usb cable. With the help of these batteries, our camera can take pictures for 24 hours or even more. Especially suitable for longer timelapses and star trails in the winter time, when nights are very long.

2X NIKON FTZ MOUNT ADAPTER

With these adapters i can use all of my Nikon DSLR lenses on Nikon Z6a mirrorless camera. Optics and functions of the lens stays the same, the only difference is that the lenses looks even bigger with this adapter attached on them. It has a bit bulky design, would wish something like Megadap is, much thinner and easier to carry around without loosing too much space in my backpack. I do have two of them, because i also have two Nikon Z6a cameras.

Post processing gear

Macbook pro m1 max 2021

This is my latest acquisition as far as post production goes. Before i bought this expensive workstation i was working on a pc and one of the older macbook. I was unhappy with the performance of the pc which had pretty good components. When i was working on big projects, my pc often froze and it was pretty slow compared to my older mac. I have been so frustrated that i decided to invest my money in the best possible macbook so i can enjoy working on my projects. We, astrophotographers spend a lot of time editing on our images, and working on such a powerful machine is just amazing. It is much faster then my previous pc workstation, flawless and because i do a lot of work away from home, THIS IS AN INDISPENSABLE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT.

Macbook pro 15" retina 2014

This is my older model of Macbook that runs on Intel processor. And this is also the reason why I kept it. Unfortunately we cannot run all programs and plugins on new M1 processors. I only use it for specific plugins. I installed windows on this Macbook, which I don’t run virtually, but as bootable windows.