Photographing the Northern Lights

Hi,

In the new year I'll be making a trip to Iceland with the hope of photographing the Northern Lights. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this on the m4/3 platform so I can plan to get the right gear and hopefully have a vague idea of what I should be doing.

Current camera is a GF1, and current native lenses are the Panasonic 7-14, 20mm and the 14-140. I've also got a Planar 50mm 1.4 and Sonnar 90mm 2.8, excellent lenses but can't imagine they will me much use for lights photography with the 2x crop factor.

I presume my best bet would be to pick up the 14mm 2.5 when it's available.

From what I've read, with an f/4 lens I'll need to use ISO800, f2.5 ISO400 both with shutter times of 20-45 seconds.

My other thought was to move to a GH2 body if it's available in time. Would this be a better camera for this purpose? As it's a once in a lifetime trip I want to have the best chance of getting some good images.

Does this sound along the right lines? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

thanks,

 

Yep I'll be trying everything!!! Taking my MacBook Pro with me, and we'll be hiring a car and intend to be out there every night over our 5 day trip if the conditions are right. We intend to be out there for a good few hours from 12am onwards providing adequate viewing conditions so should have a chance to experiment with different methods.

I've been trying some night shots of star trails and the moon etc out in the country.

Thanks for this, not come across that one on my googling, some good reading material there.

Absolutely!! Just hope the conditions are right.....February seems like a good time to go, so here's hoping...

Yep, I didn't fork out the £75 for the Panasonic one though, got a £4 one from China off ebay. Red Snapper RS-324 carbon tripod also waiting for action...

Lovely shots!! Like the composition. Look forward to seeing your lights shots