Here's a shot of the Milky Way core a few weeks ago taken at a very dark location. I used a cheap 50mm 1.8 kit lens on a Canon 5D MK3. 13 seconds at f1.8 and 3200 ISO. I bumped the exposure about 1/3 stop in post to bring out the details of the core. Notice the stars are just starting to blur a bit.
There were some wispy clouds blowing in and they lit up yellow/orange due to light pollution from nearby towns.
