Canon EOS 300D for imaging

[stevenson166]

I have just purchased a used EOS 300D for entry level Astrophotography..I have read about a mod available ..Can i comfortably use it out of box with appropriate lens or is the mod necessary and is it a software or hardware change and how or who can do it ?

Thanks in advance 

[Ant]

Yes it will work out the box. I use a 300D.

Without the astro mod, the sensitivity to the Ha part of the spectrum is limited. It is also only Usb1.1, so slow at download times and also it's a noisy chip compared to newer models.

But it is still a great entry level camera. Remember it was state of the art about 8 years ago!

Ant

[stevenson166]

Yes..i do believe it was the first pre $1000 dslr in 2003 

[stevenson166]

without googling is HA Hydrogen Alpha...gonna look a fool in a minute...

[Ant]

Yes Ha is hydrogen alpha. See you didn't look silly!

Cheers

Ant

[Chris]

As Ant said you can use your 300D right out the box with either a lens or you can attach a T-ring to the camera to connect it to a telescope.

A programmable trigger release is also a good idea, you can use this to set exposures longer than 30 seconds, and also trigger a run of exposures without touching your camera. Without some kind of trigger release movement from pressing the shutter button would cause shake which would effect your images, elongated streaky stars and blurring etc.

I've owned a 300D in the past and it was one of the ones I modded. Here the link I used to mod my 300D:

http://dslrmodifications.com/rebelmod.html

If you do go ahead with the mod, my advice is just take yout time and make sure your well set up as per the instructions. Use a sheet of paper and tape the screws from each step to it along with the step number. Also try and earth yourself so you don't short any of the components with a static discharge. Make sure you have a good set of jewelers screw drivers and some wood tooth pics. The 300D and 350D also require that you use a soldering iron to remove the plate behind the sensor so this is worth bearing in mind also. 

I've probably modded 5-6 cameras in the past from 300D to 1100D and I would much rather spend 6 hours doing the mod and have it work at the end than rush through it in 3 hours only to have the camera not turn on at the end. This has happened once to me and I had to strip the camera down again and find the problem which was a loose ribbon cable

Take your time and you'll be fine, its a fiddly thing to do but it is doable.

If you don't want to mod the camera it will still be very good for objects such as galaxies, infact I prefer non modded cameras for galaxies and use modded ones for emmision nebs.

Hope this helps  

[stevenson166]

its all a learning curve...(feeling quite smug )

[stevenson166]

Thanks Starfox..i have purchased a EOS remote ...and have just replaced a iphone 4s digitiser and screen so am feeling pretty DIY lol