Nikon D70

[Astronut1982]

Hey all,

A friend of mine has offered me a Nikon D70 for a bargain price but before I take it, I wanted to ask you guys if it's any good for astrophotography or would I be better to save & get a canon 450D?

Cheers,

Jeff

[cgarry]

I had a Nikon D70 but could not find a way to automate the taking of subs, meaning I had to stop and start each sub manually. This was just a pain in the neck so I bought a Canon 450D.

With the 450D I was able to automate sub taking with a cheap timer/controller from eBay or with a USB cable from my laptop, a far better solution.

So I would say save for the 450D.

Cheers,

Chris

[x6gas]

You can automate the Nikon cameras so long as you use tethered shooting (i.e. connect them to a PC) and use a software package - like Camera Control http://www.diyphotobits.com/download-diyphotobitscom-camera-control/ which is free to download.

I use this with my D40 / D40x and it's excellent but then I do have the PC there running Stellarium and controlling the mount.

I've had good results with my Nikons and prefer them over the modded Canon I have.

HTH, Ian

[Darkstomper]

This sounds interesting, I have a d90 am hoping it's good for astro photography also. Put an update if you get the d70 plse...

[JimStan]

A friend of mine got the Nikon sequencer/shutter release, and I picked up the Chinese knockoff. His cost about 5 times what mine did, but functionally, and visually, they appear to be identicle !

The only thing that would recommend the Canon over the Nikon is the fact that you can fairly easily modify the Canon to take "full spectrum" shots. However, it would be much more difficult to reverse the modification, from what I understand, so putting it back together for regular daytime pictures would probably require a trip to a camera repair shop!

There are LOTS of objects out there that photograph well with an un-modified camera, so I would set my sights on them before I went and hacked a camera apart !

Jim S.

[Astronut1982]

In the end I just bought the D70. It was only £70 with 2 batteries, 2 chargers & a remote so it means I have a camera until I can afford the Canon 450D.

I also managed to take some pics on Sat. I've attached the best 2, one of Vega [2 x barlow used] & one of the Ring nebula [No barlow, wanted maximum brightness as it was a smallish scope]. They were both on an ISO of 800 & an exposure of 30s. I haven't edited them, these are exactly how they turned out. I was impressed with the low noise compared to the Nikon 5100 I was borrowing from my Dad. It may not be high quality but for what I paid its good enough.

I'm pretty happy with them, it's just a shame I've only got a F8 6" refracter though. Until I can afford a 10" CF quattro, it'll have to do.

I've downloaded diyphotobits so I'll give that a try on Wed [fingers crossed!!] Does it give you a live view on your pc?

Also how do I go about modding the camera to capture more of the sprectrum? Does anyone have a link for that please?

Jeff

[Dave]

I used a Nikon D70 for my images before I got the Nikon D300.

The D70 gave some great results, as you can see from my Web pages.

But it does produce quite a bit of pink amp glow on the final images.

So you would need to get into dark frames quite quickly if you used it to take quite long exposures.

But overall I was pleased that it could take some good images without too much fuss.

Dave

[Astronut1982]

Hi Dave,

I just have a question about taking dark frames. Its been mentioned to me a few times but I'm not sure I understood so I'll tell you what I think I have to do & if you don't mind, can you please tell me if I'm correct?

To take a dark frame I put the lens cap [Or in my case the telescope cover] back on & take a pic using the same settings i.e. ISO, exposure as I used for my long exposure shot & then using a program like Deep Sky Stacker, I use that to integrate the pics. Does this sound right?

kind regards,

Jeff

[Digz]

You should be pleased withe D70, a good camera and my first DSLR.

You cant beat Canon for astrowork when comapred to Nikon, but the D70 will certainly give you something to learn the ropes with as well a provided a great camera for 'general' photography. An intervolometer as suggested by JimStan will suffice though.

A word of warning though, the tethered options for Nikon are good but dont allow bulb funtion. A

[x6gas]

A word of warning though, the tethered options for Nikon are good but dont allow bulb funtion. A

Sorry but that's not true. Camera Control allows you to use the bulb function and to sequence your exposures. And it's free.

Ian

[hemihaggis]

yep bulb funtion is available on all nikon d seris cameras

[Digz]

Please give me a link to the software and I shall try it, if this is true Im so surprised it hasent been posted before given the specific discussions Ive been involved in trying to get tethered shooting and utilising the bulb function.

[Dave]

Hi Dave,

I just have a question about taking dark frames. Its been mentioned to me a few times but I'm not sure I understood so I'll tell you what I think I have to do & if you don't mind, can you please tell me if I'm correct?

To take a dark frame I put the lens cap [Or in my case the telescope cover] back on & take a pic using the same settings i.e. ISO, exposure as I used for my long exposure shot & then using a program like Deep Sky Stacker, I use that to integrate the pics. Does this sound right?

That is exactly right. But you can still get some reasonable results with the D70 without rsorting to all that faffing around.

[x6gas]

That is exactly right. But you can still get some reasonable results with the D70 without rsorting to all that faffing around.

Actually, the Nikon D-range will actually take a dark for you and subtract it from the light frame - that's what the noise reduction function does (if you notice, it takes 60 seconds to take a 30 second sub with noise reduction on... which is the camera taking a dark of the same exposure length). That's not adviseable, though, as it's better to keep light frames and darks seperate and then to combine them later in something like DSS, but give it a go and see what you think - all about experimentation.

[x6gas]

Please give me a link to the software and I shall try it, if this is true Im so surprised it hasent been posted before given the specific discussions Ive been involved in trying to get tethered shooting and utilising the bulb function.

Hmmm that's odd. I thought I found this software via SGL, but it seems that it's not showing up on a search of the forum.

Anyway, Camera Control tethered shooting control for Nikon cameras at http://www.diyphotobits.com/download-diyphotobitscom-camera-control/

HTH, Ian

[Dave]

Actually, the Nikon D-range will actually take a dark for you and subtract it from the light frame - that's what the noise reduction function does (if you notice, it takes 60 seconds to take a 30 second sub with noise reduction on... which is the camera taking a dark of the same exposure length). That's not adviseable, though, as it's better to keep light frames and darks seperate and then to combine them later in something like DSS, but give it a go and see what you think - all about experimentation.

Using the auto Dark Exposure makes the taking of images long, slow and tedious as it always takes another dark of the same exposure to do this.

So as you said a two minute exposure will take four minutes, and so on.

This Long Exposure Noise Reduction can be turned off from the cameras menu to stop it doing that if you need.

Then you can take a few darks at the end of your session (once it's clouded over!) to use in Deep Sky Stacker.

You will get many more proper subs taken a night this way.

Dave

[Digz]

Hmmm that's odd. I thought I found this software via SGL, but it seems that it's not showing up on a search of the forum.

Anyway, Camera Control tethered shooting control for Nikon cameras at http://www.diyphotobits.com/download-diyphotobitscom-camera-control/

HTH, Ian

Cheers bud, I have used this and couldnt see any Bulb function - have they released a newer version? If it works Ill be a very happy bunny

[x6gas]

Using the auto Dark Exposure makes the taking of images long, slow and tedious as it always takes another dark of the same exposure to do this.

.

.

.

Dave

Yeah I agree, but I do suggest that the OP has a play and decides what they want to do. It's generally a bad idea to have the NR switched on unless you're not stacking and not doing any post-processing.

My set-up is pretty automated but with rare clear skies it's important to grab as many light frames as possible!

[x6gas]

Cheers bud, I have used this and couldnt see any Bulb function - have they released a newer version? If it works Ill be a very happy bunny

It's near the bottom of the control window - same setting as used for time lapse IIRC. You have to have the USB connection set to the right setting...

[JimStan]

I haven't advanced nearly as far as some of the fellows who post their pictures here on the forum, but I don't use noise reduction when taking my light frames. There are some pretty good noise reduction tools built into PhotoShop Elements 9, and I would suspect that the full-blown version of the program has even better algorhythms to work with!

There are even some "freebies" out there that do a better than average job of eliminating noise in the final image. Paint.net is one I can think of, but you DO need to have .net software installed in a Windows machine. Maybe some of you know of other software that works as well.

Elements is a great program, and well worth the cost, if you cannot afford the full featured version of Photoshop .

[JimStan]

Re: modifying the camera

There are plenty of targets out there for you to get your feet wet on, before you consider modifying a perfectly good Nikon camera! Globular and open star clusters, galaxies, constellations, the moon and planets, asterisms, etc. etc. all contain enough "white" light to provide excellent images with un-modified cameras.

You can learn the methods of taking the pictures, and processing the results on those subjects, and get into narrow band ( hubble pallet, etc. ) images at a later time.

BTW, those filters, etc. are quite expensive, and the processes are quite time consuming and exacting work, as I am sure the experts can tell you. POW photos are not accomplished without a great deal of "sweat equity" !

Jim S.

[Digz]

It's near the bottom of the control window - same setting as used for time lapse IIRC. You have to have the USB connection set to the right setting...

Either Im being dumb or you cannot shoot for longer than 30s with this piece of software? Can you please explain how it works.

[Astronut1982]

I don't seem to be able to get the software to shoot for longer than 30s either. If you point me in the right direction I would be most grateful.

Jeff

[x6gas]

I don't seem to be able to get the software to shoot for longer than 30s either. If you point me in the right direction I would be most grateful.

Jeff

My absolute humblest apologies guys, I was completely mistaken. I was certain that I had this working with bulb mode but I was wrong.

Very sorry for the inconvenience

[x6gas]

Public apologies for contradicting Digz when I was clearly talking out of my rear-end...

Off to eat a large portion of humble pie.

Ian