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Cannon cameras for astrophotography?

Quatermass

By Quatermass
in Imaging - Discussion

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Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
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I would like some advice from those of you who have a cannon and use it for astrophotography. I currently have a Lumix G1 but above 800 ISO it produces a lot of noise that has begun to bug me now. Was thinking of going for a second hand cannon SLR with live view and wondered what would be a good one to go look for with out breaking the bank. Deep sky objects with my sky watcher 200p and guided eq5 mount. I have done a lot with my Lumix but from what I've read so far cannon do a better job when it comes to higher ISO settings.:p

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Smeg

Smeg

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1100 D has a very low noise sensor

Pros: Cheap, light weight, low noise, popular and widely used along with the 1000D (at the cheap end - which isnt so cheap)

Cons: lightweight plastic, single board PCB deisgn

Advice, take out a 3 year accident/extended warranty

Amazon have a Body only on sale cheap discount atm, Argos may have a cheaper body comming up to Christmas, I saw them below 300 GBP long ago on sale.

Amazon is 330, Avoid jessops.

50 GBP on amazon for 3 year cover if purchased within 60 days or same time, 70 for similar in Jessops (rip off merchants)

Also check Expansys.com for prices.

Reason for the extra cover purchase, single board PCB designs mean any fault with connectors breaking Canon classify (their repair center guidelines they send out to repair centers) that as accident/impact damage and voids the warranty, your in for a fight here but its possible ( I just did this fight ), they replace the board, that includes a good sensor just for minor repair jobs.

Cons about the extra cover, if they replace the camera (most likely as the PCB replacement is 250 GBP on a 300 GBP camera) that terminates the extra years cover due to a new body replacement, but its cheaper than the hard way.

Also check out...

ghonis2.ho8.com/T3review/T3review.html

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garethmob

garethmob

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i use a old 300d, with some pentax m42 lens (make sure you have the proper m42 - ef adapter)

ok it dosent have liveview, but as long as u use manual lens that focus to infinity it works perfect, i'm actually taking a pic of m31 (andromedia) in my 135mm i'll post it when its back)

my iso only ever goes to 800

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Smeg

Smeg

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Don't let me scare you off the Canon's, it will be the same with any camera brand if anything happens.

I love my Canon 1100D's sensor lol (hope my new one is as good - just 2 weak hots on it), My previous was a 35mm film Konica Minolta (before Sony bougth them out), and it was built like a tank.

Pro tip on hot pixels.

Lens cap on. Live view, turn up ISO and check for hot pixels then go to the Firmware... Select manual clean. Sit for 60 seconds, then turn off and on again and repeat until hot pixels are averaged down from the neigbours.

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RikM

RikM

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ISO setting almost doesn't matter with these cameras. Increasing the ISO doesn't increase the photons hitting the chip, it just amplifies the signal more (noise and all).

I use a Canon 1000D and it's really a great astro camera. My standard sub is 90sec @ ISO-800 and that works out just right for me. The 90 sec limit is because of having no mount guiding so I get star trailing with longer exposures than this. Shot noise is pretty good up to about 5 minutes @ ISO-800 then it starts to be a nuisance. Obviously it's worse at the moment with the warm weather.

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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Well went out this evening and took a panorama shot from the back of my garden right round 180 degrees I was amazed at how much light polution was coming of the lights from my street no wonder my milky way shots were lacking in detail will post these tomorrow on here but still think a cannon is on the cards to improve things. Fortunatly the council are turning off the street lights next year good job too.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

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Whippy

Whippy

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Pro tip on hot pixels.

Lens cap on. Live view, turn up ISO and check for hot pixels then go to the Firmware... Select manual clean. Sit for 60 seconds, then turn off and on again and repeat until hot pixels are averaged down from the neigbours.

Hot pixels can easily be taking out during stacking so there's no need to do that.

Tony..

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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Here is a panorama shot of my back garden that clearly shows the light pollution from the street lights of Halesworth town. As you move to the right of the picture the last frame is the back of my garden which backs on to a meadow. Here it is lovely and dark as there is just fields behind the trees, but as you pan around back to the house the horrible orange glow from all those street lights fills the sky :p:):glasses1:

Light%252520Pollution.JPG

I didnt realize just how bad it was until I panned around with the camera on a tripod, ISO was 800 at 25 seconds. This would explain why my shots of the milky way were so washed out, its just above the left hand bright street light in the picture. The glow from the street lights just washes it away. Im sending this picture to my local council so they can see for themselfs just how wasteful there being lighting up the sky like the 4th of July every night.

So even a canon camera would not cope with such a washed out milky way. Going to take off in the car tonight and get away from the town as far as possible and take some more shots of the milky way to see what a difference it will make. Got to be better then taking it through all that glowing horror.

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