Webcam v DSLR ?

[Telescope40]

Hi All. Been using a Phillips Webcam of late for a few pics of the Moon and planets. Cant say I'm a wizard at it but so far happy with the results.

Been thinkin of maybe getting a 2nd hand DSLR (Canon - unsure of model) and giving this a go.

Given my scopes are a fork mounted LX90 10 in and a CD100R on a LXD 55 Goto mount ( please see my signature re my kit ) would I get any "better" results of the same targets and any chance of any short exposure shots of bright DSO's eg M42 with the camera as opposed to the webcam.

Any positive or negative comments much appreciated.

Clear skies John

[Uplooker]

Hi John,

The webcam and the DSLRs are suited to different targets. Webcams are used for lunar & planetary work as they have a reasonably high frame rate that allows you to take lots of frames and then filter out the best ones and stack them using registax or similar. This means that you can overcome the "poor" seeing that is all too often present when photographing planets, as they are not single point sources of light.

You can do various mods to webcams - long exposure(LX), amp off etc that means you can use them for DSOs.

A DSLR is more suited to long exposure work on DSOs as you can through various means take upto 5 or 10 minute exposures, again these captures are stacked in something like Deep sky stacker (DSS).

Using webcams and DSLR are the budget way of doing astrophotography - not to diminish the achievements that people who use them achieve. the sky is the limit (pardon the pun) on what you can spned on dedicated planetary or DSO cameras.

Hope that helps.

Ian

[ollypenrice]

Hi John,

The webcam and the DSLRs are suited to different targets. Webcams are used for lunar & planetary work as they have a reasonably high frame rate that allows you to take lots of frames and then filter out the best ones and stack them using registax or similar. This means that you can overcome the "poor" seeing that is all too often present when photographing planets, as they are not single point sources of light.

You can do various mods to webcams - long exposure(LX), amp off etc that means you can use them for DSOs.

A DSLR is more suited to long exposure work on DSOs as you can through various means take upto 5 or 10 minute exposures, again these captures are stacked in something like Deep sky stacker (DSS).

Using webcams and DSLR are the budget way of doing astrophotography - not to diminish the achievements that people who use them achieve. the sky is the limit (pardon the pun) on what you can spned on dedicated planetary or DSO cameras.

Hope that helps.

Ian

Sound advice above, but what do you expect? The gentleman's from Chorley Lancs, the town of my childhood! :)

The only thing you'll get on the moon with a DSLR is all of it in the frame. The quality won't compare with with a stacked run of webcam images, not remotely.

Before doing anything else I'd read Making Every Photon Count by Steve Richards, Steppenwolf on here.

Olly

[gthomas]

I've used my Canon 450D to record AVIs of jupiter and it is possible to get results just as good as with my philips webcam. It's also a damn sight easier to get the planet on the chip. The only downside would be the large size of the AVIs with regard to storage and processing, but it is all doable.

[Uplooker]

Sound advice above, but what do you expect? The gentleman's from Chorley Lancs, the town of my childhood! :)

Olly

Hi Olly,

Sorry to disappoint you somewhat, I am actually an immigrant to these parts. i am originally from Portstewart, north coast of Northern Ireland. I have been living just outside Chorley for the last 7 years, I do like it though, nice part of the country:)

Ian

[Trull]

Hey Olly, I'm interested to know of a direct comparison between DSLR moon shots vs. stacked webcam (and I mean webcam not fancy Imaging Source cam) where the quality is shown to be better. I'm just interested to see what I'm doing wrong to use my 350D { http://stargazerslounge.com/members/trull-albums-misc-picture9959-megamoon19mar11.jpg } as I actually have an DFK21AU04 but have never gotten a better image than off the DSLR.

[riklaunim]

DSLR is for "entry level" DS shots (or Moon on low resolution ), while webcams are for "entry level" solar system shots (on high resolution).

[ollypenrice]

Hey Olly, I'm interested to know of a direct comparison between DSLR moon shots vs. stacked webcam (and I mean webcam not fancy Imaging Source cam) where the quality is shown to be better. I'm just interested to see what I'm doing wrong to use my 350D { http://stargazerslounge.com/members/trull-albums-misc-picture9959-megamoon19mar11.jpg } as I actually have an DFK21AU04 but have never gotten a better image than off the DSLR.

Clearly you're not doing anything wrong! Sorry, I had entirely forgotten the video mode of DSLRs and was talking about the stills mode. Its my DS imaging background. Apologies!

BTW, the Imaging Source fast frame cameras do come up second hand. I paid £150 for mine and thought it a bit of a bargain. You really don't get better from it than the DSLR? I'm not up on planetary/lunar imaging to any extent but the dedicated fast frame cams do seem to dominate amongst the experts.

I must try my Canon in video mode. The big chip on the moon would be great, as you've shown.

Olly

[Trull]

Clearly you're not doing anything wrong! Sorry, I had entirely forgotten the video mode of DSLRs and was talking about the stills mode. Its my DS imaging background. Apologies!

Nothing to apologise for

I'm just interested in a direct comparison for my own entertainment - as it happens I'm hooking up OAG using the IS cam so might start to make a comparison. I agree that the exposure length is the biggest factor to avoid atmospheric effects, and think my focal length also mitigates against this as well. I have a Vixen ED103 at 795mm which performs nicely up here at 57N, when my mate's Orion Optics 250mm at 2100mm fl just sees boiling air. The EOS-350D has no video mode in any event, my moon shot was a single frame.

[ollypenrice]

A single frame? Gosh, that's far better than any single frame I've ever captured.

Olly

[michaelmorris]

The combination of a webcam for high resolution lunar and planetary shots and a DSLR for wider field lunar shots and for DSOs is the route I have trodden (as have many others). Each type of camera has its strengths and weaknesses and the two complement each other nicely.