DSLR / Video and stacking

[DaveT]

Forgive me if this has been asked, but i couldnt find it with the search.

New to all this so this may seem a dumb question, but hopefully someone with the relevant software and hardware may have doen this and got it to work -- or not LOL

I see for good planetary imaging its recommended to use a webcam style camera and to use a stacking program to align and grab the best frames into a single picture -- i think im correct here.

Would it be possible to use the same software to stack pictures from a DSLR that has video capabilities. The reason i ask is that my canon 550d has HD video capabilities, so i was thinking of using this to video the planet in question, and then using the stacker program to extract the best images from it. The dslr would give me the advantage of exposure / iso levels etc over a webcam.

Any comments are most welcome, good or bad

Thanks Dave

[teh_feckerer]

Hi Dave,

I tried with my D90 a while ago and found I get a much smaller image that with even a crappy webcam. I think its all about sensor size in that respect.

Give it a go though, worst you can do is get a smaller image. I also found that registax took a huff at HD .avi and took forever to process.

In my opinion a webcam is a better option but if you don't have one, try your Canon.

[DaveT]

thanks Ted -- my scope is due to arrive early next week, so finger crossed for some clear skies -- i may try it with just a video from the camera in the mean time

Thanks again

Dave

[Black Knight]

I think that one of the problems using DSLR for video is that they compress the video as a matter of course which would obviously affect the final image. Not sure if this affects all DSLR's or just some.

[gboulton]

I've been using BackYard EOS's "Planetary" mode with my EOS 1100D. (the 550D is also supported)

It uses the Live View mode to take repeated exposures, and then creates an AVI, which things like Registax can then chew on.

Doesn't take but a few minutes to get 500-1000 exposures to really give RS something to work with.

Both of these were done from my Celestron C6, unguided, through my 1100D

Worth noting that BYE does, at the moment, seem to have a bit of a bug when creating AVIs. When it starts the AVI creation process, it crashes about 50% of the time. It's a known issue, and the developer is working to resolve it. In my experience, he's been responsive and efficient about such things, so I expect this issue to be resolved quickly as well.

[DaveT]

Looking good mate, and encouraging to know that the eos can be used for it. I also have magic lantern installed on my canon which allows me to configure compression ratios etc as well, so is really worth a look at.

Being honest im trying to be a bit of a cheap skate, to save buying another camera at the moment what with the expense of the new scope etc, and will probably end up getting one later on, but looking for an "easy way out" at the moment LOL

[gboulton]

That's pretty much where I was as well. I bought the 1100D as an upgrade from my venerable 350D, which didn't support Live View.

Figured I'd spent enough money already, thought I'd give the Planetary feature in BYE a shot. Honestly didn't expect NEAR the results I got.

It's certainly not a high end planetary imaging system...but it'll do for starters, I think.

[DaveT]

Just re read -- so it looks as if you guys are using the stream from the live view feed to get you video. Anyone tried actually using the saved video files from the memory card to extract the frames from ? This would give you up to full HD video size at a decent quality compared to live view

[gboulton]

I have not tried that, no.

I can't think of a reason it wouldn't work...just haven't messed with it.