Registax 5, DFK21 and debayering

[lukebl]

If you grab an AVI that is quite short I could try putting it through Registax on my machine just to see if the problem is with the original AVI or the stacking software.

Cheers,

Chris

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll give it another bash when we get a clear night. If I'm still having problems, you can be sure I'll be back!

[FrankieValley]

Hi Luke. I turned my DFK21AU618 to Mars and Saturn for the 1st time last night and I got a similar 'canvas' result to yours. Did you resolve that problem?

Previously, I had only used the camera with big Jupiter. Something I had noticed with Jupiter was that when I was using a low powered barlow, the image was very red. I got the same result last night and after fiddling around with the camera this morning, I see that the 'red' problem is with my white balance settings. My white balance was set to 'auto' and I'm thinking that with big targets this works fine, but with a small target on screen, it is very, very red.

I intend to make manual white balance settings and 'set it and forget it'. I have a feeling that this will also remove the 'canvas' problem..... at least I hope it will, because last night I was running the exact same settings that gave me great pics of Juppy, but Mars was just mottled rubbish unless I used 4k frames..... and even then it wasn't great and looked like your enlarged example of Jupiter.

Fingers crossed. I will report back on my white balance theory asap.

[lukebl]

... Did you resolve that problem?....

Not yet. Haven't had a chance at another session with the DFK yet.

Annoying having a new bit of equipment (which I can ill afford) sitting idle!

[Space Cowboy]

That grid pattern is something to do with the debayering process. I've never had a problem with it though funnily enough today when trying out the Registax alternative program "Autostakkart 2" this pattern appeared on my Mars debayered image, yet with a Jupiter avi there was no problem.

[lukebl]

That grid pattern is something to do with the debayering process. ...

I guessed that was something to do with it, but how to avoid it? All my settings, codecs and stuff seem OK.

[Space Cowboy]

Have you tried debayering in Reg 6 or using PIPP?

[FrankieValley]

Hi Luke. After setting the white balance today on my DFK21, the frame rate on Mars shot up from a miserable 15fps to 60fps and I could see a planet rather than an orange gob stopper! Shooting with Y800 format and Y800 codec and then debayering with GB in Reg6 has got rid of my mottled canvas and I have a good result. The image attached is 30s/2000 frames with a bit of basic post processing in Registax.

I'm not sure if the mottling/canvas effect was caused by the small number of frames (~100) I was trying last night, due to low fps, or due to my extremely red biased image causing some weird effect when debayered.... or both.

Anyway, problem solved and I hope it helps you.

[lukebl]

Many thanks David. That's an awesome Mars. You must be very pleased with it.

I had another bash last night on Jupiter and had the same problems: grainy, 'canvassy' images at whatever setting I used. As you suggest, I'll try and play with the white balance and see what happens.

Later in the night I had a go with Mars, and this time I used Sharpcap instead of IC Capture. One thing I found was that I couldn't get more than about 30 fps whether I used the Y800 or the YUY2 settings, so I stuck with YUY2. The results were a fair bit better, although I don't know what I did in the settings to change things! This was the best result of the evening, which is certainly better than any of my previous attempts:

I tried a few larger AVIs, with 5000 frames, but Registax kept giving me the error message 'Failed to decompress AVI frame', which I gather is due to the file size. Browsing through a few past threads, I get the impression that the only thing you can do in this instance is to ensure that the files are less than 2GB (although in this instance the file was only 1.6GB). So any ideas on how to process larger files in registax, and to get a better download rate?

[Space Cowboy]

Nice shot Luke lots of detail there!

I've not had any problem processing large files in registax but if you crop the avis in castrator that will reduce the file size significantly. All my best results have been with the YUY2 codec...to be honest I can't see any quality advantage using RAW mode apart from the ability to use 60fps.

[lukebl]

Thanks for the info. Castrator worked a treat and saves a lot of processing time.

Quite pleased that I seem to have picked up a sinuous darker area which skirts the area known as Arabia, which I've highlighted below. At first I thought it was a processing artifact, but I've now seen it on various Mars maps.

[Starlight 1]

That looking good Luke. I have got a long way to go before I get anything this good.

[hayju01]

I too suffered canvasing last night with mars and IC Capture, think i'll try sharpcap next time, this was only a quick process at 3am. 10,000 frames at 60fps @F25.

I also came across another 'issue' during processing and that's that castrator doesn't like these big avi's and I have to use virtualdub to 'reindex' the avi.