New Canon Astro Camera - 60Da

[ajohnson]

I saw Wex selling EOS 60Da s at the IAS and took the plunge, not exactly what I was expecting to leave the show with but ultimately it turned out to be a timely purchase as the shutter my old EOS350D died at the show, much to the disappointment the Astro Society who's photos I'd been taking at various stands. I appreciate that compared to a mode 600D or 650D the 60Da is a bit pricey but also taking my interest in daylight photography into account the 350D was going to replaced by a 60D or 70D in any case so the 60Da turned out to be timely buy.

So far I haven't had much joy on astro imaging between the clouds and full Moon hopefully I will be able to rectify this soon . For daylight photography I am noticing a slight red tint, this can be corrected either on camera with WB or post processing, however I will be investigating the idea of replacing the skylight filters on my prime lenses with UV/IR filters to further mitigate the effect of the sensor. I have noticed it particularly bad at photographing flowers because the blooms / petals reflect a lot of IR to attract insects. I will post some photos here later for comparison.

[ajohnson]

A comparison of two Iris heads taken with the 350D and 60Da, with no WB adjustment. It can be corrected using the custom WB settings but I am also hoping to mitigate the effect of the overly sensitive sensor with a 58mm UV / IR cut filter on the daylight lenses. More as research continues......

[Tinker1947]

I have a Modded 600D and this is a picture with WB adjusted and AWB used, there were no filters used CheapAstroPhotography done the conversion and supplied a e-mail with the information on how to use it for day time picture....i used the 1100D kit lens for the picture as the 600D was the cheap modd and no lens £440 with delivery....the willow is due for a haircut as soon as the wife goes out for the day...

[ajohnson]

I tried WB adjustments, they were OK but variable you had keep adjusting as conditions change, which with UK weather is constantly. I saw a Neewer UV/IR cut filter on Amazon with a review on it by someone with a modded camera. It just turned up here and I have to say for £16.00 I'm impressed. I took a few more comparison shots but this has pretty much cured the extra IR sensitivity so I'm now where I wanted to be, with the full functionality of an EOS60D and the extra IR sensitivity. For me this settles the argument, the filters are cheap enough to make the viable, I did look at the Astonomik OWB but these don't work with EF-S lenses and are a bit pricey!