350d?

[long_arms]

Hello,

I am looking for a dslr for my first venture into astrophotography.

I have an extremely tight budget and looking second hand I can afford a 10d/300d or 350d.

How is the 350d for astrophotography?

I've heard that live view functions on newer models helps but I seriously cannot stretch to that.

I have a 200p so will an eos t ring be all i need to connect it for prime focus?

Many Thanks,

Dan

[Chris]

Hi Dan, I have a modded 350D and I've just picked up a 300D so I can play around with modding it, in fact I'm literally just about to start a before and after modding a 300D thread:D

Anyway, the 350D is a great little camera for astro work, I think it might be the lightest Canon DSLR for starters which is a bonus when you're hanging it off your scope at zenith, it has mirror lock up although I've never needed to use it personally, 8MP is plenty enough for great pics but won't eat up memory like some off the higher MP cameras. Neither the 300, 350, or the 400D have LIve view but this doesn't matter as much as you might think e.g. I have live view on my 1100D but I find that I can only use it to focus on the very brightest of stars on very high ISO, I find it easier to just take a 5 second exposure of the area your interested in then when you review the picture use the upper right plus/minus buttons to zoom in closer a particular star for focussing, then repeat to focus, this will only take a few exposures to get it spot on as you can get very close to being focussed using the view finder.

I've taken the 300D out a couple of times now and too be honest it made me laugh how good it was for 50 quid from fleabay, I had to buy a charger and a memory card but still this only took the total cost to 60 od quid, I've imaged M45 so far as a test subject and I think its a cracking camera, I found it very easy to use, and the performance seems good for the little amount you pay for them. They are heavier than the 350D and I've heard the amp glow is a bit worse on longer exposures on high ISO, and the digit 1 processor is a bit slower but they are dirt cheap!!

I think you'd be happy with either mate, just depends on whether your budget is 60-80 quid or 90-120 quid?

Enjoy:)

oh yes with the 200p I think all you'll need is the t-ring.

Chris