Fixed my old DSLR and astromodded it in the process. :)

[Joseki]

I'm shocked nothing went wrong doing this - I'm not particularly technical.

I thought I'd give DSO imaging a go with my old DSLR - a fuji s3 - not the most common camera for astrophotography and very old, but fuji did bring out a version without the IR sensor filter and they are supposed to have a good dynamic range (for the time - s3's still sell for around £100 on ebay).  I've checked processing the RAW files can be done - I can.  Anyway, after buying the T adapters and power supply adapter I found the remote shutter cable wouldn't work.  Worse still the connection socket freely rotated in the body of the camera - not a good sign.  Since this is the only thing I'm going to use the camera for (should be good enough to see what I can do) I opened it up and found sure enough the connectors to the remote shutter port were mangled - with no chance of resoldering them (for me, all ribbon cable and tiny connections).  

  So I drilled a hole in the side of the camera and routed a cable in and soldered the three wires onto the secondary shutter switch connections, which was more substantial.  Whilst I had the thing open (and I didn't really expect it to ever work again) I took the rest of it apart and removed the sensor filter, following these instructions http://www.lifepixel.com/tutorials/infrared-diy-tutorials/fujifilm-finepix-s3-pro  .  The crazy thing is when I put it all back together it all worked - even the LCD screen and the new shutter release cable.  I know it's not a massive job but it's not something I thought I could do and it's saved a camera from the bin/recycling, so a pretty good nights work. 

 I'd post a photo of my camera with a cable sticking out of the side but my phone's batteries are flat and it's probably not that exciting.  Now all I need is a cloud free night and some time - though it may turn out to be an exercise in measuring the amount of light pollution.- Well, plenty of time to re-read "Making Every Photon Count".

[Gina]

Congratulations   Well done

[Scott]

Good stuff John. Shame you didn't grab a few shots of the mod but then again if you think it ain't gonna work then you wouldn't bother . 

My camera is only an 1100d so not overly expensive, and I'm way too scared to open it. take a shot when your phone is charged (and a few when the clouds clear).

[Joseki]

Thanks, I was thinking this is the sort of job Gina could do with her eyes closed.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Joseki]

.. which gave me the courage to have a go.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Stargazer33]

Congratulations John! Sounds like a good mod well executed. I hope those clouds stay away so that you can give your efforts a good trial.

[laser_jock99]

Good stuff- glad to see you fixed it and saved it from scrap bin. I use Fuji DSLR for astro and find them to more than acceptable.

The UV-IR camera mention is the Fuji S5 Pro- nice if you can get hold of one.