Orion Nebula 7DMkII DSLR

[griz11]

Starting to get the hang of processing these. PixInsight is a steep learning curve but after following along with Harry's Pi tutorials I've started to get the results I want. I've only gotten out a couple of nights with the MkII so far. I was testing with different exposures to get a feel for the camera and decided to put all the shots together to see what happened. Turned out pretty nice actually I was suprised. I'm not worried about the MkII being good for AP now though. Once DCRAW fully supports the camera and the colors come back its going to be nice.

Its a mix of 60 90 and 120 sec exposures 48 in total 400mm lens ISO 1600 darks flats and bias made with 50 exposures each. Shot with BYE and processed in PixInsight.

Griz

[lensman57]

Starting to get the hang of processing these. PixInsight is a steep learning curve but after following along with Harry's Pi tutorials I've started to get the results I want. I've only gotten out a couple of nights with the MkII so far. I was testing with different exposures to get a feel for the camera and decided to put all the shots together to see what happened. Turned out pretty nice actually I was suprised. I'm not worried about the MkII being good for AP now though. Once DCRAW fully supports the camera and the colors come back its going to be nice.

Its a mix of 60 90 and 120 sec exposures 48 in total 400mm lens ISO 1600 darks flats and bias made with 50 exposures each. Shot with BYE and processed in PixInsight.

Griz

Don't need colour, Mono has its own charm. Really nice image with lots of the dust showing. Just desaturate it.

A.G

[Sam]

Wow, that's a really nice image. Sometimes mono has a great look to it.

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[Psychobilly]

Nice to see an image from your 7DII and Prime lens a very promising result - hopefully DCRAW support isn't too far away  

Peter...

[griz11]

Yea I figure with the holidays over its not far off. I found another weirdness with Pi though. I converted all the calibration files and subs in PS then ran the calibration routines to get the masters. However when I tried to calibrate the lights with them Pi errored out with a geometry not the same error. I noticed the sizes of the calibration frames had changed. Haven't tried them totally in Ps yet. BYE just got their update out so it works with the MkII now. APT still doesn't work with it. DSS doesn't work with it. Just a blip in the road though it will all get fixed and when that happens I think I'll have a very nice set up to do AP and motorsports with. I like the MkII more every time I use it. The noise level is way better than the 7D. I'm thinking I can do the AP stuff with ISO 800 instead of 1600 for even less noise. Looks like the weather is going to be bad for another month here. Maybe a few days in there with clear skies. I do wish I could get some more subs I'm tired of looking at these

Griz

[Mick J]

Nice work Griz, like the composition, thanks

[PatrickGilliland]

Great improvement Griz - just need those techy issues sorted you have a nice image there and will only get better when DLSR issues sorted.

Paddy

[griz11]

I redid this one without any calibration frames involved. Converted all the subs to tif used star align and image inegration to get the initial image. The colors are much better now. I'll just do them this way until the camera is supported. DXO has a quick batch convert and I can apply the lens correction stuff as well.

It should look even better when dcraw is compatible. Always loose something in a conversion.

Griz

[griz11]

I redid the Orion Nebula image the same way.

Griz

[lensman57]

I redid the Orion Nebula image the same way.

Griz

Hi Griz,

I took the liberty of copying the Jpeg and had a little play with it  using mostly Pixinsight and a tweak in PS. This is by no means a good image as working from a small jpeg severly limits the data available but it should show you the extent of the data that you have available, you just need to be patient and learn to squeeze the data out. Colour balance is a little off too but as a whole is not too bad. Hope that you don't mind my tweaking the image.

Regards,

A.G

[Rico]

There's a cracking amount of detail there. You must be chuffed! TBH, I like the first one you posted. Desaturated it would look great. I'm unfamiliar with DCRAW and I imagine you're not using PS to process your images. At the risk of not knowing what I'm talking about, is there any chance you could use DPP until DCRAW fully supports the camera, that way you can convert to tiff and use the tiff files until the dust settles, so to speak?

[griz11]

Not sure what DPP is. The big problem is when you convert the calibration images to tif and try to use them Pixinsight balks and says they aren't the same size. Dcraw is the program that PI and DSS and I suppose several more softwares use to decode raw files. It says on their website if you have a pic processed by their software that is heavily green then it doesn't have a correct profile. That makes sense since most of the raw data is green pixels by a 2 to 1 ratio. I don't know much about processing these yet since I've only been at it since Oct. I figured there was a lot more detail in the data. Lensman's rework looks a lot more like the image I've been going off of trying to get the color right. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M42mosaicNM.html  What amazes me is this image is 90 hours of integration and mine is a couple. No doubt the MkII is going to be a great camera for this kind of work. And yes I'm probably the most impatient person on the planet. But I'm changing slowly the past couple of years working with the photos has mellowed me a lot.  I'm not going to worry too much about it till its all supported. Just going to keep on banging on PI and let things take their course. I'm already months ahead of where I thought I'd be at this time. Just started reading Lessons from the Masters. So far tons of good info in that book. Its by the same dude that did the orion pic I put the link too and a few buddies. I did this one today using raws without calibration frames. Culled about half the subs and just used the best ones this time.

Griz

[mikeobrien]

Now that is really singing!

[Psychobilly]

DPP is Canon's own software for "developing" the Canon Raw files Digital Photo Professional - it gets installed when you install the camera software

There is one school of thought that Canon having intimate knowledge of the cameras performance should be able to get the most out of the raw data when it comes to things line Noise Reduction etc...

Companies like DXO and Adobe tend to lag behind but quickly catch up. DXO for example perform analysis on a number of cameras and then use the results obtained for their camera profiles......

For the first few weeks of 7DII ownership the only software I could use to work on the raws from my 7DII was DPP when they released the 4.1 update which added 7DII support.

Peter...

[Rico]

Griz ... great rework!!! You really managed to get that dust to come through! I'm blown away by the result you were able to get using what essentially is and unmodded dslr using less than 2 hours of data! I only just got into this hobby three months ago and I've been using a unmodded 7D. My version which has 1.5 hours of data falls way behind in terms of detail of the surrounding dust. Well done! 

[griz11]

I have very dark skies here. I suspect that is the biggest reason. There is a slight glow in the east but everywhere else its very good. I'm not doing anything special watching the focus carefully and taking the images. The MkII is really awesome though. I see much more of everything over my 7D. Its still amazing to me that you can take an off the shelf general purpose camera and get results like this. Looks like I might get a couple of clear nights next week. I sure hope so dying to get back out there and get some more images.

Griz