Using a Nikon D5300

[stevewanstall]

I have just started using my Nikon D5300 for Astrophotography. I have been wondering what to do with the settings for:

1 High ISO Noise Reduction,

2 Long Exposure Noise Reduction

3 Active D Lighting

At the moment I set these to 'Off' because I thought they might interfere with the RAW data collected. These settings are found on many Nikon models and I guess other brands have similar modes.

What do you think ?

[Alien 13]

The Canon camera has similar features to those listed, the only one I find useful is the long exp noise reduction which is very handy when taking single shots of something like the Milky Way with some forground interest in all other applications stacking and seperate darks do a better job.

Alan

[Steve Ward]

ISO between 400 and 800 , too high and you just add more noise.

Long-exp NR off , else you'll end up wasting half your imaging time , after every exposure the camera will automatically take another of the same length but with the mirror down creating its own 'dark frame' ... if you're snapping with short exposures it makes little odds , but if you're shooting 5 minute exposures instead of getting 12 frames of data per hour you only get 6 effectively.

Active D Lighting I have no idea , but I doubt it brings much to the party as far as Astrophotography is concerned ... 

Will have a 'Google' on this ... 

Ok , Active D Lighting is just an inbuilt automatic adjustment that wants to be left off ... 

[lensman57]

I have just started using my Nikon D5300 for Astrophotography. I have been wondering what to do with the settings for: 1 High ISO Noise Reduction, 2 Long Exposure Noise Reduction 3 Active D Lighting At the moment I set these to 'Off' because I thought they might interfere with the RAW data collected. These settings are found on many Nikon models and I guess other brands have similar modes. What do you think ?

The majority of the imagers using DSLR will have all those settings disabled. The so called " RAW " data is not really RAW as a lot of manipulation of data is carried out inside the camera using the ever more powerful processors but you do not want to make matters worst by applying daytime photography NR algorithms to AP data. The only real raw comes from cooled CCDs.

A.G

[ronin]

Between exposures of any length you also need to allow the sensor to cool otherwise the thermal noise goes up.

Usually advised to allow the chip to cool by an equal amount to the exposure, so in effect it is 60 sec exposure, 60 second wait to cool, next 60 sec exposure.

Concerning NR it is difficult, normal daytime exposures are 1/250 sec, not 20 exposures of 60 seconds each.

If it were of no use I doubt that Nikon, Canon, Sony etc would have the feature.

The one thing to remember is that you are doing something very, very different to daytime photography.

Easy answer is try the different options and see what if any difference is apparent.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Between exposures of any length you also need to allow the sensor to cool otherwise the thermal noise goes up.

Usually advised to allow the chip to cool by an equal amount to the exposure, so in effect it is 60 sec exposure, 60 second wait to cool, next 60 sec exposure.

I suspect that's bad advice in most cases, that's throwing away half your precious imaging time to get the sensor temp down a little. Personally I only give the camera 10-15 seconds between subs. It would be very difficult to determine the optimum cooldown time as it depends on so many factors. It's all about signal-to-noise ratio at the end of the day. When going after the faintest targets it might be critical to knock as much noise out of the subs as possible. However, on many DSOs simply stacking a number of subs is sufficient to knock out the noise.

[glowingturnip]

i usually do a minute's cool down between 5 minute subs, or similar ratio, and shoot my darks on the same schedule so that both have the same heat build-up in them

[Tinker1947]

I give my DSLR's 20 second cool down between images, but run the power off a mains supply ( not out in the garden though Obby only)  so there's no battery warmth to worry about.....

[glowingturnip]

actually my old Nikon D80 had terrible amp glow issues, not sure how the D5300 is.  My new Canon 1100d is muchhh better on that score.

I'd agree turn both noise reductions off.  For the LENR you're better off taking lots of darks and stacking those, that way the noise in your darks gets averaged out before you apply to the lights.  Dithering and stacking should average out High ISO noise too, better than having it done programmatically in-camera.

[stevewanstall]

Thanks for the feedback. Turning everything off seems the best, certainly easy advice to follow!

[brrttpaul]

The active D is to boost colour so best off

[pipnina]

Between exposures of any length you also need to allow the sensor to cool otherwise the thermal noise goes up.

Usually advised to allow the chip to cool by an equal amount to the exposure, so in effect it is 60 sec exposure, 60 second wait to cool, next 60 sec exposure.

Concerning NR it is difficult, normal daytime exposures are 1/250 sec, not 20 exposures of 60 seconds each.

If it were of no use I doubt that Nikon, Canon, Sony etc would have the feature.

The one thing to remember is that you are doing something very, very different to daytime photography.

Easy answer is try the different options and see what if any difference is apparent.

I suspect that's bad advice in most cases, that's throwing away half your precious imaging time to get the sensor temp down a little. Personally I only give the camera 10-15 seconds between subs. It would be very difficult to determine the optimum cooldown time as it depends on so many factors. It's all about signal-to-noise ratio at the end of the day. When going after the faintest targets it might be critical to knock as much noise out of the subs as possible. However, on many DSOs simply stacking a number of subs is sufficient to knock out the noise.

My solution to this when I go out with my Nikon D3200 is to do a "Warmup shot" of about 10 minutes before I start taking any serious shots.

Although... I have no idea if that's a good thing for the camera's longevity...

[stevewanstall]

Pipnina,I think my eyes were from the same supplier! I tried using a laser collimator but got a headache...

[pipnina]

Pipnina,I think my eyes were from the same supplier! I tried using a laser collimator but got a headache...

Yeah. Astigmatism Optics are notorious for giving bad views at the eyepiece. Collimation only works if you have a LASIK collimator and that doesn't even have a 100% sucess rate!