Testing out the new camera on the Milky Way

[peter shah]

Ive been getting my Observatory ready for the new season to start but while Ive been sorting that we had a nice clear night here in the darkest Mid Wales. I've been wanting to test drive my new Sony A7s. Well I'm very impressed with its low light capability. To be frank its ISO levels is simply ridiculous and it really needs to be seen to believed .
So here it is my first test shot of the Milky Way from my back garden.
A single 30s exposure with a Canon 20mm 2.8 stopped down to F/5, ISO 12800 more than enough. The camera goes up to 409600 iso with acceptable noise levels... just stupid!
Im planning a trip to film the Aurora with it. Which it can do in real time at 4K res. Cant wait for that.
Thanks for looking
Peter

[xtreemchaos]

thats a cracking shot Peter, well done. thanks,  charl. .

[knobby]

Looks a bit noisy ... Oh, they're stars 

It's been a long time since I've seen any !

[Knighty2112]

Awesome! Me wants a camera like that, but sadly at the moment my bank account say a no-no! Hehe!  

[Owmuchonomy]

Very nice. There are several satellite trails on there too.

[michaelmorris]

Great shot.  The A7 certainly seems to be the camera of choice for aurora videos.

[sharkmelley]

Nice shot!  The A7S is certainly a very high performing camera.  High QE, low read noise, low thermal noise, large pixels.  It is fantastic for night time video of the Milky Way, aurorae and star parties and also for short exposures of comets, meteor showers and satellites.  For a reasonably priced camera its low light performance is unbeaten.

However, for deep sky imaging the bulb mode star eating behaviour does rule it out as a serious contender for many people - my workaround is to use manual exposures of up to 30sec and stack hundreds of frames.

For 4K video I believe you are going to need an external recorder?  I've never tried 4K myself.  The A7S II is needed to record 4K internally.

Mark

[peter shah]

1 hour ago, sharkmelley said:

Nice shot!  The A7S is certainly a very high performing camera.  High QE, low read noise, low thermal noise, large pixels.  It is fantastic for night time video of the Milky Way, aurorae and star parties and also for short exposures of comets, meteor showers and satellites.  For a reasonably priced camera its low light performance is unbeaten.

However, for deep sky imaging the bulb mode star eating behaviour does rule it out as a serious contender for many people - my workaround is to use manual exposures of up to 30sec and stack hundreds of frames.

For 4K video I believe you are going to need an external recorder?  I've never tried 4K myself.  The A7S II is needed to record 4K internally.

Mark

All spot on Mark I see you know your stuff ...I was a Nikon man through my professional life now ive moved away from photography and only do it as a pass time I only wanted it for my own stuff.... With what Sony was promising I couldn't not try it out....I'm not disappointed with its results.

You are correct the you need an external recorder to capture 4K vid. I'm not intending to use it for deep sky I have my observatory kit for that, but will be trying it out on comets.

some other stuff taken with it if you are interested https://www.flickr.com/photos/astropix/

[peter shah]

thank you all for your comments

[Tim]

Now that is interesting. Looking for a new DSLR myself in the near future. I don't suppose it is compatible with Canon's L series lenses?

 

 

[peter shah]

Hi Tim you can pretty much use any lens. Im using a canon, nikon an m42 fit...the only one it has trouble with is the nikon. It will only work manually. At least for now, someone will make an adapter that will work sooner or later. It is a mirror less camera so much thinner so it has loads of room to put any lens at the correct distance.

[Tim]

That makes them even more interesting. I have a selection of M42 Pentax lenses here too.

Thanks for the heads up

[laudropb]

Very nice image. I wish the view was as good from my back garden.