Astrophotography with a Olympus OM-D M10 MK2 Problems

[daveangie0110]

Hi All,

Please can anyone help.

My wife has a Olympus OM-D M10 MK2 with the small M-Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 lens, she tried to do a star trail in a dark sky location but could not see a star in the view finder or the camera screen, she tried the auto focus as well as manually focusing it, but still could not see anything even with a high iso setting. Is it because the lens is so small and it is really made for daytime use ?

She also has a M-Zuiko 40-150mm F4-5.6 should she be using this lens to get better results ?

If anyone has got this camera and has used it for Astrophotography can you please tell me what camera settings you used also what lens.

Many Thanks

[Alien 13]

I cant comment on the Olympus but in general the screen will only show stars when the focus is close to optimum, this can be done first in the viewfinder and if necessary a 2 second exposure to confirm if you are close.

Alan 

[hitmanh]

Sadly autofocus lenses are a bit of a pain to use for this kind of thing (autofocus doesn't work and they are horrible to manually focus). Try focusing on a light on or near the horizon (something you can see in the view finder easily), this will gets the lens onto or near infinite focus, then set the focus to manual and you should only need to fine tune focus on a bright star (zoom mode in live-view is very handy for fine tuning focus).

For reliable and consistent results, maybe look at getting a older manual focus lens (I'm a big fan of Canon FD and Pentax Takumar M42 mount lenses), as you can set manual lenses to infinite very easily. You will need a physical adapter to mount them on your camera, but they're not expensive.

And use a tripod, hand holding and trying to get fine focus on a star which is bouncing in and out of view isn't fun for long!

[The Admiral]

The Moon is a good object to set your focus on, perhaps using the limb rather than a crater. Assuming it is visible of course 

Ian