DSLR cameras

[Janus]

Hey 

I want to get started with astrophotography so i'm thinking of buying a DSLR camera, i have been looking at the canon 1100D and the nikon D3300
any pros or cons - and what cameras are you using / could suggest? 

thanks 
 

[happy-kat]

Canon for me, lots of support on here and really good connectivity support. I felt for me starting out first time with a dslr that was important.

I have a canon 1100d and for astro use connect it to my 7 inch android tablet running dslr controller as I don't have a laptop.

[Victor Boesen]

I use the D3300 for astrophotography and get these pictures with the kit-lens. If you want to do deep sky astrophotography I've not YET tried to use the D3300. I'm not a professional and the photos are single photos edited in Lightroom cc. Overalls the D3300 is a very good camera also at high iso's.

 

[Alien 13]

My personal view is that the Canon camera has a few advantages over the Nikon for AP.

Bigger knowledge base, lots of people use them.

Software is still more readily available for the Canon.

Availability of older lenses that can be made to fit and achieve infinity focus.

Alan

[happy-kat]

A flip out screen is useful I gather though at the time I choose the Canon 1100d that was the model in the budget I was prepared to spend and for night use I find the connectivity to my android tablet very useful.

[Janus]

22 minutes ago, Bossen said:

I use the D3300 for astrophotography and get these pictures with the kit-lens. If you want to do deep sky astrophotography I've not YET tried to use the D3300. I'm not a professional and the photos are single photos edited in Lightroom cc. Overalls the D3300 is a very good camera also at high iso's.

 

Hello thanks for the comments, Bossen rly nice photos - have you tried to use it on your telescope and with a t-ring ( and which one)? 
 

on a side note, do you have some pictures of the moon or some planets you can show with the D3300

[Grierson]

Could I just briefly hi-jack the thread to ask happy-kat what software he/she uses on the Android platform. Having just bought a s/h laptop with intention of using BackyardEOS to control my 600D it would be helpful to know since I also have a small android tablet. Apologies for the intrusion. - John

[Victor Boesen]

No not really. I'm kinda busy with school and I don't have a good enough telescope for deep space photos. When it comes to pictures of the moon I only have the kit-lens, but I have tried taking some photos at 55mm and then cropping the image, which actually gave a pretty good results (on the lcd screen). Maybe later I can do some astrophotography with a telescope when I get a t-ring and a good telescope and mount for astrophotography.

[RichM63]

The Canon vs Nikon question arises quite often, I always think it is like asking which beer is better, Stella Artois or 1664, they both do the same things remarkably well.

Personally I went with Canon for the reasons already stated and the fact that I also wanted to get into daytime photography as well and the 2nd hand market for Canon fit lenses just seemed bigger.

Rich

[Starwiz]

I bought the 1200d (the 1100d's replacement with 50% more pixels) a few months ago, modified for astro use.  Very happy with it so far.

John

[Galactic Wanderer]

I use a canon Eos 60d. Very easy to use and as @Alien 13 said software is more readily available (backyard Eos). Canon have also been around for longer.

Below there are some photos which have been attached with a telescope and just the plain DSLR by itself.  

[happy-kat]

In the android play store there is an app by chainfire called remote release, if after installing and connecting your camera to your phone using the usb cable plus an OTG cable that application, which is free, fires your camera shutter then the full app by chainfire called dslr controller should work.

[happy-kat]

Realistically I would think both Canon and Nikon cameras are much the same specification wise.

The important things are

Will you be able to use the software you want too to control the camera.

Can you turn off in camera noise suppression.

I know for me Canon was the right choice.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, RichM63 said:

The Canon vs Nikon question arises quite often, I always think it is like asking which beer is better, Stella Artois or 1664, they both do the same things remarkably well.

Don't understand... are those drinks beers? Pass the Marstons...

More seriously, the evidence I have seen is that that the advantage is simply that more people have been using canon for longer and over time the advantages of Nikon vs. Canon become more and more meaningless.

FWIW I have a canon for astro but with my rather newer Nikon bridge camera I do better for other types of photography.

[Janus]

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Don't understand... are those drinks beers? Pass the Marstons...

More seriously, the evidence I have seen is that that the advantage is simply that more people have been using canon for longer and over time the advantages of Nikon vs. Canon become more and more meaningless.

FWIW I have a canon for astro but with my rather newer Nikon bridge camera I do better for other types of photography.

have you tried the nikon for astro / was it better then the canon?
I have seen that the nikon have higher megapixel then the canon cameras in the same price range  

[kendg]

My vote is for Canon too. I also have DSLR remote and DSLR controller.  Both work very well for me. 

Nikon is catching up for AP but I think Canon still has the lead for supported cameras.

[ollypenrice]

19 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Don't understand... are those drinks beers? Pass the Marstons...

More seriously, the evidence I have seen is that that the advantage is simply that more people have been using canon for longer and over time the advantages of Nikon vs. Canon become more and more meaningless.

FWIW I have a canon for astro but with my rather newer Nikon bridge camera I do better for other types of photography.

Personally I only drink CCD...

Olly

[Stub Mandrel]

12 minutes ago, Janus said:

have you tried the nikon for astro / was it better then the canon?
I have seen that the nikon have higher megapixel then the canon cameras in the same price range  

Because it's a bridge camera, I can't do long exposures, max 8s at ISO 100 and 1s at ISO 3200, it can more or less photograph what you can see with your naked eye.

[Janus]

27 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Because it's a bridge camera, I can't do long exposures, max 8s at ISO 100 and 1s at ISO 3200, it can more or less photograph what you can see with your naked eye.

good point - what canon are you currently using? or is there somthing less you can recommend?

 

[Victor Boesen]

I have fully manual settings on my d3300. I can shoot in bulb mode and still have iso up to 12800 and it has 24,2 megapixels. 

[happy-kat]

Bossen

When you take a 35 second exposure with your d3300 how long do you have to wait until you take the next photo?..

[Victor Boesen]

8 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Bossen

Whet you take a 35 second exspoure with your d3300 how long do you have to wait until you take the next photo?..

If I turn the noise reduction feature off then I can shoot another photo about 5 seconds after probably.

[happy-kat]

:-) wasn't sure Nikon allowed noise surpression to be turned off.

[Victor Boesen]

Just now, happy-kat said:

:-) wasn't sure Nikon allowed noise surpression to be turned off.

I know why you asked, because if it's turned on, then we're talking about approximately 30 seconds of waiting to take a new shot. I don't know if you can turn it of on some of the older models, but you can on the D3300 :-)

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Janus said:

good point - what canon are you currently using? or is there somthing less you can recommend?

 

A Canon 450D.