Which would be better for milky way pictures?

[HunterHarling]

A Canon 7dmk II unmodified or a modified canon rebel xt?

Thanks!

[MarsG76]

DEFINITELY.. MODDED Rebel XT... Definitely....

 

[Tim]

17 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

DEFINITELY.. MODDED Rebel XT... Definitely....

 

Reason? My choice would be the unmodified camera, especially if I were using standard camera lenses, no filters.

It really depends on what you want to achieve though.  A modded camera will give a little extra depth to a few areas of the milky way,  but not a massive amount and would still require longish exposures.

An un modded camera will still reveal the brighter hydrogen areas, especially around Deneb, while maintaining the standard, balanced appearance of the galactic glow that we are used to.

I've used modded and standard cameras for milky way shots, and have been most pleased with the standard ones, and they take a little less processing to make them appear natural.

The real answer is, go for the camera with the lowest noise specs on long (30s) exposures, as this will make the biggest difference to the final image when working at that scale.

As big a consideration, is the lens choice, you'll want good control of the stars right into the corners.

HTH

[MarsG76]

3 hours ago, Tim said:

Reason? My choice would be the unmodified camera, especially if I were using standard camera lenses, no filters.

It really depends on what you want to achieve though.  A modded camera will give a little extra depth to a few areas of the milky way,  but not a massive amount and would still require longish exposures.

An un modded camera will still reveal the brighter hydrogen areas, especially around Deneb, while maintaining the standard, balanced appearance of the galactic glow that we are used to.

I've used modded and standard cameras for milky way shots, and have been most pleased with the standard ones, and they take a little less processing to make them appear natural.

The real answer is, go for the camera with the lowest noise specs on long (30s) exposures, as this will make the biggest difference to the final image when working at that scale.

As big a consideration, is the lens choice, you'll want good control of the stars right into the corners.

HTH

From experience, the modded DSLR has always resulted in deeper and superior images over the unmodded camera.

Yes initially the modded camera result is redder than the stock cam but after color balance there was always way more "stuff" in the modded cam. You can also create a custom white balance in a modded camera where the colors are no longer that red heavy.

As far as noise is concerned, most main stream DSLRs that are from this century will have very low noise at 30 second exposures at ISO 400-1600. My modded Canon 40D which is pushing 10 years old is what I use for my astro imaging and 30 second subs are virtually noiseless, even the 15, 20 and 30 minute subs are not as bad as one would expect them to be. If you're stacking and dithering your subs, than noise is very manageable, even when shooting at maximum gain.

When doing wide field with lenses, than yes, a lens IS critical to quality if you're after as a flat field as possible... my work around this is to use a full frame sensor lens on a APS-C DSLR... this way you're using the flattest and best part of the lens.  

[Tim]

1 hour ago, MarsG76 said:

there was always way more "stuff" in the modded cam

 

Depends if you want the stuff I guess, horses for courses etc.  

[MarsG76]

16 minutes ago, Tim said:

Depends if you want the stuff I guess, horses for courses etc.  

True.. true... in that case a stock unmodded DSLR will do.

 

[michael8554]

The DIGIC 6  7D Mk II has superior sensitivity and noise at high ISO than the DIGIC 2 XT (350D).

The modded XT will have superior Ha response.

But I'm not sure how significant that will be on 30 second exposures.

Or how much impact the superior Ha response of the modded XT will make on a wide angle Milky Way image.

Tricky ..........

Michael 

[HunterHarling]

Interesting responses... I'll have to think about this.

Thanks

[Alien 13]

I too would opt for the more modern un-modded camera, not only should noise be better but I also believe the results with camera lenses should show less bloat on the bright stars.

Alan