I need a project!! - DSLR Astro Mod

[AntHart]

Hey  

With everything going on in the world and most of us staying at home I need a project to keep me busy!

 I’m looking in to self modifying a dslr solely for astro use.

Let’s call it a budget of £200 for the body... I’ll be buying used from mbp.com(UK) ...and selecting ‘condition - best first’ in the sorting. 
 

What would you choose?

Flippy articulating screen isn’t a must as I’ll be controlling from a laptop , not fussed about touchscreen either.

Im just looking for best performance bang per buck

Ive seen a few people using 450d’s /600d’s / 700d’s ... I’ve scoured astrobin... I’ve searched YouTube.

 

Any help from you guys would be brilliant , especially those with real world results to show.

Cheers, Ant 

[PeterCPC]

I love my modified 1200d so you could consider that as well.

Peter

[Knight of Clear Skies]

The 600D might be the best option, IIRC it has a slightly higher QE (sensitivity) than other models and produces a bit less noise. (I think it also has a proper crop-video mode making it a decent planetary camera too, although modding would mess with the colour balance.) The 450D is quite old now and a bit noisy. The 700D is better for daytime photography but not as an astrocam, although there is probably little in it really.

Not completely sure of the above but the 600D would be my choice given what I know. Please bear in mind the sensor may need to be re-shimmed to reach infinity focus with camera lenses, many self-modded cameras only reach focus on scopes.

My 1100D gives good results but I believe its QE is quite a bit lower than the 600D. Ultimately, they are all good cameras.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Knight of Clear Skies

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I have 2 Astro modded Canons a 600D & an 1100D, and I much prefer the 600D as it has a 'cleaner' image. I also have a non modded 600D, for general day to day use.

A quick rule of thumb with Canon cameras, the lower the number in a series, the better the camera, e.g. 6D is better than 60D which in turn is better than 600D.....

[smr]

I have a couple of questions regarding astro modded DSLRs...

The colour balance - how easy is processing regarding this as I often see comments about modification affecting the colour balance of images. 

Star colours - I've read about modified cameras being affected by not being able to produce natural star colours. I know these colours are slightly exaggerated but you can see that the Canon 80D (unmodified) picks up different star colours very well. Can I achieve the same if I bought an astro modded DSLR?

 

 

Re ISO, I use my 80D at ISO 200. With the 600D I would need to use a higher ISO ? If so which ISO does it operate best at and would images from it be ok to combine with my existing 80D images if I wanted them to? That wouldn't be a deal breaker really but it would be nice.

Re darks, I don't take darks with my 80D, I just use dithering and BIAS along with my Lights. Can I do the same with an astro modded camera?

Star bloat - I think I'd need a UV/IR filter with a modified DSLR? What if I wanted to use say a Ha Filter, does this effectively replace the UV/IR filter? Likewise if I wanted to use a filter like the IDAS D2, would that replace the UV/IR filter ?

I know it's a lot of questions but I'd really appreciate any advice on them.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I use my 600D at 100\200 ISO but its always a juggling act between ISO setting \ exposure time & how much picture noise you're willing to put up with.

Also I don't use any additional filters, on my fully modded cameras, as for me, they are just for quick-grab images, while the main mono camera does its thing....

[michael8554]

The 600D has a lot going for it, apart from banding on long exposures in hot weather, but it was the first model to have a spring loaded sensor, previously they were shimmed.

Consequently getting the sensor back in position after modding is quite tricky without some sort of vernier gauge.

Get it wrong and you'll have a tilted sensor.

So if you want to DIY, maybe start with a 450D for the experience, still an okay camera, and work up to a 550D, which still has shims.

Michael

[Knight of Clear Skies]

7 hours ago, michael8554 said:

The 600D has a lot going for it, apart from banding on long exposures in hot weather, but it was the first model to have a spring loaded sensor, previously they were shimmed.

Consequently getting the sensor back in position after modding is quite tricky without some sort of vernier gauge.

Get it wrong and you'll have a tilted sensor.

Good to know thanks.