Deciding on budget dslr

[AstroNebulee]

Hi

I'm seriously looking into getting a canon dslr and have been looking at the 1100d as it seems a wide choice on the forum though most of these are going above my budget of £80 there are some on a well know auction site going for little over thus price (I know a very tight budget indeed) I will use the dslr unmodified at first to get to grips with it and learn with the book every photon counts, I would like to take good night scape photos and prime focus on my skymax 127 and explorer 150p at a push. Are there any other good budget dslr preferably canon. Is the 450d or 500d any good. I have a zwo asi120mc-s for planetary so the dslr doesn't have to be video capable. 

Cheers 

Edited September 14, 2020 by LeeHore7

[AstroNebulee]

I've plumped for the 450d and managed to get a pre owned one on an auction site for £99 slightly over my budget but it's excellent condition and boxed with all original items, low shutter count. Was pipped to the post on many other canons. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by LeeHore7

[michael8554]

450D is a good start, the first one to have LiveView.

Your question comes up again and again, and the answers are the same, so we don't bother to answer anymore.

Just search this site.

Michael

[Robindonne]

I bought a 60d this year.    It wasn’t that expensive, has a flip screen, used the same batteries as the 5d (very handy if you own one already).  
The rotatable screen comes in handy to avoid kamasutra-like positions when checking the screen during a session.  

Another reason to not just buy any model, was that when connecting it to astro-dedicated computers, like asiair or stellarmate or primaluce lab, some dslr models are not supported.   So all might work proparly but miss the option to automate your setup In the future.   

Also consider to buy an as low as possible model number.   The lower the number the longer the shutter mechanism will work.   From what i read!

[SmokeyJoe]

+1 for 450D, second hand is the way to go, there are a number of sites selling used dslrs bought my 450D for 80 quid couldn't be happier.  Just keep an eye on the shutter count. 

[AstroNebulee]

5 hours ago, SmokeyJoe said:

+1 for 450D, second hand is the way to go, there are a number of sites selling used dslrs bought my 450D for 80 quid couldn't be happier.  Just keep an eye on the shutter count. 

Hi

Got first light with my 450d last night as had clear skies and will sort this images later after work as only had about 3 hours sleep in between practising night shots of Jupiter and Saturn, then onto my skywatcher explorer 150p to image Pleiades and Mars couldn't achieve focus at first but took off the 1.25 ep holder on the scope and attached the Canon t ring to the scope and achieved focus then, the stars weren't to pin sharp but will keep practicing and learning it, with various settings, got a bahtinov mask on order do hopefully will help with the focus and a copy if making every photon count, then onto Orion and M42, then night scape shots of Orion this morning, the shutter count on my canon 450d was 3600 so not bad I thought, clear skies 

[Ouroboros]

Talking of shutter count. Is that number stored somewhere, or do you just go by the image number? Just interested as I own a 450D. 

[AstroNebulee]

5 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Talking of shutter count. Is that number stored somewhere, or do you just go by the image number? Just interested as I own a 450D.

I downloaded APT astrophotography software https://www.astrophotography.app/ to use with my 450d and when I connect the camera it showed my the shutter count on the information box, though I expect there's a canon software utility to download that will do the shutter count for you. This seems to be useful after a quick search http://astrojargon.net/EOSInfo.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Edited September 21, 2020 by LeeHore7

[Ouroboros]

Thanks, @LeeHore7. 

[Robindonne]

14 hours ago, LeeHore7 said:

though I expect there's a canon software utility to download that will do the shutter count for you.

I might be wrong but it used to be a paid version, the canon one.   Lots of free tools will show the shuttercount.   Magic lantarn does it, but also some websites will show the count when they’ve analyzed an uploaded picture from your camera.  

[SmokeyJoe]

Most websites that sell reconditioned cameras will list the shutter count. 

[rnobleeddy]

Rather than starting a new topic....

I have a 450D, fully astromodded, bought from a member of here. I've only really just got everything up and running and the camera does seem noisy, so was wondering:

- I read that the 18MP version (say 550D or numerous other models) is less noisy, but is there any indication of how much? Would it be a worthwhile upgrade?

- Am I correct in my guess that a modded 450D will generally be better for DSOs than an unmodded camera with a slightly better sensor (clearly, that's somewhat DSO dependent)

- There's no dedicated cameras available for <£500 that would provide a massive improvement AND offer a comparable sensor size?

 

I should probably just use what I've got but the mind always wanders on to what's next! I'm happy to have a go at modding myself, although that becomes more favorable the cheaper the camera body is. I'd almost certainly go second hand from eBay. The other option is to wait a year and see if I'm still imaging, and then consider a dedicated cooled camera.

[Davey-T]

450d should be OK if you keep the ISO down to 800, also try to avoid having live view running and leave a gap between exposures.

Modded cameras collect more at the red end of the spectrum basically the Ha end so DSOs with lot's of Ha will be easier to catch, won't make much difference to reflection nebula, star clusters or galaxies.

Dave

[AstroNebulee]

7 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

Am I correct in my guess that a modded 450D will generally be better for DSOs than an unmodded camera with a slightly better sensor (clearly, that's somewhat DSO dependent

Yes a modded dslr would be better for DSOs as can pick out more of the red range I think but will be useless for daytime photography then, I'm going to keep mine unmodded for now as I learn how to use it for astrophotography and the basics, then maybe mod it later, but I'm happy with the image of M42 & M43 I got through my skywatcher explorer 150p prime focus the other night  (it won't let me add my image for some reason and below the mb threshold but check my other posts to see image) https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/363035-m42-m43-north-cornwall-uk/

Edited September 25, 2020 by LeeHore7

[happy-kat]

For sharing I usually save as a resized png or jpg. IrfanView is a great tool for this.