DSLR 8mp vs 18.1mp

[Newforestgimp]

Hi All,

only my second post and thanks to the kind people here who advised on my first I’ve made my first proper step and pulled the trigger on a William Optics Zenith 60 as a starter for wide field AP.

my next conundrum is which DSLR to attach ? I have an older Canon 30D 8mp (I think) and a Canon 1300D (18.1mp) both APS-C I believe, I don’t want to assume that newer more pixels will work in my favour with AP so want to make sure I’m not missing a trick by not using the Older more solid 30D. Both are unmodified if I were to modify one for AP it would be the 30D.

Any Thoughts ?

regards

Andy H

[alacant]

2 hours ago, Newforestgimp said:

Canon 30D

Hi

Not so much the pixels, rather the age, lack of live view, noise and (big blocks for pixels when) matching it to your wo60.

I've a 450d a 1200d and a 700d. The difference even six years makes is quite dramatic. Go back fourteen to the 30d and, well...

Any eos with the 18mp sensor is gonna be -far- better than anything before it (and IMHO the newer 24mp eos'). My choice despite the cheap plastic, would be the -modified- 1300d. Give yourself a fighting chance!

But hey, you have both. Try them. A side by side should make your decision a lot easier.

Cheers and HTH

Edited November 14, 2020 by alacant

[PeterCPC]

Like he said.

[Newforestgimp]

Thanks chaps,

simple really if I’d thought about it, of course a side by side test DOH ! 🙈

Andy H

[MarsG76]

Like stated above, image with both and compare them... personally and in my experience, I wouldn't choose a higher res DSLR but the one with bigger pixels on the sensor... in this case would be the 30D... bigger surface area to capture more photons... stacking will negate noise...

I compared a 40D to a 7D, i.e. 10 mpix vs 18mp and the 40D out performed the 7D for sensitivity and noise was about the same...

[Newforestgimp]

19 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Like stated above, image with both and compare them... personally and in my experience, I wouldn't choose a higher res DSLR but the one with bigger pixels on the sensor... in this case would be the 30D... bigger surface area to capture more photons... stacking will negate noise...

I compared a 40D to a 7D, i.e. 10 mpix vs 18mp and the 40D out performed the 7D for sensitivity and noise was about the same...

Interesting, this was the question I’ve been asking myself, I will definitely have a play with the 30D and may then get it modified for Astro specific which should in theory boost results again ?

cheers

Andy H

[happy-kat]

There a technical review between the 30d and 1300d when I did a Google, the sensor pixel sizes were listed as 6.42 versus 4.31.

[michael8554]

In absolute terms the 30D is undersampling (3.68 arcsecs/pixel), but I gather this may not be too much of a problem for Widefield imaging, the 1300D is 1.47 arcsecs/pixel.

Michael