Can an EOS M100 work for astrophotography?

[Ags]

I sold my old 1100D a while back (too big) so looking at a mirrorless alternative. A second-hand M100 is about in my price range. I am looking at using it for widefield with camera lenses and on the end of a C6 af F6.3, always for short exposures in the range of 5-15 seconds.  So far I have two seemingly insurmountable problems with this plan: short battery life with no usb charging (240 shots on one battery) and it seems very hard to find an intervalometer that will work with the M100?

Mirrorless is important to me as with short exposures, I don't want a mirror clacking every few seconds.

As all astro cameras are CMOS these days, does that mean a Cannon is on a level playing field now aside from the issue of Ha sensitivity?

[Ags]

Or maybe I should give up on Canon and get a second hand Sony A6000?

Looks like E mount lenses are pretty cheap second hand.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Ags

[davew]

Hi Agnes,

I'll admit straight off that I know nothing about the M100 so will leave that. I've also never used the Sony A6000 🤔  However I have an RX100 that works and looks very much like the A6000 which seems to be just a larger version with buttons you can actually press ! I looked around on YouTube and to be honest I found little of interest by anyone I knew of except ... Ian Norman. I've read stuff he's written on and off for a few years and would trust his judgment. He's written a review here - https://www.lonelyspeck.com/sony-a6000-astrophotography-review/

If you can ignore everything you hear about the menu system and the star eater ( It seems to affect people who can keep a star on the same pixel for minutes on end ) then you should be ok.  I like the Fn button that the A6000 has as you can press just the one button and it brings up the setting you can set up and change. Sony do seem to gouge money out of people with having to pay for the Timelapse app but it's worth it as far as I'm concerned. Just like many Nikons, which get it for free, you can ramp the exposures automatically ( ie. day to night timelapses etc ) and that alone got me to spend the extra.

Another reviewer I would listen to is Nasim Mansurov and his general review is here - https://photographylife.com/reviews/sony-a6000

Good luck 🙂

Dave.

[vlaiv]

Here is decent source of info on different camera models. Not sure how accurate all the info is - but there is a lot of it:

https://www.photonstophotos.net/

In particular, since you have experience with 1100D, here is comparison of the two:

M100 has significant boost in QE - 56% vs 35%. Green and orange values represent read noise - although I'm not entirely sure how to interpret those as website splits them into two - pre / post ADC. Pre ADC noise is pretty much the same 2.7e vs 2.8e but post ADC noise is very different 3.9DN vs 10DN. However, I would think that post ADC noise level depends on e/ADU gain factor - so not sure how to interpret those.

FWC is about the same at around 30K.

Blue and pink bars are Unity ISO and ISO invariant ISO. First one is just unity gain - second one is - well, have no idea , and I'm pretty sure it is useless as metric .

There are other factors to consider - like how useful it will be in field.

I was looking into Canon mirrorless range and am waiting for model that will be able to shoot wireless (use wireless connection like USB). That is very interesting idea for no cables EEVA setup based on AzGTI - which is wireless itself.

[Ags]

I seem to have found an intervalometer app that supports the M100 over WIFI.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rupiapps.cameraprocontrol

Edited June 14, 2021 by Ags

[Ags]

INDI can control the M100 and many other M-series. Gives me the option of running everything from my Raspberry PI.

http://gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php

https://www.indilib.org/ccds/gphoto.html

Edited June 14, 2021 by Ags