Budget camera and lens advice

[reddish75]

I hope this is the correct place for this question?

My daughter wants to get into imaging and as we're saving for a new scope we're thinking of taking photos with just a dslr.

At the moment we have a Nikon D300 and a couple of lenses, an Af-s nikkor 19-200mm 1.3- 5.6 and a Sigma ex 10-20mm 1:4-5.6 dc him that was gifted by a family member.

I believe that the D300 is a bit long in the tooth for astrophotography but what about the lenses?

Also what would you recommend as a good used buy that can also be used with a refractor scope when we get one?

Thanks

[Elp]

Try with what you have first.

My experience, most lenses especially adjustable zooms don't cut it. You need specific prime lenses ideally. Haven't used Nikon but the best affordable modern lenses I've used have been Samyang. 14mm ED for super wide (difficult to use in LP skies due to the large curved lens), the 135mm F2 ED is one of the best for astro full stop but you'll need a tracking mount, my 24mm for my Sony is a good compromise between the very wide 14mm and something like a too narrow FOV 35mm or so.

For budget look at an M42 Asahi Super Takumar but again longer FL you'll need tracking. The faster 135mm is a sought after lens, the 200mm images well too. Note these lenses do star halo red or green near the infinity focus point which can be addressed a little in post process but the issue will remain. It's more to do with the lenses are sharp and don't cause abberation at the edges when stopped down slightly, most lenses especially those without ED lenses in their construction have bad performance at the edges of view.

Easi(er) targets without tracking are Pleiades (M45, or any star cluster for that matter), Andromeda (M31), Orion (M42) and you should be able to do up to 10s on a fixed tripod provided you're around 50mm FL, maybe get away with around 100mm or thereabout. For the super detail you need tracking so can take 30s plus images.

For the camera to pick up on more emission nebula regions (hydrogen alpha) it benefits from an astro modification which many people can carry out for you on existing cameras or you can buy one pre modded (I got mine from Juan at Cheap Astrophotography), mine was a Canon 600D as it benefitted with its articulated screen. If you've got the budget an astro camera setup will be better but more cost and setup and not really necessary as dslr imagers produce excellent results.

When I was looking for one I quite liked the Nikon D750 or latter models but I think Canon are the widely used choice, I went with Sony in the end (more so for its intended daytime use) but dont recommended them wholeheartedly for astro unless you know what you're getting into (star eater algorithm and also a split sensor design causing calibration issues), newer models may be better now but cost a lot of money.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Elp

[Mandy D]

What things do you want to image? It makes a big difference to the equipment you will need and to the costs involved.

Moon is not too hard and you can try at 190 mm, but I would suggest 300 mm and longer would be better. You will need a tripod.

Planets, you will not see anything worthwhile at 190 mm. Go to 900 mm and more to image the discs of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.

Star fields you can image widefield with short focal lengths, such as your 10 - 20 mm. You can also capture the planets as dots when they are nicely aligned.

Galaxies and Nebulae are going to require more significant investment in telescopes and tracking mounts. Although, you can capture the Orion Nebula without tracking, but it won't look like the fantastic images you see on the web.

[reddish75]

Thanks for replies

For a scope we're currently working towards the skywatcher 80ed and I'm going to onstep the eq5 mount we have already got.

As a stop gap with the dslr and lenses and a cheap tripod she'd like some photos of the moon and star fields, we're aware of the limitations of using just a camera. I just don't want her to spend more money on a different camera when we buy the scope.

For upgrading the camera we were thinking of a Nikon D3400 or 3500 so we can use the lenses we already have

[Elp]

Moon and star fields just use the camera you've already got. Imaging galaxies will also be fine though note most galaxies are actually quite small and will appear smaller on a DSLR sensor due to the sensor size. For future and imaging nebulae get an astro modded one, the modders will be able to recommend their choices.

The tripod will actually be the most important thing, invest in a thick leg section, carbon fibre one if you can, I recently bought an Innorel and it's excellent, even better as it wasnt full RRP (it was used condition but looked new when I got it).

Edited September 27, 2023 by Elp

[happy-kat]

The flange to sensor distance of a Nikon generally means you can use Nikon lenses (not all) on a Canon but not the other way around. Though you might want to read more about that before making purchasing decision not all lenses the same. I have a Nikon Q200 I used with an mount adapter with a Canon 1100d.

With the lenses you have particularly the 10-22 could have a go doing star trail images using an interesting foreground scene. Capturing the wide field milkyway could also be done. Lots to learn capturing, stacking and processing with a static mount.

Free software starstax, sequator, deep sky stacker, siril, GIMP, stellarium plenty to get into without spending that budget

Essential items warm hat and remote trigger release

But if getting a different camera I wonder whether to get an Astro camera instead as can get adapters to use with manual camera lenses, it's a thought maybe depends on your next plans and ideas

Edited September 27, 2023 by happy-kat

[reddish75]

Well, managed to get a manfrotto befree gt mount today for the price of a takeaway, which I felt was a good deal.

Concerning shutter remotes which is best to look at, basic or intervalometers?

[happy-kat]

The quickest to get going with is the onboard shutter timer delay if the camera has one. I picked up an intervalometer for about £10 which works well

[PhilB61]

I agree with a previous poster, try with the camera you already have, lots to learn and it's quite possible to get very good images with older cameras. A remote programmable intervalometer will make things easier, I picked up a wireless one for my Nikon for less than £20. If you do decide to upgrade the camera,  I wouldn't get a D3400/3500 series as they are not natively compatible with many imaging acquisition programmes via usb, the D5200 and above are and also have a tilting screen. As you are planning to use relatively lightweight camera and lens another option for the mount would be to get an AZ-GTI,  they come up regularly on Astro Buy Sell and Ebay for about the same cost as a complete Onstep kit for your existing mount. 

Edited October 2, 2023 by PhilB61