Astrophotography:what`s SD/MMC format and C/F format.

[Carl]

Hi everyone

I was just wandering what is the SD/MMC format and C/F format is on cameras.

and what would be the best camera to get for a beginner in astrophotography,The Nikon D50 or the Canon EOS 300D.

Thanks.

Carl

[FLO]

Hi everyone

I was just wandering what is the SD/MMC format and C/F format is on cameras.

and what would be the best camera to get for a beginner in astrophotography,The Nikon D50 or the Canon EOS 300D.

Thanks.

Carl

Hi Carl

SD/MMC tells you the camera accepts either the 'Secure Digital' memory cards or the older (almost extinct) 'Multi Media Card'. 

C/F (or CF) means the camera accepts 'Compact Flash' memory cards. 

Both card types are readily available and cost about the same. 

The Canon SLR camera has the edge over the Nikon when used for astrophotography as they mostly use CMOS sensors which are relatively 'low noise' when compared to the CCD sensors used in Nikons. 

(Simply put, 'noise' is the digital equivalent of film grain and tends to appear more in low-light images). 

Hope that helps,

Steve 

[russ]

Hi Carl,

Steve's explained the card formats for you. Just so you know. Canon use the CF cards and seem to be sticking with it. Others manufacturers are starting to make a switch to SD cards. Nikon being one of those manufacturers. The D50 uses SD cards for example. Pentax is another manufacturer keen on the SD format. There's one good reason why they prefer the SD card...size! It's much smaller, which means they can make a smaller camera.

As Steve said, nothing to choose between them from our point of view. Both cost the same, speed is about the same and so is capacity.

As for the cameras you mentioned. Well I have the 300D and very happy with it I am. But if I was buying now instead of last year, I would go with the Nikon i think. Just as a better all round camera. Having said that, the 350D is only a few quid more than the D50 and what the last of the 300D's are selling for. It's a hard one but if you can afford a bit more, go for the 350D.

As you're starting from scratch with no lenses or flash memory cards, you are not tied to any brand. I wasn't tied in to a brand either last year but chose the Canon over the Nikon D70 purely on price. There was a £250 difference at the time I bought.

Russ

[FLO]

Well I have the 300D and very happy with it I am. But if I was buying now instead of last year, I would go with the Nikon i think. Just as a better all round camera. Having said that, the 350D is only a few quid more than the D50 and what the last of the 300D's are selling for. It's a hard one but if you can afford a bit more, go for the 350D.

Russ

Whilst for general photography I think it matters little wether you choose Canon or Nikon, for astrophotography I would say that unless you already have a collection of Nikon optics, the Canon is the clear winner. 

Not only is Canons CMOS chip lower noise than Nikon's CCD but its method of noise reduction is also more sophisticated than the standard dark-frame-subtraction used by Nikon.  Consider also that the Canon can use a proper wired remote-control (the Nikon uses an IR remote) and there is no contest.  I agree with Russ that stretching the finances to buy the 350D over the now discontinued 300D would be wise.  (If you have seen someone selling a new 300D it will almost certainly be a grey-import, which might lead to warranty problems). 

Sorry if that seems a bit 'matter of fact' but thats what 20 years in the photo retail business does to you!! 

Steve 

PS: Look out for a soon to be announced £100 cash-back offer on the EOS20D ... just don't say I told you

[Ant]

I have a 300D which was bought from Thailand for under half the [then] price in this country.

About 10 months after getting the camera home it developed a fault. Every time you pressed the button to tell the camera that you were going to use the IR remote it started taking pictures and just kept doing that untill you turned the camera off.

I did all sorts of things and eventually worked out that it was because the IR remote was dodgy... so the next time out I had to manually push the shutter (on the 10 second timer) to take an image and then use the black card trick to close the shutter.

Suffice it to say that I soon got fed up with doing that, and it also turned out that the IR remote wasn't faulty after all.

I phoned Canon and explained what was going on and they put me in touch with one of the official canon service centres - luckily this was only about 20 miles from me (there are only 4 in the whole of the UK).

Not only did the guy know what was wrong, he accepted the warrenty that I had (only valid in Thailand) and I had it repaired for nothing.

So it's worth remembering that the warrenty isn't always void in different countries... maybe I got the bloke in a good mood?

Also I've read that the 350D isn't as good as the 300D for Astrophotography, can't remember exactly why - might have had something to do with noise reduction and pixel size... but can't remember exactly.

Ant

[FLO]

... I've read that the 350D isn't as good as the 300D for Astrophotography, can't remember exactly why - might have had something to do with noise reduction and pixel size... but can't remember exactly.

Ant

Hi Ant,

It'll be the EOS 350D's smaller pixel size; they didn't want to make the chip bigger to incorporate the extra 2 mp so they made the pixels smaller.  Whilst the difference is technically measurable, it isn't be detectable in the real-world and is quite insignificant when considered alongside some of the advantages the 350 has over the 300 for the atrophotographer:

Paramater adjustments that can be used within the Adobe RGB colour-space.

Proper simultaneous Raw+JPEG support

Mirror lock-up (custom function 7)

0.3 & 0.5 exposure increments (custom function 6)

B&W mode with built in 'digital' filters

... there ends my last post on this subject ..... honest :silent:

Steve 

[russ]

As a pure Astro imaging device, there's no doubt the Canon (300D + 350D) wins here. But there's also no doubting the Nikon's appeal, that applies to the D50, D70 and D70s. They just feel in a different league to the Canon. And I really wish Canon would put the status panel on top of the camera, not integrated into the LCD monitor.

I love my 300D. But a friend has the D70 and it's such a nice camera to look at, hold and use.

I'll still stick to my original thoughts. If you think you'll be using the camera say 70% normal photography and 30% astro, then ask your local camera shop to layout the cameras before you to see and hold. I reckon that Nikon may win you over, even when compared to the 350D.

The difference in astro performance isn't that great, so don't think you're getting a lemon by buying the Nikon. On the noise front most reviews are saying the D50 is better than the D70s and very close to the Canon.

The Nikon can be wired upto a laptop like the Canon. Both ImagesPlus and DSLR Focus both support Nikon. This means you can set everything via the laptop and setup a batch of images to be taken. And then do what Ant does, go and watch TV for an hour.

Anyway, just to say its a very close call. I'd probably side with the 350D but only just.

Russ