Canon EOS 450D - To MOD or not to MOD?

[OzDave]

Hi,

I've had my 450D for a little while now, but I've been noticing that most of the DSO targets I shoot tend to come out green/blue in colour. There is never any red in them that I can recall.

So I'm wondering if this is due to the bayer matrix being more sensitive to green, and maybe needing much longer subs (although wouldn't that just add more green also)?

Or, is the IR filter in the camera affecting me too much? If I had the camera MOD'ed, would this help a lot or a little?

Is there a downside to the MOD? Are their different ways of doing the MOD, maybe one better than the other?

Hoping to hear from people with experience of MODed/un-MODed cameras.

Dave

[Starflyer]

Are you using a CLS light pollution filter, I've heard that these can give a green tint to images. The colour balance can be corrected in photoshop if needed.

The mod only increases the cameras sensitivity to red light, this is especially useful for nebula that are rich in Ha emmisions, but you can still take great images with an unmodded 450D. I modded my 450D with the Baader replacement filter, the daylight images are very red but again this can be corrected in photoshop, by using a custom white balance or by use of a special filter designed to correct the colour balance.

Have a look at my DSO album, most of the images there were taken with my modded 450D, the M51 and horsehead images were taken with an unmodded 400D.

[OzDave]

Hmmm, thanks for the advice. My LP filter is a Baader Neodymium.

I should maybe have a go at a target noted for its redness before getting more worried.

[Lars]

I used an unmodded Canon 450 for about a year, mainly for galaxies, and was very happy with it. When I started to gain interest in emission nebula, I also did the Baader mod.

The red H-alpha response is about 2.5 times better for the modded Canon (at least that goes for the 40D. I am assuming it's the same for the 450) so it cuts the total exposure times rather dramatically on the red objects.

For galaxies or non H-alpha objects, I don't see much improvement so if that's your main targets, I don't think it's worth the cost to mod.

/Lars