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Wide field exposure time advice please

SteelRat

By SteelRat
in Imaging - Discussion

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SteelRat

SteelRat

Posted
Posted

Hi all. Have just aquired a very old Zenit 11 slr camera and am hoping to piggy back it for a go at wide field shots. It has no auto features and to save me some trial and error money I was wondering if anyone out there could start me off in the right direction and give me a clue as to how long I should keep the shutter open for? Have loaded it with an old 400 film I had in the draw from my old holiday camera. Any advice on this or any other manual SLR points would be welcome. Thanks :?

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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It very much depends on your lens focal length and your light pollution. I would start at 30 seconds and move up to say 2 minutes if your skies will allow it. The longer your focal length the longer you can expose for before light pollution makes your shot orange. Unfortunatly it's a "suck it and see" because each location is different

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CELESCOPE

CELESCOPE

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stick it on about f4 , thats what i used , if you are tracking then go for 45 secs to a min , thats what i used to do on an old c8 celestron , pics came out fine , dont forget to tell them when u get them prrocessed its astronomy just be stars else they say could not see anything , had that happena few times

Rog

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SteelRat

SteelRat

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Cheers both. The lens is the Helios-44m-4 2/58 which I believe is the original one that came with the camera. It is in absolutley MINT condition and the camera is pristeen inside and out. Other lenses, filters etc for this old machine are ALL OVER fleebay so may pick up some other stuff when funds allow but will just play and learn with what I have here. I have pretty much forgotten everything I ever learnt in photography back at college all those MANY moons ago so will be learning all over again. First thing to hunt for is remote cable though, eh? :)

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Use the "Hat trick" and an elastic band! Cover the lens with a "hat" (anything light proof will do) Put a nut or something on the shutter release, and use an elastic band around the camera to hold the shutter down. When you are ready remove the "hat" and time your exposure using a watch (or just count) when the exposure is over replace the hat. You can then release the shutter and not worry about camera shake. Works great!

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SteelRat

SteelRat

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Hi Gord and CC

Thanks very much gents, that lot makes sense :thumbright: Have now figured out the twist feature of the shutter control - no cable remote needed - glad the old beast came with it's manual. Will at some point get from the old fleabay a longer f length lens and perhaps a x2 tele - see if I can go lunar or DS with it? Any thoughts anyone?

Time to find somewhere who offers a decent hi-res film to disc service maybe? Will try my wifes scanner/printer first though - might save the extra expense.

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Kaptain Klevtsov

Kaptain Klevtsov

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Try this,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Boxed-Mint-pentacon-Objektive-2-8-135-Lens-M42_W0QQitemZ160047395751QQihZ006QQcategoryZ707QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

the one I got recently was about 5 bucks US and it shipped from the UK.

Yes they do go to 500mm (guidescope) size

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Opteka-500-1000mm-Hi-Def-Telephoto-Lens-for-Nikon-Mount_W0QQitemZ190047176419QQihZ009QQcategoryZ30070QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

HTH

Captain Chaos

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Kaptain Klevtsov

Kaptain Klevtsov

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The 500mm one is exactly like the one I have and its a T mount and came with an M42 T ring twenty odd years ago. The M42 lenses do not work with a T ring unless its a T mount with an M42 adapter on, if you see what I mean? The M42 thread is already too close to the film so there's no room for an adapter to make it fit other stuff.

If you are using a T mount thread, the M42 camera lens will screw in about one turn as the T thread is very close to M42 but IIRC a different thread pitch. If you can get a cheap extension tube with male and female T threads you can temporarily bodge them together as it doesn't matter if the low cost bits get destroyed as much. Then you use the real T thread at the other end of the extension piece to screw into the camera without fear of messing it up. If you can then acheive focus you're laughing.

Captain Chaos

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daz

daz

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SR

1) Theres a company called Dark Room in Cheltenham Here who are experienced at developing astro-films.

2) Also, you want to go for something like Kodak EliteChrome 200, or there's a Fuji Provia 400 ISO. The 'holiday' film is good for practice before you shell out on the proper film.

3) Keep a record of exposure number and what the settings are / were for each one. Otherwise, your film will come back and you won't know what you did or what you need to do to improve the image.

Oh, and Dark Room will scan to CD as well

:D

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