Modded DSLR eh?

[AlwaysGoodskies]

Hello all, just a quick question. I have recently purchased a Canon Eos Rebel camera, and am wondering how to mod it to take longer exposures than 30 seconds. I have read some folks on the forum have done this, but i am confused. I plan on buying a motorized camera tripod for wide field shots, and plan on using longer exposures. any comments or help will be greatly welcomed; Thanks!

[appyaardvark]

Select "BULB", it should be the next setting beyond 30s. This will enable you to keep the shutter open for any duration. Would suggest some sort of remote trigger. I have the 450D and purchased the remote cable for it.

Cheers,

Paul

[Jannis]

You don't need to modefy it in any way, only use the bulb settings, like Paul mentiond.

Also, i do recommend, if using a PC to control it, to use this program:

www.astroplace.net - APT - Introduction

I tred it, with great success compared to Canons own "EOS utility" for remote controling. Also, it's currently free to try for as long as you want, a big pluss. But i do recommend to buy it, it's a great program and well worth the money.

It allows you to program exposures of any times you want, and also supports mirror lockup to prevent shaking.

[Demonperformer]

FYI: A 'modded' DSLR has a filter removed/replaced to increase the sensitivity to red light, which is quite important for things like nebulae. A good explanation is here: Astronomiser - Automated Astronomy and AstroImaging Solutions

HTH

[synapse]

There is a really handy timer available for cannon cameras (probably others). It's a third party one. I got mine from amazon. It's about £16 and connects to the 2.5mm jack socket. It allows you to set the length of exposure, number of exposures you want, A gap between them if required and a delay before starting to let it all stabalise, press start and then come back when it's done.

This allows exposures pretty much as long as you want. Much handier than a lugging a PC about all the time.

[AlwaysGoodskies]

Thanks for the info! I will try the bulb setting then; and a cable is a good idea. Could i not however just use the 2-10 second delay feature? I see how modding a camera to be more sensitive to red light would help as well:D

[guyroch]

Hello all, just a quick question. I have recently purchased a Canon Eos Rebel camera, and am wondering how to mod it to take longer exposures than 30 seconds. I have read some folks on the forum have done this, but i am confused. I plan on buying a motorized camera tripod for wide field shots, and plan on using longer exposures. any comments or help will be greatly welcomed; Thanks!

You don't need to modify your camera to achieve exposures more than 30 seconds. As mentioned previously you just need to turn the dial to “M” and set it “BULB”. You can achieve any length in this configuration.

However, you do need a remote cable similar to this one Remote Switch Cable fits Canon EOS 10D 20D 30D D30 40D: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics (make sure you get the right one for your camera) if you don’t want to monitor manually the exposure and end it when it reaches the required length. Touching the camera will create movement in your image that you don’t want anyway… so the cable is required IMO if you’re not using software.

If you plan to use software you need to be aware of the capabilities of your specific camera model because a serial cable may be required if you have an older camera model. If you’re using software, you can achieve bulb exposure using the USB cable provided with your camera when you purchased it if your camera is a 450D, 500D, 550D, 1000D, 40D, 50D, etc… If you have an older model such as the 10D, 20D, 30D, 300D, 350D or 400D you will need a serial cable to achieve bulb exposure via software. I’ve done extensive Canon SDK development (I’m the creator of BackyardEOS) to say that without the serial cable on the older models you cannot achieve bulb exposures.

Hope this helps

Guylain Rochon (creator of BackyardEOS)

[Psychobilly]

Hi Guylain,

I hadn't come across BackyardEOS being an APT user from the early days...

Does it support multiple camera setups ?... I use APT with up to 3 cameras at the same time...

Billy...

[guyroch]

Hi Guylain,

I hadn't come across BackyardEOS being an APT user from the early days...

Does it support multiple camera setups ?... I use APT with up to 3 cameras at the same time...

Billy...

My apologies to the original poster ~ I didn't mean to highjack this thread.

Billy,

Multiple camera is not yet supported in BackyardEOS but it should be shortly. Multiple camera support and serial cable support IS the feature I’m currently working on. It should be there in 2-3 months tops; currently looking at sometime in May 2011.

Hope this helps,

Guylain

[AlwaysGoodskies]

No problem at all, I am new to imaging and am loving all the new info. I had not realized that a timer would not work, because i wouldn't be able to shut the shutter! duh. So amazon would be my best bet? I have no tracking mount now so this purchase wont be for a while anyway so i have time to shop around