Re: [APML] Going to the Luminance side?

Monte

I agree with most of what you say except "Wide field colour

work is still going to be best done with film for some time yet".

I must disagree. You can capture very widefields with CCD by

using short FL instruments or mosaics and still get comparable or better

resolution than film images. I have many widefield CCD images on my web site

taken with a 300mm lens. These compare quite favorably with widefield

film shots taken with larger instruments in regards to FOV,

resolution and color. A few of them are at

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/HorseheadNikon.html

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/1499LRGB.html

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Auriga.html

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/1805.html

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/1848Nikon.html

Rob Gendler
Email: robgendler@att.net
Web site: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/

----- Original Message -----

From: Monte Wilson

To: Astro Mail

Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 6:09 PM

Subject: [APML] Going to the Luminance side?

Given that probably the best AP'er of the lot has just confirmed what we have all suspected for some time (that film v CCD is a one sided battle) it has made me wonder what I am doing struggling with film and all it's challenges. The recent Tech Pan scare only added to my suspicions.

I don't hold it against Tony for going to the dark side or perhaps it should be known as the luminance side, I bought an STV a few months ago for guiding and while it does that so well, I decided to try taking a few images with it and I was hooked. They are not much to look at yet but the ease with which it happened and the fact that I could "work" on them during the next day was a real bonus.

This brings me to point of this introspective. There is still a place for film in AP. Wide field colour work is still going to be best done with film for some time yet. It may be ten or twenty years before we have a CCD the size of a medium format frame and until then I will proudly use film.

I also watch the SBIG users group and with some sadness I must admit the images coming from CCD's for narrow field shots is leaving film behind.

There is an undeniable romance in using film, particularly when you have slide film and a light box but with all the other challenges we have to overcome to get a decent shot, for anything other than wide field work, my heart is with film but my head is with CCD's.

Monte