Re: [APML] Astrophotography 2004 - Price Shock Horror

["Richard Crisp" <rdcrisp@earthlink.net>]

why should it be different than motorsports, watersports (sailing or power
boat racing), bass fishing or any other gear intensive hobby?

That's not to say I like the trend, but it just looks like that's the way it
is if you want to be at the top. It just costs money for the equipment and
then there's the time angle too.

Heck even bicycle riders and runners get all hung up in the gear too. $500
for a pair of sneakers, $5K for a bicycle that is 1 pound lighter than the
other ones etc etc. How many people can spend the time to do the practice
necessary to be competitive in the Tour De France for example? Either you
have to be sponsored, rich or be willing to be a single pauper to devote the
time necessary to excel.

Of course if you don't care about being at the leading edge, avoid using the
Internet to see what others are doing, or are very good at rolling your own
gear, then maybe a shoestring budget can yield pleasing results.

I am a busy guy with my work so I don't have the time necessary to build
much of my gear outside of simple "plumbing" adaptors. But you can build
excellent mounts (did you see that beauty Brian Lula made?), excellent
scopes, adaptive optics (the AO7 was a home-brew originally) and cameras
(can you say cookbook). It is just a time versus money tradeoff.

Sensors are hard though: but most manufacturers will sell you an
"engineering grade" sensor at a much reduced price. For many of us an
engineering grade sensor is quite adequate, particularly if it is big
enough...



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Schur" <comets133@yahoo.com>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 1:35 PM
Subject: [APML] Astrophotography 2004 - Price Shock Horror


> Hi all,
>
> The all too depressing financial reality set in for me
> this weekend at the RTMC from the current trends I am
> seeing in the amateur skyshooters options.  A decade
> ago, you could take a home made mounting, a less than
> a hundred dollar 35m SLR, and a 3 buk roll of film and
> with a lot of care and patience, get stunning images
> that could rank up there with the best
> astrophotograhers, and get those images published in
> the magazines.
> Now all of that has changed.  Exept for mine, all of
> the talks this year were centered on digital or CCD
> imageing.  Must-have gear includes the $4000 to $8000
> ccd cameras, a new $12K mount because that mount that
> worked so well with film isnt good enough anymore, and
> of course a complete digital darkroom wtih the
> software alone costing more than the 35mm SLR was.
> Dont get me wrong, I do like to see the hobby
> advancing, but to now the playing field is no longer
> level - highly skilled astrophotographers can no
> longer compete on the world playing field without
> being very well to do financially as well.  This was
> painfully apparent when most of the old time friends,
> which were the best of the best film photographers
> only what seems a short while ago simply can no longer
> afford a fraction of the gear needed to show off thier
> SKILLS.
>
> The trend that seems to be geling is that most imagers
> of today must be both competent in both making money
> as well as have the rudiments of sky shooting skills.
>
> I love change, but is this really fair?
>
> Any comments ?
>
>
>
>
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