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Re: [APML] Astrophotography 2004 - Price Shock Horror
Ok, everyone else chimed in, I will too.
What brought me to this list in the first place was the relatively low cost of
film. I think that will always remain one of its strengths. I followed
everyone's advice and started with a barn door mount:
OM-1: $130 on astromart with lens
Barn Door Materials: $20
Cheapie Bogen Ballhead: $40
Luckily, my wife and I are pro/am photographers (aka. wannabes :) so the $1000
scanner and $700 Photoshop were already there. But $300 for a scanner and an
old copy of CorelPaint 8 work fine too. So a newbie can buy in for less than
$500, maybe less with used stuff.
And film is pay-as-you-go; it feels like a lot for the cost of film and
development, but the cost of my OM-1, N-80 and all the film I've ran through
both doesn't come close to the total cost of my wife's D70. I enjoy digital,
but facts are facts: a 3200 dpi scan of a 35mm slide (good film, of course) is
very close to 6MP in quality. Too bad I can't comment on my Nikon F3T, the
indestructible camera, since it's been in the shop for a month. Growl.
My biggest gripe is the absolute lack of a stepping stone between the barn door
and a top-rate rig. It goes from a few hundred bucks to $3,000. Wham! My
SkyView Pro just ain't cuttin' it.
EZB
--- Robert Reeves <reeves10@swbell.net> wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> Good Grief! This from someone who uses a Schmidt camera and has a
> great observatory in the boonies? That cost bucks too! I remember when I
> bought my Schmidt camera three decades ago when I was making little more
> than minimum wage. That ripped me a new one! You think astrophotography
> is expensive, try flying. Thats history for me now too. My satisfaction is
> watching my sister toss money at her 36-foot oceangoing yacht, then I don't
> feel so bad about spending a few bucks to make my 10D work a little
> better on my 30-year old Celestron.
>
> What the heck, we have as much fun as we can afford to, then retire to
> watch old Star Trek reruns. If you can't have fun playing with the toys
> you have, perhaps one should look for another hobby. There is always
> someone who will have a better this or that, better skies, more trips to
> great locations.... whatever. Do the very best with what you have and
> let the chips fall where they may. Don't worry about what the guy
> with the ST-10 and Paramount mount is doing. He has his own worries
> and they may be worse than yours! After all, his wife is about to clean
> his drawers in divorce court for spending that kind of cash <g>.
>
> Personally, I'm not so much worried about the cost of other equipment.
> I would just like to have some skies that allow me to use the equipment I
> already have. The last good clear sky weekend I had was in November
> and that was zapped by an aurora :-( (in south texas no less!).
>
> Robert Reeves +29.484 98.440
> reeves10@swbell.net San Antonio, Texas USA
> www.robertreeves.com
>
>
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=====
Eric Z. Beard
http://www.honeydewphoto.com/eric
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