Re: [APML] Oct 30 aurora - the six best

["Stuart Heggie" <stuart.j.heggie@sympatico.ca>]

George, thanks! Like you I find the Supra 400 slow but the colours are very
rich. The Supra 800 did a fine job on some aurora 2 years ago but it is
useless in any other application so I don't keep it around. I might buy a
couple of rolls of the Fuji800 to try it out.

As for grain, here I am playing with this software (PS 3.0) for a couple of
years now and for the first time tried a single pixel radius Gaussian Blur
and it made a HUGE improvement in the grain in the images. Huge!

As for the Zenitar - I bought it on ebay. I paid $160 USD plus $18 shipping
and insurance. You would get it for 20% less today just because of the Cdn
dollar's meteoric rise. I should warn you that some people are selling the
Zenitars for about $20 or so less but in the fine print you have to still
buy the adapter for your model of camera. Mine was Nikon specific. It comes
with four filters that mount on the back of the lens - I just left the clear
one on - can't immediately see what I'd use the others for but maybe one day
I'll see some application. Also, mine would not focus at infinity and I had
to take the set screws for the focus ring out and move the focus ring till
it reached infinity which it does. I was totally bummed but it turned out to
be a simpler fix than I expected. There is a web site that Dominic pointed
me to which made it clear how to fix it. Most folks do not report any
problems but there have been more than one with the infinity point off.
Caveat emptor.

Stuart
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Anderson" <georgea@cam.org>
To: "Discussion of Film Astrophotography" <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 11:15 PM
Subject: Re: [APML] Oct 30 aurora - the six best


> Hi Stuart
>
> >From your previous comment I was prepared for the worst, but you shots
> are far from that. They are something to be proud of. You captured a
> fair bit and the exposure looks great. I found the supra 400 to be a
> little lacking for aurora work and the thinness of the exposed negative
> led to increased grain size. The Fuji 800 gave me less overall grain
> than the 400 for the same exposure.
> Don't forget that Dominic and myself are a fair bit north of you, more
> so for Dominic and the distance does make a difference. So we get that
> little bit more than you do for aurora, but you have the same advantage
> for stars and the southern horizon.
> Did you buy the zenitar in Canada? Have you tried it stopped down for
> widefield?
>
> George Anderson
> Montreal Canada
>
> Clear skies and good health
>
> Stuart Heggie wrote:
> >
> > All on Supra 400, last two rows on this page:
> >
> >
http://www3.sympatico.ca/stuart.j.heggie/Stuart.J.Heggie/camera_on_tripod.ht
> > ml
> >
> > The second last row are 24mm Nikkor shots at f2.8 for 30 seconds. The
last
> > row are 16mm Zenitar shots at f2.8 for 40 seconds.
> >
> > Levels adjusted in PS 3.0 and then a 1 pixel gaussian blur.
> >
> > Comments and criticism as always welcome!
> >
> > Stuart
> >
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