Re: [APML] digital cameras for strophotography

[Chuck Vaughn <aa6g@aa6g.org>]

Joe,

I'm looking at a digital camera to assume the duties of my non-astro 
photography. I came across the new Nikon Coolpix 5700. It has shutter 
speeds up to 8 seconds and bulb up to 5 minutes. It also has a noise 
reduction mode for exposures >1/4 second where it takes a dark frame of 
the same time length and subtracts it from the exposure. I don't know 
whether this works in bulb mode or not. It has raw and tif file 
formats. I have no idea if raw is >8 bits. I'll bet not. It will also 
be very hard to connect to a telescope. It might be useful for afocal 
and piggyback photography.

Chuck <aa6g@aa6g.org>

--------------------------------------

>
> -snip-
>
>         I would not buy *any* consumer digital camera strickly for use 
> in astro-imaging.  Obviously CCD cameras like the ST6 are a major and 
> notiable exception, but then, they are not a "consumer" camera in my 
> mind - not so something that is an everyday item at Wal-mart or Best 
> Buy.
>         Back to "consumer" cameras, I find none of them are optimized 
> for astro-imaging, and also, the specs change on the different models 
> so fast it makes your head spin.  Example, my 18 month old Olympus 
> digital camera is hopelessly out of date - according to some store 
> clerks, but if i ask for advice on this list for my 30 year old Nikon 
> FM, I get lots of help.
>
>         That all being said, if you intend on buying a digital camera 
> for personal use anyhow, then by all means, go for it, use the thing 
> on a telescope.  it is an amazing amount of fun, and you'll impress 
> yourself at what they can (and cannot) do.  For exmaple, i bought my 
> digital camera last year strickly to so I could take pictures of stuff 
> I sell on ebay.  But once i got it, I tried it out for fun on the moon 
> and it was "wow, not bad."  Not nearly good enough to make the front 
> cover of S&T, but the "fun and play" factor of any digital camera 
> through a scope is immense.  Bluntly said, it is a hellvua lot of fun.
>
>         If you want a digital camera strickly for astro-imaging 
> however, I think you are better off watching astromart for a good, 
> used ST4 or save up your money for a new ST6.
>         if you are not sure exactly what you want to do, stick with 
> film, and get yourself a decent slide/negative scanner.  I think one 
> of those scanners is the perfect bridge between the best of both the 
> film and digital worlds.
> good luck
> joe
>
>
>
>
> http://www.oneilphoto.on.ca
> http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
> "Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem"
>
>
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