Re: [APML] digital cameras for strophotography

["Bert Katzung" <katzung1@attbi.com>]

Hi Chuck:
I have found that the reviews of digital consumer cameras at
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/
are pretty thorough and give all the statistics about bit depth, etc, that I
can digest. I believe that one of the most recent reviews is of the CP 5700.
Bert

Bert Katzung
katzung1@attbi.com
www.astronomy-images.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Vaughn" <aa6g@aa6g.org>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [APML] digital cameras for strophotography


> 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 digital camera is hopelessly out of date - according to some store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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>
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