[APML]: Kodak Pro 400 Images & Reformatted Web Page

[aa6g@aa6g.org (Chuck Vaughn)]

Kodak Pro 400

Robert Bickel and I took a couple rolls of the Kodak Pro 400 out for a
spin last Saturday night. We got about 2/3 of a night before the clouds
came in.

I've placed two images on my web page with our results. I have an image
of the Gamma Cygni Nebulosity that is two 30 minute exposures added in
Photoshop. Robert has an image of the Pleaides which is also two 30 minute
exposures added in Photoshop. These give an example of red and blue objects
on this film. The images were color balanced and contrast/brightness adjusted
only. There was no Photoshop enhancement of color saturation or hue.

I'm not that experienced with what images should look like on color film.
I'd like to know what you guys think after you see the images. Is this
better than other color film? Worse? About the same?

My impression of the film compared to some old negatives I have on Konica
3200 and the Comet Hyakutake on Fuji HG-400 is that it lives up to the
speed expectations from the Astronomy magazine article. It looks like I
got about the same film density in 10 minutes with my lens at f/4 as I got
with the comet and the lens at f/2.8 in 10 minutes. The color balance seemed
to be very good. A blank frame of the film (it was hypered) scanned a neutral
gray and a real photo needed just a little adjustment for less green and
more blue. The sky was not without some light pollution.

It looked to me that it recorded blue better than other films and red about
the same. Robert has a photo of the Veil that I haven't uploaded that shows
the green parts of that nebula very well.

It's not going to replace Tech Pan in my book for contrast or resolution.

The images can be found on my new astrophoto page:

http://www.aa6g.org/Astronomy/astrophotos.html

Reformatted Astronomy Page

I've completely re-layed out my astronomy page, including calling it
"Chuck's Astrophotography", since that's what it's always been anyway. :-)
I moved as much as possible off the main page onto separate pages. There's
a new page just for astrophotos including direct access to Robert's and
Bob's images that you previously had to go to my ftp area to find. They
are still in ftp and no links need to be changed but they'll download
directly from the page.

I have a new page showing a comparison of image scale using photos of M51
taken at 48", 63", 98", 112.5" and 154" focal length. It may help some
people decide what focal length of telescope they'd like to buy.

There's also a new page showing just the photographic instruments I use.
The photos are all new.

Please take a look and let me know what you think and especially if you
find anything that doesn't work. The buttons at the bottom of each page
allow you to jump from any page to any page with having to backwards.

Chuck Vaughn <aa6g@aa6g.org>

http://www.aa6g.org/astro.html   Chuck's Astrophotography