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First up, sorry to Canberrans for the rain last night, my Tiny1 arrived yesterday. Interesting beast and a variety of disappointments and maybe I'll never be able to make best use of it to be fairer to it.
Easy ones first, build is damn solid and the lenses seem well built too.
Thats about it, packaging it good for the camera but doesn't allow for lenses/accessories. Not printed manual or even slip of paper to be found to get you started. Finish on the camera makes it slippery to hold, for someone with only one working arm this is VERY concerning especially as there is no wrist or neck strap for the camera either despite having mount holes for them.
The camera itself only has an on button and a shutter button you need to be a body builder to press so forget a nice light touch click or holding it steady by hand. And yes it seems capable of taking hand held night shots technically. The touch screen has no alternate shutter button so it MUST be paired with an Android phone it seems. NO Iphone support for this thing and iphone is all i have, so it looks like I'll be forced to buy an android phone (No idea what specs) just to use the Tiny1. Let alone configure it, it has almost nothing to configure in its menu at all on the camera itself so i can only presume its all in the android app but since I can't use it I cant tell for sure.
its screen shows a live view superimpossed with a star chart and you can search for items and it will direct you. IF you are in the northern hemisphere it seems. it has GPS always on so it should know at least which hemisphere you're in. so the star chart is showing me an incorrect view so I cant comment on its accuracy beyond its completely inaccurate right now. Again, no menu items on camera to configure so i assume its in the android app I think I mentioned I cant use either.
Image quality, well it does take photos, does save in DNG and RAW formats (only its DNG will load into PixInsight, dont know about photoshop ) and does capture stars hand held. This morning the sky was clear but lightening when I got to try shooting outside so no dark sky shots yet and no file to show as i was waiting for taxi to work. My quick tests last night from the garage (it was raining so i didnt take it out into the wet) showed promise but the pictures are extremely grainy to put it mildly.
My first impressions are this is not a camera for astronomers, its a camera for android fanbois who drool over instagram and think facebook is deep and meaning full. Maybe if the decide to support iphone so i can at least configure and take time lapsed shots with it (I was really caught out by the camera having virtually no controls at all , it requires a damn phone, cant even be used via usb.) I does appear to be for people looking for small dimension shots to send to social media rather than for good high resolution photos. As a simple travel camera for astronomers to pic up a few shots I would say look to one of the quality compact cameras on the market instead, this is not a "self contained" camera and having to use another device to use it means you have to have two high drain devices and keep them charged so not really practical for travel being forced to have two gadget when it should have been one and if you got lenses too its more stuff to lose and figure out how to pack.
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