Camera optimised for Astrophotograhpy

[Striker]

OH no more money..........

Camera (http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=6513&tb=1)

I think their price is a miss print...hope not...lol

[gbeal]

Tony,
go for it, and while at it grab a few for everyone, me as well.

[RAJAH235]

Tony, scroll down to the bottom. You'll find the $100.00 is only a deposit.Price for the body only is going to be in the$1500.00 bracket. Looks nice tho. Bit too much for what I do. Stick with my Canon A75. :thumbsup: L.
Bit confusing, in specs> cmos sensor/ccd sensor???

[acropolite]

Tony, Canon announced the 20DA a week after I bought my 20D, . :mad2: from what I have read it has a built in infra red filter (or maybe the ability to cutoff same) . The mirror can be locked up on the 20D :camera: but the image can also be displayed on the LCD rear screen on the 20DA The nice thing about the Canons is that they're very low noise, my 20D goes to 3200 ISO and the noise is still quite low at that speed. Most consumer cams crack up at anything over 200 ISO. Go on buy it, you'll need one for that 16" Meade!! I've noticed that on some other sites there are mentions of firmware hacks and I'm hoping the LCD rear display option shows up either as a Canon update or a hack sometime. Once I make a decent adapter for my Zippo Bushnell (ex cupboard relic) I'll post some images at 3200 ISO. $1500 won't even get you a lookin; body only for the 20D only in Oz is around $2400, the DA will probably be dearer.

[coxellis]

$1500 makes it worth importing over here.

I was considering a 300D and doing the mod myself. You can pick up 300Ds off www.fredmiranda.com pretty cheap.

Andy

[acropolite]

Here's a link with a bit more technical info on the 20DA. http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/eos20da.html
Note the price; expected to be $2400 US
:jawdrop:

[Exfso]

If it was $1500USD and allowing about $50USD shipping it would come to a tad over $2300AUD, allowing for about 77c in the Dollar conversion and customs/gst. Still a lot cheaper than some of the dedicated CCD astro cameras eg SBIG etc.

:)

[MiG]

By the way, anybody who thinks "Oh, it's a CMOS chip, it must be crap." should forget anything they've heard about CCD vs CMOS with regards to noise.
IIRC, Canon has been working on their CMOS imaging chips since the 80s.

Have a look at the reviews of the Canon digital SLRs at www.dpreview.com and look at the long exposures e.g. 15 minutes for one of the 1D reviews. Mind you, the 1D costs as much as a small car :)

Here are 5 minute exposures with the 20D
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos20d/page21.asp

Canon DSLRs rock. When I finish uni I'll be getting one. In the mean time, my Canon G3 isn't too bad but it's too noisy at high sensitivities (ISOs) and long exposures (15 seconds max).