5D mkII with and without mod

[astroboy]

I've been checking to see how much differance it makes to have a 5D MKII modded ( this one by Hutech ) they say about 5X better Ha response , I don't know about that but it sure helps.:thumbsup:
All shots taken with Tak' FSQED @ F3.6 then cropped ( a lot ) ISO 1600 single 3 min exposure unguided.

Zane

[astroboy]

Heres another try at uploading the Horsehead

[astroboy]

Third time lucky

[h0ughy]

a few image problems there zane. its obvious that the modding is a good thing ,look at the extra signal you have. i was eyeing off a cooled version of one of these - just waiting for the lotto balls to drop......

[rogerg]

That is a single 3 min shot of the horse head?!? Wow. :eyepop:

[astroboy]

Thanks Roger & David
David I don't know if cooling is all that necessary these shots were taken on a warm night ( errr... well for here ) of about 12 degrees . and just with an auto dark , the 5D MKIIs are about half the price of when they came out and seem to me a good value astro camera.

Zane

[g__day]

Zane,

That's impressive, especially love the last shot. I'm just playing with a modified 400D - its great having all the extra data to work with - isn't it!

BTW - is Magellan back in operation - family still talk about that visit!

Matthew

[luigi]

Really impressive results.

Question: which hutech mod is this? I see on their site they have "spectrum enhanced" and "performance enhanced" what is the difference?

[astroboy]

Hi Luigi
I think with performance enhanced the remove the anti aliasing ( I think its called ) filter as well for sharper images .
This is just the usual hot filter removal and replaced with there UV IR.

Thanks
Zane

[astroboy]

Hi Matthew
It sure does help I found the unmodded images hard to process the modded ones were easy
Funny you should ask about the observatory I will be reopening soon .
I have a few new toys to check out since your last visit.

Thanks
Zane

[gregbradley]

Nice image but way red.

The processing of a modded DSLR requires the image to be white balance corrected as modded images are always badly skewed to the red.

The new Nikon D800 is rumoured to be available with or without low pass filter so that could be the new 20Da!!

I used a photographic grey card shot at midday and set as the reference image for custom white balance. That corrects most of the red bias and gives almost normal colour shots. The rest can be corrected in Photoshop using the colour balance tool.

Greg.

[astroboy]

Thanks Greg
I'll check my white balance on the camera , I thought i had that sorted but the shots do require a bit of tweaking in ACR , so I guess another try with the grey card .


zane

[issdaol]

Hi Zane,

This looks really interesting

just confirming are these modded and unmodded comparison shots?

was much post processing involved??

Cheers

[gregbradley]

Yeah you've really got to bash the reds down with modded DSLRs. They give super red images but what fabulous sensitivity to Ha they have.

Greg.

[Merlin66]

Removing the colour balancing filter improves the red response, from 30% to around 85% but leaves the front anti-alias/ dust filter as a UV-IR cut-off (400nm-700nm)
If the front filter is also removed (Full spectrum) then the camera will "see" from 380nm to well out into the NIR - no futher increase to the Ha response.

[gregbradley]

That must be how they plan to do the Nikon D800E with no low pass filter.

Since the dust shaker models have come out its 2 filters. So one is the UV/IR and one is the AA filter.

I also notice there is a company MaxMax who modify DSLRs and one option is for high definition filter. It must be an optical flat glass replacement for the AA filter to effectively create a D800E out of any camera. The downside would be moire patterns on some objects.

Greg.