Quote:
Originally Posted by Mickoid
That's right Chris, it's cropping the sensor down to a size of about 7mm or so, ending up similar to that of a web cam, that's why the image appears bigger in the view finder of the camera. The beauty of the Canon 550d/60d is it saves the cropped video as a native file to your internal memory card, no need for a computer.
You should be able to obtain a comparable result with your Nikon if you can find a software program ( maybe Sharpcap? ) that will capture video via the enlarged view of the planet on your camera's LCD viewfinder, ie Liveview. This is an alternate method for Canon DSLRs that don't have movie crop but like your Nikon, you will need to connect it to a computer to capture the video. Your frame rate will be limited to the video capture program you are using and the resolution will be calculated from the resolution of the camera's LCD. The end results are quite good though.
As long as you can magnify the image on your LCD using your camera's magnifying glass button, you should get a reasonable size image. Worth a try.
Another advantage of Canon's movie crop mode is that you can shoot at 60fps, which is an advantage on fast rotating planets like Jupiter, it can collect lots of frames in a short time span.
|
At this early-beginner stage, I always record straight to the camera's SD card. I don't use a computer with the telescope yet, I don't have guiding. I just import the full size video into Registax, zoom right in whilst editing it, and crop the end result.
I can shoot at 60fps but that limits the shutter speed to a minimum of 1/60, which means double the ISO - which on this camera isn't a good thing! Using an ED80 and two Barlows for planets means I'm already stopped waaaay down. Think I'm getting a focal length of close to 5000mm or maybe just a bit under; with 80m aperture you know it's a tiny pinhole by the time it gets to the sensor. I think the attached from last night was shot at ISO 6400 which is the useable limit for this low-end DSLR.
(Such a crappy pic doesn't belong in the same thread as your amazing result... meh, it's an ED80, not designed for this stuff.)