I had a quick look at all the entires here again
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news...rofest/awards/
All great work !
There appeared to me to be 10 or 11 out of the total of Winning images and Honourable mentions that were taken with ordinary DSLR Cameras and lenses and or scopes that could just as easily been almost any sort of average reasonable scope.
Two out of Five outright winners were taken with DSLR cameras
Nine out of Nineteen Honourable Mentions were taken with DSLR cameras
There were a lot of terrestrial shots or semi terrestrial shots amongst these.
At least one of these was a newcomer, but I just dont know enough of the people to know how many other newcomers there may have been.
Now you can't enter a photo competition unless you have a camera and a great image. Maybe there are some minority groups that wont be happy with this issue !
And so anyone with a DSLR costing as little as say $350 (plus lens) could have been eligible - this is not a prohibitive barrier to entry.
So it seems to me that almost everyone here could have had a really good chance of winning - had they bothered taking a great, creative photo and actualy entered.
Clearly the competition in the deeper space divisions favours higher end gear and high end skills and I should think that is a very much the intention - the results speak for themselves.
But unless I am missing something here the competition was very much a competiton available to everyone including the common man.
The odds of winning with a DSLR in this years competition were just under 50%
Now thats damn good odds for the average bloke !
So why is there even an issue about it ?
Or am I missing something.
Rally