To convert digital cam for long exp.

[xelasnave]

Saw a camera advertised $170 is a D.i ck Smith flyer tonight when relaxing.
A Vivitat Vivcam 7310 a huge 7.0 mega pixels. At that money I recon it may be a cheap way to get a Moon and Planet Camera but could not help but think if you could get it to long expose like a web cam mod would it be great. Any idea how could figure what wires to cut etc. I think I will get one as it has movie mode with sound so it could be fun so I will show the insides when/if I get it. Has anyone done similar. Any pointers on where to start.
I have placed cheap cameras in boxes with built in ep tube so mounting is no worries. Any thoughts
alex

[iceman (Mike)]

Webcams don't do long exposures, they simply take many short exposures in a video.

A digicam like the one you're talking about would not be able to be converted to do that, at 7mp there's just too much data to flow along the bus.

If it has a video mode, like most digicams do, then that could certainly be used for lunar/planetary photography - it would save a movie file (mpeg or avi) on the camera card, and then you could run that through registax (some conversion may be required).

The problem with the built in video mode of those digicams, is the awful compression and noise that you get.

The 7mp would be pretty good for stills of the moon, but if you want to get into hi-res lunar/planetary photography, the best bet is still the ToUcam as a budget webcam. It delivers consistently much better results than any still camera i've seen.

[xelasnave]

Thanks Mike I use a LPI for Moon and Planets but that will go to the auto guiding dept. and it was more to explore a possible opportunity for those who are looking at a cheaper alternative.
I already have too many cameras but cant help wondering about the possibilities the available cheap cameras coming onto the market may offer our hobby.
Thanks again.
alex

[netwolf]

It might be possible to still use it, but it would need to have a manual mode where you can set the shutter speed, and you can take many shots and add them to gether in registax for planetary. Longer shutter times for dso's. The one feature you will need to achive either is a drive mode where you click and it take 10 or more shots one after the other. My Canon A610 does 10 shots max. I wish it could do more. However there is a little clamp mod people have done to keep the button held down, and it will take 10 after 10 after 10 till you stop it.

Regards
Fahim