I finally updated my old Samsung Galaxy S8 phone when PayPal offered me a pay in 4 option and Harvey Norman (and other retail outlets we don't have in town) reduced the price of the base model Samsung Galaxy S24 from $1300 down to $700.
It was time, my screens front and back were both shattered..
Anyway, it has an astrophotography mode in Expert Raw (files my Windows 7 machine can not read or work with) with an ultra wide angle lens and 12mp sensor (50Mp standard). It also has long exposure.
This one came out at 7 1/2 minutes. Last night (Sunday) I couldn't get beyond 30 seconds.
I still have no idea how to use it and am probably too stupid to learn and my D810 is far superior with a Samyang 14mm f2.8ED but I wanted to play with the phone and try it out. All up though it's not absolutely terrible for the convenience but a tripod and phone mount is a prerequisite unless you sit the phone, camera facing up on a solid object and don't touch it (Smile and other commands activate the shutter automatically without the need to touch the shutter button/little white spot.
I still don't understand most of the settings, so far just got lucky with a lot of confusion on settings but it did severely blow the centre of the image out with excess lighting/exposure.
This is the third new phone I have purchased in 32 years, I would have liked the Ultra but that was another $1,000 plus. Not after 30+ years on a disability pension.
Overall I'm impressed with what I captured, not too sure on processing, horrific migraine, eyes that feel like someone is poking two hot rods into them and a lot of sleeping (and pain) medication. I will play further with the image and another night shooting, maybe. After I find a baseball bat or cricket bat to knock myself out with and relieve the pain, hopefully. It just doesn't stop.
Unless I put my new dew band on my 14mm lens and take a real camera out tomorrow night skies permitting.....
If I set up my Astro - Trac and do 180 second exposures I could get much better detail at a much lower ISO.
Has anyone played with this system? Any advice?
I set ISO to 3600 without knowing it would be a 450 second exposure, at that ISO a much shorter time wouldn't have affected the centre brightness so much I'm assuming?
Mate, for a smart phone that you've not long gotten out of the box, that's not a bad result. Be interesting to see what comes when you get a bit more used to it.
I know that you said you weren't too sure on processing, is it in-camera processing?
I'm not sure whether it has in phone processing, it's the expert RAW mode and I have to do more research.
I'm not even sure how I took a 450 second exposure, the night before it jumped between 30 seconds and 2 minutes but I couldn't seem to change anything. I'm probably too stupid to own a smart phone....
I know it's a DNG file and I can't process it on my pc, I had to use remote desktop and adjust it on my sons W10 (or 11) PC because I still run 7.
I was going to look at it on my laptop but I don't have phototshop or Lightroom on it.
Thanks Bob, very much appreciated!
I couldn't get one of the free programs working, missing CODEC which is only compatible with later versions of Windows and photoshop.
I'll have a look at the one you've provided a link for, thank you!
Doing research tonight I found I can do 4 minute, 7 minute and 10 minute exposures. Were it clear tonight I'd have been out playing again, I believe I set the ISO way too high for the 7 minutes and it blew the entire centre area out a little too much. I've been playing with a radial filter in Lightroom but I now have two different black shades in different parts of the image, lighter, dirtier black in the outer perimeter, darker black where I set the radial filter, I'll play again.
I have a D810 Nikon full frame camera and a 14mm f2.8 ED Rokinon (or Samyang, same lens) and an Astro-Trac but it's a lot more messing around out there but I will get to it through winter, weather permitting. I haven't yet figured out how to put my new dew strap on the phone camera, lol.
I've been imaging the Milky Way since the 80s with SLR cameras, so much cheaper and easier with digital. But I'd still like to play with the phone a little more. I'll lower the ISO and go for a 10 minute exposure, it somehow has an algorithm to allow a semblance of auto tracking despite not being on a tracking mount and reading tonight it seems it takes a series of images and stacks as it goes.
[b]My primary reason for wanting decent images with my phone is I can instruct several people I know with an interest and no dedicated gear on how to get somewhat amazing images with their phone, a tripod and a selfie stick camera mount.[b]
I'm happy to take a group up to the local lookout and offer instruction. They have a deep interest but think you need the dearest of equipment
I'm not sure whether I can change the aperture and it drops down to a 12 mega pixel from the standard 50 mega pixel sensor for the untra wide long exposure astrophoto mode. I do like the overlay of the stars so I know what I'm getting. I have nice Milky Way panorama done with my 10Mp Nikon D80 (CCD sensor, the last in the line) and the 14mm f2.8ED lens before I lgot extremely lucky on picking up a used D810 at a bargain price in near e\new condition. 30 plus years on disability (through no fault of my own, just the draw of the cards) and I generally don't have a lot of money to play with the things I enjoy but I get bits and pieces here and there when I can at good prices, [b]many used bits off the kind folk here![b]
I'd have liked the larger S24 Ultra with the better again cameras and a larger screen I could see without glasses but that's well over another $1,000 plus dollars, My pension doesn't allow for fancy phones. My new phone was $1300 just one week ago.
As mentioned, it's my 3rd new phone I've purchased in 32 years, everything else was well used and either given to me or bought cheap with busted screens.
Mate, Adobe also has a free DNG Converter that you can download https://helpx.adobe.com/au/camera-ra...converter.html
and if you scroll down the page a bit, you'll see it can be set up to different versions of camera RAW depending on what you've got on your system.
Neither work, the online one Bob posted throws up an error I can't find an answer for and the Adobe one won't work on my computer, I spent an hour messing with it and various others the other night. My OS and PC are both too old. I still run Windows 7.
Online converter error code (typed out by hand, no copy and paste available)
Quote:
error: command failed: exiftool-all -o/app/public/task/68520e2e7e9294642a4a670a/in.mie'/tmp/tmp-
1-dTHEcKUr4wYe.dng'&& dcraw_emu-T'/tmp/tmp-
1-dTHEcKUr4wYe/883827.dng' Cannot open/tmp/tmp-
1-dTHEcKUr4wYe.dng: Unsupported file format or not RAW file at ChildProcess.exithandler
(node:child_process:422:12)at ChildProcess.emit
(node:events:517:28) at maybeClose
(node:internal/child_process:1098:16) at Socket.<anonymous>
(node:internal/Child_process:450:11) at Socket.emit
(node:events:517:28) at Pipe.<anonymous>(node:net:350:12)
From the Adobe site:
Quote:
Operating System Windows 10 (version v22H2 or later) or Windows 11 (version 21H2 or later)
I can put PS or lightroom on my Windows 10 laptop and it will then work, that's the simple solution (simple but extremely slow). Then I just need a bigger screen, I have a few I guess.
I just tried NUMEROUS online DNG converter programs and every one of them throws up an error. I did it on my sons computer with PhotoShop with the same file and no problems.
Mate, you might have to update the Camera RAW to make it work on Win 7. An older version of that which should be compatible with Win7 is available here: https://helpx.adobe.com/au/camera-ra...tml#fourteen_x
(Scroll down the page to find it).
Cheers!
Thanks Warren!
Anything above version 12 requires Windows 10 and the DNG files require version 16 to work.
Easier to put PS on my laptop or find focus and use a real camera.
As it Is I took the D810m and 14mm f2.8 Samyang out with my Astro Trac on a 25Kg capable gear head last night (dew strap included but forgot my gloves, lol) but I couldn't remember which mark on my lens is absolute infinity because the markings are very incorrect. I have the rare Samyang lens which goes beyond infinity and I have little red pencil marks everywhere but I forgot which one was my accurate infinity and got 100 odd frames of very blurry stars (They looked fine on that tiny review screen, I need a 65" TV too review). I nearly tried tonight but contrails all day convinced me otherwise, contrails without transponders, drag racing and drawing mapping grids over our entire skies. Someone doesn't want me seeing something.
I may try again tomorrow, I'll hook a 21" monitor up to my camera but live view is nothing but noise in the dark. I don't see an external monitor fixing that, I can only try.
Better eyes would be great but Silly Sollys don't sell them, Not in my colour and creepiness levels anyway.
