Milky Way 24 image 871 megapixel 360 degree mosaic

[dvj (John)]

Another Q. Lens data states 14mm to 24mm Nikon f/2.8, but image data shows 9.8mm.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Ross G

Hi Greg,

What an amzing photo.

Clever and original.

Your initial photo is my favourite. The colours are great and the composition draws you in.

You're producing some great images with your D800E.


Thanks.

Ross.

Thanks Ross. I am loving this camera, its gotten me enthusiastic about DSLR imaging again.

Originally Posted by space oddity

Nice piccy.
I reckon you may need to invest in a 10.5mm f/2.8 Nikon lens and /or a 4.5mm f/2.8 Sigma circular fisheye. These are two of my favorite lenses, great for full milky way shots.If you are near the city or eastern suburbs, you could borrow these lenses from me for a weekend.Generally, fixed focal length lenses are better due to less internal reflections and light falloff. Alas, Photokina has not unveiled any breakthrough technologies in photography.
Once curved sensors start being mass produced, it is time to chuck out all the old glass as fast lenses will be the norm, since a curved sensor means no more optical correction for flat field and spherical aberrations will be minimized.We should find the best performance to be at widest aperture. Look forward to f/0.95 lenses that do not cost a fortune or weigh a ton. I reckon that eventually such whole sky shots could be hand held or tripod jobs with cameras that use sensor shift for stabilization eg Pentax K-5.
If you can wait a few years, this sort of photo will be a mere snapshot instead of an impressive stitching job.

Thanks for that. Will those lenses work on a full frame camera? I may take you up on your offer. Cheers.

Curved sensors sounds like an interesting future development. I hope it comes through.

Originally Posted by dvj

Greg, this is simply stunning. How did you manage the seamless integration of all those frames?

A nice compliment coming from an expert imager like you. Lots of overlap and PT Gui Pro plus lots of manually inserting stitching points helped.

Originally Posted by dvj

Another Q. Lens data states 14mm to 24mm Nikon f/2.8, but image data shows 9.8mm.

I don't know why its mis labelled that. Interesting. It was definitely 14-24mm Nikon ED F2.8g zoomed out to 14mm. I know because the earlier versions I thought I was shooting at 14mm but I had it accidentally set from an imaging session a few weeks before at 21mm. So I reset it after the first night (I focus it using a magnified live view at high ISO and lock it in place with some duct tape).

Greg.

[space oddity]

The 10.5mm and 4.5mm are DX format lenses.For the time being, I am sticking to DX format, as FX lenses are rather large. You could use on full frame, but you will not have full coverage of all of the pixels of your sensor. Nikon apparently have a patent on curved ccds, but these things often take a while to hit the market. Apparently, a fluid lens near the ccd can be used to get 3x zooming with the benefit of curved sensors.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by space oddity

The 10.5mm and 4.5mm are DX format lenses.For the time being, I am sticking to DX format, as FX lenses are rather large. You could use on full frame, but you will not have full coverage of all of the pixels of your sensor. Nikon apparently have a patent on curved ccds, but these things often take a while to hit the market. Apparently, a fluid lens near the ccd can be used to get 3x zooming with the benefit of curved sensors.

Thanks for the info.
A Nikon curved CCD could be interesting. They seem to be going the CMOS route though.

Greg.

[space oddity]

Not sure if it is a cmos or ccd sensor. Whichever one it is, I reckon it could cause a revolution in photography. A curved sensor that allows light rays to effectively hit perpendicular to the sensor means centre and edge performance will be the same. Curved sensor eliminates almost all spherical aberration, which means vastly fewer elements with better optical performance. Wide open will give the best performance! Mainly spherical elements will allow really fast lenses without the usual optical compromises. With decent sized production runs, the cost should be only a little higher than conventional gear.The main physical constraint will be the size of the front element.
As for astronomy, if you can forgo direct viewing and observe via a screen, sharper coloured images will be available with simpler optics and the ability to observe and capture high quality images at the same time.
Nirvana?

[DavidTrap (David)]

Originally Posted by space oddity

Not sure if it is a cmos or ccd sensor. Whichever one it is, I reckon it could cause a revolution in photography. A curved sensor that allows light rays to effectively hit perpendicular to the sensor means centre and edge performance will be the same. Curved sensor eliminates almost all spherical aberration, which means vastly fewer elements with better optical performance. Wide open will give the best performance! Mainly spherical elements will allow really fast lenses without the usual optical compromises. With decent sized production runs, the cost should be only a little higher than conventional gear.The main physical constraint will be the size of the front element.
As for astronomy, if you can forgo direct viewing and observe via a screen, sharper coloured images will be available with simpler optics and the ability to observe and capture high quality images at the same time.
Nirvana?

Would one "curved focal plane" suit every focal length lens??

DT

[bobbyf (Bob)]

Simply inspirational stuff Greg.

Well done

Bob

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Would one "curved focal plane" suit every focal length lens??

DT

I suspect not.

Originally Posted by bobbyf

Simply inspirational stuff Greg.

Well done

Bob

Thanks very much Bob.

Greg.

[Martin Pugh]

Wow Greg, that is quite superb.

Martin

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Martin Pugh

Wow Greg, that is quite superb.

Martin

Thanks Martin. High praise coming from someone as expert as yourself.

Greg.

[Phil Hart]

nice work greg. you've got very good at this very quick!

is that gegenschein on the right hand side of the image.. the isolated patch of light well above the horizon?

Phil

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by philiphart

nice work greg. you've got very good at this very quick!

is that gegenschein on the right hand side of the image.. the isolated patch of light well above the horizon?

Phil

Thanks Phil. I bought and read your ebook!

First I have heard of it but that makes sense.

Greg.