I am committed to continue using a DLSR instead of a dedicated astrocamera (so I can do both deep space [I have an Esprit100] and nightscape astrophotography) so I am in the market for the best DLSR that can do both well. Any feedback on this is welcome as I am shopping around now.
Some positives include slow shutter speed (30secs is the default but anything slower would be interesting to know - i.e. Nikon Z6ii is 60sec) and live mode with pull out screen. I am not interested in modifying the camera.
Try a photography club as well, they will do astro and low light photography, someone might even have a camera you're looking to get.
The A7s is huge in the pixel pitch department which is great for low light.
A Z6 or A7s ii/iii would be on our lotto list for sure I think.
Ps. If you were buying the camera for the scope alone, something along the lines of 1 pixel = 1 arc second is a good range to aim for. But the people who do astrophotography might chime in...
Tilting screen is a must. I have a Pentax K50 and I curse it all the time when I'm on my knees or bum trying to see the screen while focusing. I swear I'm gonna replace it with an astro cam so I can just sit comfortably and look at the PC screen!
Tilting screen is a must. I have a Pentax K50 and I curse it all the time when I'm on my knees or bum trying to see the screen while focusing. I swear I'm gonna replace it with an astro cam so I can just sit comfortably and look at the PC screen!
It is..
Even better if you have something like this .
However, these days I am using my DSLR permanently mounted on lens/scope and connected with USB cable to desktop.. using Canon's EOS utility (that came with camera).
Try a photography club as well, they will do astro and low light photography, someone might even have a camera you're looking to get.
The A7s is huge in the pixel pitch department which is great for low light.
A Z6 or A7s ii/iii would be on our lotto list for sure I think.
Ps. If you were buying the camera for the scope alone, something along the lines of 1 pixel = 1 arc second is a good range to aim for. But the people who do astrophotography might chime in...
Hey, thanks for the response and I did get in touch with a photography group who also recommended the Z6ii that I think I may be inching towards. It is just hard trying to find an all-rounder for the scope and for nightscapes, because I love doing both. I will keep the range you note in mind too
Tilting screen is a must. I have a Pentax K50 and I curse it all the time when I'm on my knees or bum trying to see the screen while focusing. I swear I'm gonna replace it with an astro cam so I can just sit comfortably and look at the PC screen!
Absolutely! Live view with a tilt screen is the only way to go. Does the Pentax take good shots though as bending may be worth it if the photos are great
I'd look for a used 6D, but I put performance and price before ergonomics. It doesn't have a tilt screen but ticks all other boxes, and can be had at very reasonable prices now. It can also handle a lot of abuse in the field. Plus an external programmable shutter release timer. Plug in, set cam to bulb and expose for as long as you like.
I am committed to continue using a DLSR instead of a dedicated astrocamera (so I can do both deep space [I have an Esprit100] and nightscape astrophotography) so I am in the market for the best DLSR that can do both well. Any feedback on this is welcome as I am shopping around now.
Some positives include slow shutter speed (30secs is the default but anything slower would be interesting to know - i.e. Nikon Z6ii is 60sec) and live mode with pull out screen. I am not interested in modifying the camera.
Thanks
Hi S,
Quite incredibly the Nikon Z6ii, or Z7ii extend to 900 seconds. Most other DSLRs are 30 seconds max in-camera, except for some Panasonic models at 60 seconds (GH5 or G7 for example). On standard mirrorless or DSLRs, the 30 second slowest shutter speed is not that much of an issue as with almost any camera you choose, you can simply attach a ~$40 intervalometer and set any shutter speed you like well in to the several minutes range, with multiple exposures controlled for you in a remote release.
For nightscape a fullframe camera may serve you better as it will more easily accommodate really wide views and collect more than 2 times as much light, but it will challenge the optics of your telescope more than a APS-c sized sensor.
The Nikon Z6ii you mentioed is a fine camera, but at ~3.5K body only isn't the least expensive entry point. You could get comparable performance from others such as the Nikon Z6 and Z5, or at lower cost a D750 or D600/D610 or a Canon 6D. If you decide on a APS-c sized sensor the Nikon Z50 is great, but has one caveat: no one has yet made a intervalometer for it, so you are limited to computer control or manual (B) "bulb" release should you wish to use exposures greater than 30 seconds.
I started off Astrophotography in 2016 using my wife’s Canon 600D ( she hardly ever used it ) a 2m Canon remote shutter shutter cord switch and a 6” newt and a HEQ5 mount.
After nearly a year I was sick of standing around most nights trying to frame , focus and capture subs even having a swivel screen, so I bought a laptop , a portable table , a 5m USB2 to mini B cable , purchased Backyard EOS ( BYEOS ) about $60 and then could automate my whole session.
I could go inside watch some TV , read a book etc... and periodically check how the capture is going. Best investment I ever made
I thoroughly recommend BYEOS or Backyard Nikon to any beginner DSLR astrophotographer.
You can frame , focus and capture plus loads more functions, so EASY to use !!!!
The live view on the laptop screen is unbelievable considering I went from a tiny DSLR flip screen to a 15” laptop screen , so easy to polar align, frame , focus and capture not to mention functions like dithering etc...
It also has a great planetary capture mode which I still use today with my Canon 600D. I also still use my Canon 600D and BYEOS to polar align my mount with the Skywatcher Synscan PA routine ( just as accurate as Pole Master and you don’t need a view of the SCP , I just use 2 alignment stars up in the east / south east and all done in 10 minutes
These days I use a dedicated cooled Astro cam 2600MC and bigger scopes and mounts but BYEOS was the game changer that spring-boarded me on to more advanced equipment and imaging
Hope the above is helpful advice
PS: The Old Canon 600D is a great DSLR for Astrophotography, so are many other Canon DSLR’s for that matter ( the 7D mark 11 is probably pick of the crop )
Attached are some of my astro images using the Canon 600D , 6” newt and HEQ5 mount after my second year into the hobby ( 2017 )
Absolutely! Live view with a tilt screen is the only way to go. Does the Pentax take good shots though as bending may be worth it if the photos are great
My Pentax K50 is a 'good' camera. Noise reduction is ok - see photo of sombrero at iso 1600 (6x4min). But unless you already have a lot of Pentax gear, I would stick the other Sony/Canon cameras already suggested. Almost everybody makes adapters/lenses/accessories for Canon but not so much for Pentax. I already had a lot of Pentax stuff so I've stuck with them but I wouldn't if I was starting again.
As for long exposure control - I use a Pluto Trigger (plugs into the camera's hotshoe and is controlled by an app on your phone/ipad) They make adapters for most makes of cameras and it's easy to set up for, say, 12 x 4 minute shots with a break of 3 and a half minute intervals in between to allow for the camera's in-house noise reduction - or whatever combo you need. Plus it has lightning/light/sound triggers and all sorts of stuff. A very, very handy gizmo for remote controlling a DSLR.
Actually, this is more like what you can expect out of a K50 at iso 1600 - 4 minutes with a fair bit of moonlight, no flats but in-camera noise reduction. Apart from cropping/size it's straight out of the camera. I would expect the latest Canon and Sony would be noticeably better.
Click on “Input-referred Read Noise Chart” to compare read noise at different ISO for different cameras. The advice I read was to pick the highest ISO where the curve flattens but do not go into the triangle area.
I am not an imager but my son is interested in having a go. I have a Canon 40D and 5D Mark II to practise with. Looking at the noise charts there are better cameras but looking at older photos on this and other web sites it appears those cameras are more than adequate. Neither is modified. Canon 50D for some reason is not listed. 60D and up have the flip mirror.
I was always Nikon film SLR user but with digital went for used Canon which with an adaptor takes my manual Nikkor lenses.
I’m DSLR on tripod only these days , essential flip out screen, though most cameras seem to have a way to connect an external screen which might be a good option, but more cost and gear to set up and take down. I also think afocus highlight feature is handy too as you can get pin sharp on screen but you need to double check after taking a shot and rember to check middle and corners of shot too for shrpness, if the optical train is long and heavy there coule be flex throwing things off slightly corner to corner. A plug in cabled remote is good too, saves getting out to a site to find your dinky ir remote was pressed against something in your bag and battery dead flat. For myself I ditched camera batteries a long time ago. I use a usb to battery adapter, its a fake battery that goes into the camera body with a usb cable i plug into a larger capacity usb powerbank. So I have several times the capacity of two fully charged batteries, I used to use a battery grip but that let me down when i stopped workong once one battery was flat. Not a good buy on my part.
Also quality. Storage. Every camera I own has a large capacity highspeed Sandisk card (fastest rating ), you want to avoid possible bottleneck of the cameras write speed and its internal caching I’ve never had a single bad sandisk card over the years but i buy retail price from reliable authorised seller and I also run the card through capacity checks to ensure its a legit one not a fake. My D800e stores over 500 RAW+JPG during my sessions all perfectly fine files zero corruption and stores fast(I’m typically only shooting 1 sec exposures, just lots of them and I use a continuous shooting mode so it can just click over shooting until the card is full, no waiting for camera buffer to empty.
Also as you look at cameras carefully look at the noise you may feel you NEED the 60sec not 30sec limit but you might find the hotpixels and other noise are far too much so try to test in person and take home a couple of 60secDarks and the in camera high iso removal and long exposure noise removal may leave artifacts not good for astro but fine enough for general photography, I’ve seen camera leave blocky compression style artifacts behind with the noise reduction tools and disabling any or all can leave other things like edge glow or vastly pushed noise. Best you get some test shots instore of darks and bias too to take home to compare your existing camera, the on paper specs mean nothing its what the camera produces that matters.Astrophotography is a niche market segment manufacturer dont really cater to (except sometimes Canon)Any camera store should let you pop in a card of your own and take some test shots and you dont need any lens except what they use in store to take some bias and dark shots and try their noise removal options and push the iso etc. our AP needs are about pushing the camera to its limits so in store the camera is warmer than normal unless well aircondioned store I guess. So the different noise types should be obvious and the removal feature s easy to see effectiveness on camera but you need to test your camera and take the shots home to compare via pixel peeping with yours. Maybe even measure values in some package. What setting you use for actual shooting is irrelevant push the camera to their limit and note the lmit of your camera for exposure time and ISO setting and also use those settings on the camera you test as well as upping the values of the new cameras to their limit. That should give you a reasonable like for like comparison at “identical” settings(they aren’t of course, but the new cameras should look cleaner but maybe not by much and if at extreme limits should give you an idea of wether the new camera will give you cleaner subs or not at all, it may only be slight and in the extreme setting end you get much more noise and problems at each step available but only direct comparison of files against files will giv you an idea of the truth you’ll experience, ignore the sales talk and we’ve seen in the past the misrepresentation of sony sensors in nikons. You cant know for certain thecamera isnt doing harmful processing in camera that reduces your overal imaging potentional.
Hope you find the right camera and a helpful camera store. If you know the camera you want to test check what cards they use and try to take a few with you so they can format in camera if they dont trust you’re trying to infect their cameras, maybe you’ll have to buy a small card in store depending on store and staff helpfullness.
, essential flip out screen, though most cameras seem to have a way to connect an external screen which might be a good option, but more cost and gear to set up and take down. I also think afocus highlight feature is handy too as you can get pin sharp on screen but you need to double check after taking a shot and rember to check middle and corners of shot too for shrpness, if the optical train is long and heavy there coule be flex throwing things off slightly corner to corner. A plug in cabled remote is good too, saves getting out to a site to find your dinky ir remote was pressed against something in your bag and battery dead flat. For myself I ditched camera batteries a long time ago. I use a usb to battery adapter, its a fake battery that goes into the camera body with a usb cable i plug into a larger capacity usb powerbank. So I have several times the capacity of two fully charged batteries, I used to use a battery grip but that let me down when i stopped workong once one battery was flat. Not a good buy on my part.
