Astrophotography! Which Sub $500 Camera?

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  Shadowsfury on 28/10/2016 - 07:17

  +4

  A lot of it isn't just the camera but the lens. You'd want one with an f stop as low as you can get (ideally 2 or below).

  Otherwise, not enough light is being let into the sensor, meaning you're compensating by increasing ISO (creating noise) or a longer shutter speed (which if goes too long you start to get visible star trails).

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  mskeggs on 28/10/2016 - 07:39

  +4

  The cheapest DSLR you can find will be suitable to get started (consider secondhand too). People suggest Canon or Nikon because that is what they are familiar with, but any DSLR will have the capabilities you need.
  A real ozbargain approach would be to look into some of the old manual lenses. These don't autofocus or often automatically set the aperture (OMG!) but you can get some very high quality lenses for peanuts. For example, Pentax DSLRs can mount all old pentax lenses, and going older than that you can get an adapter for screw mount (m42 mount) lenses for any camera. These lenses are less convenient for taking snaps of kids playing or street scenes, but perfect for your needs.
  You can find lenses down to f1.4 or so pretty competitively on ebay etc. I'd also suggest you might be interested in fish-eye lenses.
  To overcome the visible star trails Shadowsfury mentioned you need to either limit your exposures to about 15 or 20 seconds, or use a motorised drive that rotates your camera at the same speed the Earth turns. I understand the preference these days is to take multiple shots then stack them. There is software that allows you to stack multiple shots of faint targets to build up an image with more and more detail.
  Be aware there is a lot of work in post processing to achieve the results you linked to.

  If it becomes a serious hobby, you will want to upgrade your camera to one with a larger sensor, so you can capture more light and more pixels, but this is where cost goes astronomical (how good is that pun!)

  • 

    Shadowsfury on 28/10/2016 - 09:28

    I actually have a new manual focus / aperture lens which I bought specifically for astrophotography. Haven't actually used it much for that yet though, but it makes a great landscape lens.

    • 

      aggregate on 28/10/2016 - 10:20

      Autofocus is not going to work very well or consistently with very little light.
      Manual focus is easy for astrophotography. You just focus to infinity.

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  picklewizard on 28/10/2016 - 09:40

  +1

  A little bit of misinformation about; not to disparage my fellow commenters here, but astro is a very specific field of photography for which your basic, crop-sensor DSLR won't cut it.

  I'm on my 3rd DSLR in 5 years - I went from a 450D, to a 50D, to a 6D (the latter I picked up from the most recent DSE 20% sale for just under $1400.)

  You'll need a usable ISO of around 6400 (you might get away with a bit less) to be able to produce a reasonable result. Your crop-sensor cameras (so anything that isn't a 5D or 6D on Canon) won't have ISO usable above 800 in the dark. Even with a decent lens (the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 is a very popular choice) which gives you a couple more aperture stops than your average kit-spec lens, you won't get close to ISO800 while producing an acceptable result. Colour and pattern noise is your enemy here, and will kill any detail you'd hoped to capture in your sorts. Of course, you can always work around this to a degree (there's stacking techniques you can use to reduce noise) but it's a LOT of work for only a marginal improvement.

  The one thing a crop sensor will be good for however, is star trails.

  Take it from someone on OzB who will squeeze every last little bit of life out of the equipment I already have before finally relenting and upgrading: don't expect to be able to do astro on a crop sensor camera - you'll be disappointed. I tried for years, but in this case - lenses aren't your only limiting factor.

  You should be able to pick up the Canon body on sale for under $1400, and the Samyang lens for under $400.

  Edit: here's a stack (somewhere between 5 and 8 images) of an astro shot from my 50D. A faster (lower aperture lens) would have given a marginal improvement, but the amount of work required to align each image (given the stars move between each shot) ensures that it's not worthwhile for the result: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56814796/IMG_0261-2.JPG

  • 

    enzioFirenze on 28/10/2016 - 13:38

    that looks good, I would think there should be modules that can calculate the average displacement between photos when you are stacking them given the shutter speed and position, not sure though.

    • 

      picklewizard on 28/10/2016 - 14:57

      Look, to be honest, compared to a single shot on a full-frame sensor, the above is rubbish!

      The problem with displacement is that there are both moving (sky) and static (land) elements in a shot; so you can never align both. In the above shot, I've had to mask the bridge and copy the sky between the trestles from another section of the shot.

      My 6D will produce a significant better image than the above with no editing; the above image owes me a couple of hours from aligning each frame, masking, etc etc. A crop sensor just doesn't work for astro; you're shooting in the dark which the most demanding situation of a sensor.

      • 

        enzioFirenze on 28/10/2016 - 15:43

        don't get me wrong, I completely agree with you, my comment was more like 'thinking out loud' :)

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  sludo on 29/10/2016 - 18:37

  Thanks a lot everyone great information given so far .

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  sludo on 30/10/2016 - 15:27

  So as far as models go I really need a full-frame sensor like the 5d-6d or d70 are there any other specific model suggestions ?

  • 

    picklewizard on 02/11/2016 - 08:48

    You can also take a look at the Sony A7s series of cameras; I was looking at these before I bought my 6D. Unfortunately, glass for these is ludicrously expensive and 3rd-party options are limited compared to Canon and Nikon.

    • 

      sludo on 03/11/2016 - 00:28

      thanks by "glass" you mean lenses right ?
      These are all more than double my price range looks like I'll just stare at the stars at night for now no camera can match that yet .

      • 

        picklewizard on 03/11/2016 - 10:42

        Yeah that's the one, sorry!

        If you want a camera for more than just astro, then by all means, go for a DSLR you can afford, but if your main goal is astro, then you'll really only cut it with a full-frame I'm afraid!

• 

  alikazi on 06/11/2016 - 17:32

  I started with D5300, it has a good low light performance. It's a good camera to start with. You WILL notice you will not get shots as good as full frame. Lens is important. Recently there have been good lenses for crop sensor cameras with wide apertures. If you want to save expenses buy everything used. Here's a shot I took with D5300 and kit lens 18-55
  https://500px.com/photo/106495673/milky-way-by-ali-kazi

  That's the best I could do with my D5300. I wanted more so instead of investing in a lens for D5300, I upgraded to full frame D750 and went over board and got a Tamron 15-30 f2.8. Both cost me close to $3000 new. This is the shot I got with my upgraded kit.
  https://500px.com/photo/165957001/milky-way-and-the-mensa-by…

  I see the difference. I am happy with my upgrade. But I upgraded after trying astrophotography for 1 year. So if you are really serious you can also start with a D5300/7200 and go from there.

  • 

    sludo on 07/11/2016 - 20:17

    Thank you very much for your input I think you have done very well in both cases and I'm happy to aim for something similar to your first photo for now and try to learn as much as I can before investing alot. How did you achieve this shot was it with a remote and stacked photos? or was their more involved ? Also if you don't mind sharing the settings you used I would really appreciate it ! :-)

    • 

      alikazi on 08/11/2016 - 13:02

      I didnt stack for both photos. Stacking will be my next project. The learning curve can be steep. Learn as much as you can from tutorials and collect tutorials that you like. Then get the camera and you WILL not remember all settings in the beginning. Keep referring to your saved tutorials and slowly you will build the mindset for this. You will be shooting in dark and shining lights at the camera wont always be an option specially if you set the camera to interval mode - if shutter is open and you shine light, you ruin the shot. So that means you will need to get used to buttons on the camera without being able to see. Also, weather affects the situation. During winter, your lens will fog up so you will need hand warmers around the lens to keep it warm. Sometimes its so cold even this wont work. In that case you will have to continually wipe the lens, which means you will be standing next to the camera in freezing cold just waiting. Clouds can ruin your plans too.

      Basically start going out and doing this over and over again and you will build up the experience slowly. You will definitely ruin some shots in the beginning because you forgot to check that 1 setting. For these reasons, get a cheap decent DSLR as this is practice. No point spending too much at the beginning, but its your choice. If you go for D7200, then transitioning to full frame will be easier as D7200 settings are close to full frame.

      Post processing is a big part of this. Capturing is just the beginning. Processing can get as complicated as you like in photoshop and lightroom. Capturing a photo will take 30 seconds, processing it will take 2-3 hours. You can learn all of this for free from tutorials. The photographic community is very helpful. Join some groups on facebook, you will get tips on all topics from there too. It all depends on how interested you are.

      My settings for both photos were similar:
      - f2.8 (whatever is minimum possible for the lens)
      - 15 mm (whatever is minimum possible for the lens)
      - 18-30 secs exposure (use 600 rule for this, google it for details),
      - ISO 6400 (3200 minimum)
      - Long exposure NR OFF
      - High ISO NR ON
      - Shoot RAW (not JPEG)

      • 

        sludo on 08/11/2016 - 13:47

        More great notes to take on board thanks mate I appreciate it and will follow your advice .

      • 

        alikazi on 08/11/2016 - 16:04

        @seanludo: Yeah these are actually straight from experience, I have not yet come across a tutorial that summarizes all of these in one. Anyway, glad to help.