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Astroscope + DSLR = Gallery! (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter cango
- Start date
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
I never use live view, I can never really get on with it. Never had a problem nailing focus through an OVF with a single speed focuser. I guess it's what you get used to, if you've only ever known one thing then you get good at it. It's something I've been able to do since the first day I took up this hobby. I've had a dual speed focuser in the past but I find the image goes in and out of focus too slowly for me to see the sweet spot.
This was the best of only 3 images before the bird flew off. Out of the others, one more was as sharp as this but the bird was looking at me with most of the face in shade and the third image was again looking at me and only slightly soft.
Paul.
DanC.Licks
AKA Daniel Bradley
"I find the image goes in and out of focus too slowly for me to see the sweet spot."
Good point. I often find the micro-focus distracting.
Good point. I often find the micro-focus distracting.
JGobeil
Nature Photographer
Nice focusing Paul !
I like to have both speeds. The fast knob is handy to get quickly to the focusing spot and to get a feel of what can be achieved in terms of focus - the slow knob if for fine tuning... if the bird is still there.
DanC.Licks
AKA Daniel Bradley
Agree
Looks good. That would be 3000 pixels at 1200mm or 1/2 the 6000pixels of the D600.
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
My Nikon D3300 is 6000 x 4000 resolution while your D600 is 6016 x 4016. D3300 is 24mp.
Paul.
I calculated based on the ration of FLs.
Could you please post a 100% crop from that shot? The feathers at the neck have fine lines good for resolution viewing.
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Paul Corfield
Well-known member
At 100% they aren't all that sharp. At 3000mm the photo was hand held at only 1/125s. The bird was sat on my tiled roof in the sun on a warm day so there will be some heat distortion. There's too many factors going on to ruin the image when viewed too big so I don't know that we can gain much based on this one photo.
I'd really need to put the scope on a bean bag and use mirror lock up to see how sharp the 5X can actually get, preferably early morning too before the air gets too warm.
Paul.
I'd really need to put the scope on a bean bag and use mirror lock up to see how sharp the 5X can actually get, preferably early morning too before the air gets too warm.
Paul.
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Here is the side by side, both at 100%. Yours is easier to use by far than a 33 lb, 4ft by 10" dob. The raw is also much easier to work with. On the other hand there is no way around the physics. The size of the diffraction blur is a function of the aperture. I picked a 10" after calculating the size of the diffraction spot to match my pixel size.
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Paul Corfield
Well-known member
The Blackbird photo was posted purely to show an experiment of taping two telenegative lenses together and taking a few photos. It wasn't posted as an example of what the scope can do at its best, the quality is far from what I can get on a good day of experimenting. That's why I said there was nothing to gain from the 100% crop. All this week I've been taping different telenegatives together, some are poor, some produce ok results, some produce a lot of CA and every now and then a combination looks promising. I tried a combination late this evening which I believe will be much better. At 80m I manage to photograph a small fly on a leaf and resolve enough detail to see its legs. We are in a mini heat wave at the moment and 90% of the day it is impossible to photograph at such high mags without air distortion. I tried at 8am this morning and at 7pm this evening and at 3000mm the air was still all over the place with no chance of getting consistent sharp detail.
Paul.
DanC.Licks
AKA Daniel Bradley
"On the other hand there is no way around the physics."
On the other hand there is no way around the AIR!
On the other hand there is no way around the AIR!
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
I think the air will always be the limiting factor rather than the optics for digiscoping/prime focus photography. I was up at 6.30am today because my daughter is going on a school camping trip for the weekend. I was out photographing through the scope by 7am and even then at between 4X and 5X the sun was creating the dreaded heat shimmer effect. It was easily visible through the cameras OVF and I had to keep waiting for a cool breeze to briefly settle things down. Of the few optics I tried, the Teleplus 2X TC produced the best results and I think generally 2.5X or 1500mm is about as high as I can go before it's a waste of time. For the bulk of the day, probably 1.5x or less is enough and then just crop it.
Paul.
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
A couple from the garden today, both taken with the Teleplus 2X macro focusing teleconverter. The little Field/Wood Mouse is getting to be a regular visitor to the bird table. It's interesting to see the birds reaction when they visit and it is just sat there. Both photos uncropped, ISO 1600.
Paul.
Paul.
Attachments
DanC.Licks
AKA Daniel Bradley
Great mouse!:t:
Nervy little guy, mixing it up with all those sharp beaks!
As to air.... there seems to be a reason why they put Hubble in space!
Ah, but aren't the twinkling stars lovely?
It is still amazing to me how little air it takes to bugger up a shot, even at relatively close distance, when the circumstances aren't really good. Makes any long lens work a challenge, and can make an otherwise fantastic lens/scope look like an ebay midnight special.
Nervy little guy, mixing it up with all those sharp beaks!
As to air.... there seems to be a reason why they put Hubble in space!
Ah, but aren't the twinkling stars lovely?
It is still amazing to me how little air it takes to bugger up a shot, even at relatively close distance, when the circumstances aren't really good. Makes any long lens work a challenge, and can make an otherwise fantastic lens/scope look like an ebay midnight special.
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
I've got some thin bamboo growing next to the bird table which the mouse runs up to gain access and that's also the favored escape route. The other day though a Blackbird landed on the roof of the bird table and the mouse just leapt off the side and descended a couple of feet into a small bush. Straight away though we could see the bamboo twitching and up it came, time after time. I read that mice/rats have bad eyesight and this was confirmed when my daughter walked slowly up to the bird table, she got to within 2 feet, got her phone out, took photos and filmed it for at least a minute. I then did the same and got right up close, it was only a car driving past that startled it enough to make it run away.
Paul.
Tord
Well-known member
I totally agree. On a sunny day in May, temperature gradient caused by energy heating up the ground becomes noticeable as soon as sun has been rising for two hours. On such days I will try to be on site at dawn, implying getting up at 4AM... or waiting until two hours before sunset.
That is the winning strategy. Fortunately wildlife is active at this time.
It also helps to check your local Clear Sky chart for good air conditions.
Tord
Well-known member
Reed Buntings
Some patient waiting for the morning mist to dissolve paid off. One is a 2/3 crop wihout TN and the other a full frame by adding the Zuiko TN excavated from the Zuiko 100-200.
I'm quite pleased with these.
TS102 700mm (+ 1.45x TN)
EM-5 1000 ISO
Some patient waiting for the morning mist to dissolve paid off. One is a 2/3 crop wihout TN and the other a full frame by adding the Zuiko TN excavated from the Zuiko 100-200.
I'm quite pleased with these.
TS102 700mm (+ 1.45x TN)
EM-5 1000 ISO
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