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Celestron C5 + Canon 550D (1 Viewer)

stefano.sec

Well-known member
hello..My name is Stefano, from Italy, near Venice. I started digiscoping 1 year ago with skywatcher90 Maksutov and canon powershot,from 3 days ago I'm using large catadiotric Celestron C5 (1250/127mm, F/10) and Canon 550D. I tried to use eyepieces, but I prefer to work in direct focus, the quality is better and eyepiece plus prism plus adapter are just bit heavy. I'm still learning (like my english language, please be patient ;) ) to use it, I must use Canon in manual mode, not so easy, but I'm satisfied of my pics. I usually work with ASA100 to 400 with 1/125 to 1/400, before Celestron I used unsharp mask of Photoshop many times, but now it's rare thing. My pics are posted in my simple blog http://hobbydigiscoping.blogspot.com/ where I tried to transmit the right curiosity to who doesn't know about digiscoping yet. If someone has advising for help me to improve quality, please welcome, eheheh ...Thank you...bye!!
Stefano
 
mirror telescopes

I'm using large catadiotric Celestron C5 (1250/127mm, F/10) and Canon 550D. I tried to use eyepieces, but I prefer to work in direct focus, the quality is better and eyepiece plus prism plus adapter are just bit heavy.

Hi Stefano,

This is a very nice forum, many very nice people. I had tried using a 110mm Vixen modified cassegrain (VMC-110L) and Pentax camera a couple of years ago. This picture of an Eastern Pee-Wee is one of my better ones. Even so, I had to do a fair amount of post processing to add contrast and sharpness. Focusing is very hard to do and using an old photo tripod too. I like the magnification but did not like the lack of contrast and the "donut ring" bokeh in the background. So, I plan to use a refractor like Paul and the others here are doing. I just bought a used Celestron Onyx 80mm EDF and I want to test it this weekend. Maybe I can compare the two type of telescopes and post the results sometime.

But I also like Prime Focus photography better than "digiscoping". It is a sturdier connection and the quality is sharper, I think.

Glad to see your participation.

:clap:
 

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Hi Stefano,

Maybe I can compare the two type of telescopes and post the results sometime.

:clap:

That would be wonderful. Shoot them in various conditions such as bright BG, BIF (if possible), near and far etc. Put the comparison in the gallery here.
 
Hi Stefano - your English is good :t:

With the Celestron C5, where are all the bad donut rings you get with Mirror Lenses ?

Have you processed them out in Photoshop ?

There's few I noticed in Stefano's gallery here, here and here that display the donut rings, it's mainly sparkling highlights that get affected. On the whole, with careful composition they can be avoided but there will be times when they can't. Apart from the rings the scope looks pretty sharp.

Paul
 
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Its strange how they appear on some sparkling reflections and not on others.

That Beaver has quite a few above his head in the background, yet the worst of the reflections are below, if you look at the water, yet there arent any ?
 
Its strange how they appear on some sparkling reflections and not on others.

That Beaver has quite a few above his head in the background, yet the worst of the reflections are below, if you look at the water, yet there arent any ?


Hi Pete,

I believe that the reason the highlights below the beaver are not showing the ring effect is because most of the highlights in this area are in focus,...the ring effect only appears at out of focus points.

Hi Stefano, Nice shooting, was going to buy a C5 myself some years ago, so will be interesting to see more shots. Do you use it astronomically as well ?

Tom
 
Thanks Tom - that explains that one ;)

I'm also interested in the C5, but that big grey blob sat smack in the middle of the lens - can you see that when you're looking through the camera and focusing ... and also, i'd like to know what focusing looks like when you're looking though the camera viewfinder. I've heard weird things about the mirrors doing strange things as you try to get things in focus
 
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heeee...so many things to read!! I'm sorry I just finished my vacation, just a week without pc! ah, I'll read all your posts (ehmm....where is my dictionary???) and I'll answer soon...anyway I can tell you now that I used photoshop only where the focus wasn't perfect (unsharp mask), and I used custom setting in my Canon (more color, more contrast and more sharpness). Anyway you can see the big difference between pic made by Celestron and the others made by Skywatcher in the old posts.
I don't use it for stars or deepsky, just the moon sometimes (I didn't try it yet), and for the focus...well..I use normal focus for the subject then I use opened mirror (lifeview function) where I can zoom on the display (5x and 10x) where I can have better regolation. Of course this is slow way and I missed many shots cause it, but it needs just little excercise, not so hard to improve velocity. What makes me in difficoult is how to use time shots and regulations of the Canon for have good pic in one shot, now I still need to do many shots using different time setting (omg my language is terrible I'm sorry), using time priority and fixed ASA.
before I forgot, thank you all of you, this forum is really good place where I can learn many things about digiscoping and more
Stefano
 
They are fantastic shots, I really like them...good job! I didn't visit so many places where to take good pics, I'm trying to find a group here and go out for earm more about animals, how to cover stuffs and other things. And, of course, I want to know better my subjects.
I want to add my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/ubuntu1969?feature=mhee
where I have my simple videos...all it's started by canon powershots, then I changed for Lumix ZX3 and the last video is by Canon 550. I want to add other videos soon.
 
Hi Stefano
I have been using the the Celestron C5 and a Canon Rebel for the last two years.
I read the way you focus through the viewfinder then flip to video to lift the mirror up so it doesn't vibrate the shot.
I do the same. It's slower so I always hope the bird doesn't fly away or move so I have to refocus again. There's so little depth of field using that telescope so knowing how to quickly focus is critical.
I also use the timer or a remote button that I made so I never touch the camera when photographing.
I have also taken good pictures using 1600 ISO. Here's an example http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/330779/ppuser/82823
Getting as much of the bird in the small viewfinder leads to better pictures. The further away the bird is the less detail I get. I remember at first, firing off shots of birds too far away thinking I was getting good shots only to return home and see unclear pictures.
It has definitely been a learning experience for me to. I seem to be always trying to improve my technique.
 
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Hi Stefano
I have been using the the Celestron C5 and a Canon Rebel for the last two years.
I read the way you focus through the viewfinder then flip to video to lift the mirror up so it doesn't vibrate the shot.
I do the same. It's slower so I always hope the bird doesn't fly away or move so I have to refocus again. There's so little depth of field using that telescope so knowing how to quickly focus is critical.
I also use the timer or a remote button that I made so I never touch the camera when photographing.
I have also taken good pictures using 1600 ISO. Here's an example http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/330779/ppuser/82823
Getting as much of the bird in the small viewfinder leads to better pictures. The further away the bird is the less detail I get. I remember at first, firing off shots of birds too far away thinking I was getting good shots only to return home and see unclear pictures.
It has definitely been a learning experience for me to. I seem to be always trying to improve my technique.

Ah...so you can understand my tecnique, not easy eheh...as usual, please forgive my poor english language.
I really like your pictures, I've made hundreds of pics to the cormorant. Owls..sorry I didn't meet them yet :-C
Starting to use Celestron C5 (before a Skywatcher 90/1250), my happyness improved because the quality was really good. But sometimes I hated the great focal because it is too much! For the focus I MUST use life view (the Canon 550 permits to show in lifeview till 10x what I can see by normal viewing), it permits me to have perfect focusing. But, for sure the bird must be patient to me....anyway I totally changed my style when I made the first focal reducer, it permit me to work with 0,63x (please check my posts here,here,and here. Depth of field is improved, the min. distance focus reduced, details improved, time shots drammaticaly reduced, just a little crop when I use the best reducing. Using 0,50x with sunny days I can take shots without tripod. If you check my last post , you can see the difference between normal focal (1/500) and focal reducer on (1/1000sec), of course there is a little crop in the second pic, but not so much. Well, if you have Celestron C5 you can make focal reducer following my post, because you should have the finder too. If you try it, remember that more long is the distance by the sensor, more it will be the reducing factor and the crop needing.
 
I also have the same reducer that opens the f stop from f10 to f6.3 .
http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?ProdID=358
I haven't used it much but it certainly can free up some picture technique now that you mention it.
My camera also has the live view video feature but I still prefer to focus through the viewfinder so I can frame the picture then flip after to video, to track and raise the mirror.
I didn't find the video screen on the back to have good enough resolution and zooming to 10x changed what the actual picture was going to be.
I've thought about getting an angle viewfinder so I didn't need to crouch down too much to see since I've used a tripod every time.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/1-2X-ANGLE-FINDE...QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Photography_OtherAccess
_RL?hash=item5d2580d6
 
celestron reducer should have the best quality, for sure better than what I made, please try it!! for the angle finder, it's really a good idea, I was going to buy this one, it should be a good thing even if you don't need to watch on top of the trees...I'll take it soon, I'm too much curious about it!
 
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