[ATMoB-discuss] DSLR able to be used for astrophotography

[Bern Kosicki]

At 01:45 PM 1/15/2007, Bernie Volz \(volz\) wrote:

>Though sadly the D70 (at least) can't accept a standard shutter release
>cable and you have to manually hold down the shutter --

Bernie,

Can you drive the camera by a PC connected to it?  I believe some folks do 
this with Canon cameras.  If so, this would (should) allow arbitrary timed 
exposures in B mode.

I'm having a hard time uncovering whether or what the PC control functions 
are in DSLRs.  By the way, the best site in comparing cameras that I've 
found is http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/    You can scroll through about 
25 pages if detailed info on each camera (except for specifics on the PC 
connectivity which I haven't found).  If you are shopping around for a 
camera, I'd suggest looking at this site.

They also have photos showing the noise in images at different ISO 
settings- in this case, the D40 seems to outperform the Cannon Rebel XT.

Another nice feature for astro photography would be to be able to lock the 
mirror in the up position (to avoid shaking the scope) and take a series of 
long time exposures to be later registered and stacked.

Bernie K