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

[Bernie Volz (volz)]

Hi:

Yes, dpreview is a great site for detailed reviews of cameras. And, yes
you can "drive" the camera by PC provided you have apppropriate
software.

MaxDSLR is a software program that controls the camera via the USB
camera interface. It can support Nikons, Canons, and I think others.
(For the Nikon cameras, you must put the interface into the correct mode
to use MaxDSLR -- the default is for the camera not to be in this mode
and the MaxDSLR software doesn't explain this.)

You could develop your own software to perform these functions but I
have not found the detailed specifications (there is some Unix shareware
software with source code that does many of the functions, but I don't
recall the URL.)

For the Egypt eclipse, I was looking around for some software that would
allow fully automated eclipse sequencing, but alas found nothing that
was available for Nikon cameras (it looked as if there was more
available for Canon, but as I ignored those packages that didn't support
Nikon I can't say for sure). I wanted a package where I could specify a
start time (or use a keyboard trigger), specify exposure settings, and
deltas between exposures.

You can lock up the mirror, but this can only be used to clean the CCD
(such as when dust falls on it); not for exposures.

- Bernie

-----Original Message-----
From: Bern Kosicki [mailto:kosicki at verizon.net] 
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 2:03 PM
To: Bernie Volz (volz); atmob-discuss at atmob.org
Subject: RE: [ATMoB-discuss] DSLR able to be used for astrophotography

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