GH3 GH3 for Astro Photography in near real time

M

mpgxsvcd

Veteran
Here are some sample Astro Photographs I took with the GH3. I was able to capture 15 objects in a single night. All of these images were out of the camera jpgs. Most were single exposure shots with no post processing at all. I will try to upload the original files here but I don't have the time to re-upload them right now.


http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3351947

Some of these shots were in camera HDR shots. That mode works extremely well if you select the +-2 stop option and then shoot a 15 second ISO 3200 base image. The camera then will combine that image with a 60 second and a 4second image to give you an image that compresses the scenes dynamic range by 4 stops.

This works very well on Orion's Nebula. However, I would like to find a way to use the bulb function with HDR so that we could use longer shutter durations. Also it would be nice to be able to do RAW HDR shots. The camera already can do unlimited in camera RAW stacking. However, it can't align those shots like the HDR mode does.

Looks like the GH3 needs to be hacked after all. However, this time it is more for stills than video. The video is essentially perfect for what the sensor is capable of in my opinion.
 
There is a company in New Jersey, called MaxMax (maxmax.com) that creates custom modified DSLRs. They buy them new/used, and then remove the bayer filter from the sensor (not sure how) to give you a true monochrome sensor.

I have been saving up to purchase one of their 5D versions to use for astrophotography, although they have a D800e version now I believe. It would be interesting to see if they would be willing to make a GH2 or GH3 version.

You can't send in your camera, you have to buy one from them, has to do with liability and possibly damaging the sensor. For the most part, the cameras cost about 150% of the price, so $1000 would turn into $1500.

I think it is worth it to have a full frame monochrome camera. That combined with some colour filters would produce some amazing images that you could blow up larger than usual for prints. Makes me wonder if they would give something like the Pentax 645D a whirl.
 
AdrianF said:
Not bad at all! Sure beats cat footage.
Click to expand...


I would like to see a stacked image of a cat in space. That will be my next project.

I used an Astro Tech 8" 800mm F4.0 telescope on a Celestron CG-5 mount for these images. The mount and telescope together were about $1300. That is chump change in the world of Astro Photography. In my world that was the most I could afford.
 
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