Anyone tried Astro-Modding their birding camera?

[Julian Mole]

Hi,

As well as bird photography I like to take astrophotos, so recently I have been thinking about modifying my spare 300D to better record red emission nebulae.

However, an alternative was suggested to me today by an astronomy retailer; that I might be better off having my 40D modified as I could still use it for daytime photography with either a custom white balance or clip in filter.

I raised my concern that I wouldn't want to affect it's auto focus performance, as I enjoy taking photos of birds in flight, but he seemed to think that provided the correct replacement filter was used that it shouldn't harm AF performance at all.

So has anyone looked into this or even tried it? Please let me know know your experiences.

Thanks,

Julian. :)

[Julian Mole]

Actually, I've just been doing some further reading and discovered that even with a custom white balance a modified camera will not record certain colours correctly during daytime use (unless used with a special filter which replaces the action of the manufacturer's original filter).

So it's starting to sound less attractive (and more expensive) already!

[Alfred Forns]

Julian Don't know what type filter you would need but keep in mind it will affect the amount of light coming in !!! Might be a big deal !!!

[Roger Clark]

Alfred,
The conversion for astrophotography is to get more light from emission nebula in the red, so the red response gets extended to deeper red, thus letting in more light to the sensor and AF system. The old IR blocking filter is removed and replaced with an ir blocking filter that lets just a little more light through.

Julian,
I do astrophotography too and my personal opinion is I don't like astrophotos done with modified cameras because every emission nebula comes out blood red. Red dominates the images too much. Check out some of the images of the North America nebula online, for example, then compare to this one on an unmodified camera:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries....v1.3-700.html

The above image shows subtle blues as well as reds and that gives a lot more detail about processes in the nebula, and I personally think is prettier than red, red, and more red, and just red.

I have seen on the web people taking daytime images with modified cameras and they do pretty well, with only a slight color shift. You might have more responses if you post your question on the digital-photography@yahoogroups.com group (you need to subscribe first). Of course there you'll get a very different opinion about modified cameras--there they will say it is an absolute necessity and the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Roger

[vufndr]

I'm having this done to my 40d currently. I use the astrotrac with this camera and have gotten some nice results unmodified and now want to try the modified route.

The nice thing with the 40D and other digicIII or higher models is they work much better when tethered to a laptop. Essentially you are not restricted to the 30sec max exposure time when using astronomy programs. Also liveview is a nice feature that is accessible via a laptop as well.

[Roger Clark]

I
The nice thing with the 40D and other digicIII or higher models is they work much better when tethered to a laptop. Essentially you are not restricted to the 30sec max exposure time when using astronomy programs.

A TC80N3 programmable cable release does that too. You can program in length, number of frames to shoot and time between frames. And the battery lasts years.

Roger

[vufndr]

A TC80N3 programmable cable release does that too. You can program in length, number of frames to shoot and time between frames. And the battery lasts years.

Roger

Very true Roger! I prefer this method as it's the simplest.

Just to clarify, the 30sec restriction I was referring to was with DigicII or older cameras when tethered to laptops. This is the reason I would recommend modding a 40d over an older model camera.

Shooting tethered with a program such as Nebulosity can really speed image acquisition and focus checking. It is also my preferred way of shooting in the dead of winter when it's -30c outside :)