Camera Labs

hello,

I am in a fix.. I want to buy DSLR for astrophotography. but i am very tight on budget. only DSLR that fits my budget is Sony A200. But i havent seen any one posting any comments about astrophotography usnig A200. Please help me in this.
Thanks in advance..

The A200 doesn't have any live view so any adjustment will have to be by eye. Other than that it should be ok. Get a cheap cable release off ebay so you can take shots without introducing wobble when pressing the shutter button or otherwise use delay. T-mount adapters are available without much problem.

In a similar budget is the Nikon D40 but I don't think that would be any better.

Useful but not absolutely essential is the main sensor live view as used by pretty much everyone except Sony. That would let you zoom right in and help make focus much easier. Cheapest way to get that would probably be the Canon 1000D but that costs a bit more.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

hey thanks a lot popo for your reply... I will be using a telescope for the deep sky images. but for piggyback could you please suggest any lens for this purpose?

I don't know if any particular lenses are better than others for sky imaging. As a generalisation, same factors as with telescopes apply. The bigger the aperture (lower f number) the more light you can get, helping to keep exposure times down. A suitable prime lens will allow you to get lower f values, but of course they're fixed focal length. You can also consider a zoom, but if you do be aware that many can suffer from "zoom creep" when angled away from horizontal.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi satyajeet,

few things:

1. Since A200 doesn't have the Live View, I suggest you to check the View Finder first. If live view is not there then the only help which you get in the dark, especially for Deepsky objects is having a Bigger and Brighter View Finder.

****Good optical viewfinder accuracy**** I do not know what this means (as this camera has it), but if someone could help explain this, it would be great.


2. Like Popo said, if you can get a faster lens piggy backed on tracking scope, there is nothing like it.

I found from dpreview that this camera seems to come with
"...18-70 mm lens or $200 more for a dual-lens kit which adds the 75-300 mm.." If you have a solid mounting and good tracking then I guess you may get very nice images of DSOs.


regards,

_________________
Phani Kumar

60mm Refractor,
150mm Newtanion Reflector,
18-55 mm Kit Lens, 55-250mm, M42 MC Helios 77M-4 50mm F1.8
Canon 400D.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phani_astronomy/