planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Could anyone relate their experience with a modified camera and whether you thought it was worth the expense? The website options start at $300 and go up from there depending on options (filters, heat sink, etc).

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

Modified how?

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

For astrophotography, primarily, but I'd be interested in experience with other mods. The website said that with different lens-attached filters the modified cameras could still be used for 'normal" pictures, if I understood correctly. I'd be looking at having my older a77 worked on and keeping my a99ii for standard pics. I just got a Bahtinov mask and intend to start taking pics of stars/nebulae but understand that with certain internal filters added or removed certain spectra can be revealed that couldn't otherwise be captured.

ahudina Loc: Browns Point, WA

Just received my Nikon z6 ii back from Spencer’s. Did a Astro mod visible + h alpha. Service was excellent but have not tested it yet for Astro.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Cool. Let me know how it turns out. PS do you know which side of a Bahtinov mask gets snapped into the sacrificial filter? It has a finished bumpy side and flat matte side. If I get some good pics with my 70-200 f/2.8 G2 lens I'll probably get a mask for my Tamron 150-600 G2 and use that, too. Someday I might get a telescope or tracker to make things easier or better quality.

JBRIII

Basically, cameras made for most photography have a hot filter which blocks UV and a lot of red. This is because sensors can detect from 350 to 1100 nm, while the UV may be a irritant, the red, including IR from 700 to 1100 makes the sky pink. The problem is that H-alpha 658? is important for stars and is also mostly blocked by the filter. Canon (20Da, 60Da and Ra) and Nikon have made cameras which allow more of the H-alpha thru, but not as much as replacing the hot filter with a clear quartz filter (astro modified) or I assume only the h-alpha if desired.

The reason to do this for one is that if you have a camera it is relatively inexpensive and a way to get started. Of course, all other limitations of original camera exist including its low light sensitivity, etc. Also, depending on how done, camera can be used as a non-astro camera, i.e., 60Da seemed fine for any use to me. Many cameras made for astro are monchrome and either provide B&W photos or you use a filter wheel. A mod DSLR can still be used with lenses or with a C mount with telescopes.

Finally, as I was told by Company Seven, DSLRs while perhaps not the best astro way, are a good way to try things, etc. before spending $$$-$$$$$ on a new camera for something one decides isn't for them. I believe one company sells an astro camera that costs > $30,000.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

$30k is a good more than what my brand new car cost me 8 yrs ago. The camera I would consider having the conversion done on is a 24MP a77 (APS-C), which came out in 2011. I also have an a99ii that I would NOT get modified since I've only had it for about a year or so and cost me (IMHO) a good chunk of change.

Nickaroo

I have a Nikon D750 that I mount to my Celestron telescope, and don't even ask how much the Celestron costs, but man oh man I get the greatest shots, especially up in the U.P. here in Michigan. I have only had 5 nights this year to get out and shoot. Plus, we live on LK. St. Clair and that offers some good quality time as well. I'm glad that Astrophotography has peeked your interests which you will fall in love with.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

It's been decades since I've been in the U.P. (Door county, to be specific). There's probably too much light pollution in the metro St. Louis area to get primo shots, but as soon as I get an answer from the company I bought my Bahtinov mask as to which side goes into the filter (and we get a clear night that's not in the teens) I'll start taking star shots. Whenever I've tried to shoot a meteor shower, my camera was processing the stationary stars when a meteor shot past the lens :/ The moon is cool, but there's only so many shots of it you can get. I'm taking an astronomy class at my local college and some night it makes my mind hurt - soooo much data to ingest (Newton's laws, spectroscopy, planetary geology, etc). Our first test is due by tomorrow night via the college blackboard website. Wish me luck. I've never owned a telescope, to my knowledge, but I looked up one that the professor showed in class - $5k is the going rate for it...too much for my wallet. The metal tripod legs alone were about 6x thicker than my CF legs and the Cassagrian (sp?) tube had about a 10 or 12" opening. Talk about a light bucket.

JBRIII

There are light pollution filters which can help. They allow only narrow bands of light thru. One band is h-alpha, so a mod camera would be good as it would allow more to the sensor. Changing led lighting has somewhat reduced their effectiveness, but they do help. I believe they range from $100-1000. One problem is screw in types are 2" in diameter, so use with camera lenses really reduces the light entering the lens. There are clipins for some cameras made by some. There's no reason a 100mm filter couldn't be made other than the cost would rival the scope you mentioned.

JCS810 Loc: 33843

Actually the Bahktinov mask is placed on the front of the scope (or lens) to aid in obtaining the best focus of the stars. To mount special filters such as Ha, O2, Si, and the standard RGB filters are placed in a filter wheel which is mounted to the back of the scope and then the camera to the back of the color wheel. Utilizing an Astro program on a laptop will allow you to control the color wheel, exposure times, and focus if you get a motorized focuser for your scope. Check with OPT telescopes or Orion telescopes to see all your options.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

As of now I'm not sure my current financial position would permit me to buy a scope, tracker, etc, etc, until I start getting comfortable with taking astropics with my camera, lens and maybe my gimbal mount for better balancing than my ballhead. I'm wondering if a graduated ND filter would do the same thing as a light pollution filter (I still don't own one, but....) If it's free or not too expensive I'd consider getting a program to operate the camera if my new intervalometer doesn't work.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Since Farpoint finally responded to me about a Bahtinov mask (doesn't matter which side goes in or out) I tried using it on my room light and couldn't make it work. Is the light too big and I need to use a star in the dark? Or like a penlight on the other side of a dark room?

JCS810 Loc: 33843

It’s primarily used for focusing on small stars against a black background. They do make the masks in different fineness of the grid pattern depending upon the scope size or brightness of the stars.
If you use your camera in live view mode and increase the magnifier, you can see the effect of the mask and adjust the focus until you get the sharpest image of the mask’s edge.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I'll try it the next time we have a few stars. It's supposed to be nice this weekend. I didn't think about the magnifier. Dumb-me. And I've watched some You-Tube videos on astrophotography using cameras. I'll have to make sure the button is assigned to magnification rather than digital zoom.