Look at used or refurbished cameras.
Ascet3, I agree with other's suggestions, consider a factory refurbished or used/in excellent/new conditioned, such as the Nikon D7200, a DX that's come down in price. We have several DSLRs we like. For instance, you can snag a great used/refurbished D7200 from Adorama, with enough left over for a decent lens or two. (Just estimating): camera, $600-$700, then one or two older (film or DX) lenses would be great for Night photography). Last year we bought a second Nikon refurbushed D7200, with 327 shutter activations (snaps), it worked, looked and smelled new but only cost about $700. Now it would be lower. camera gear prices are like the stock market, sometimes they're up, sometimes they will surprise you.
There are some fantastic older lenses no longer in production that won't break your budget, and get you into the field. With Adorama, you've always got a 30-day money-back warranty, if you don't like what you buy, we've never sent anything back, which speaks to the quality of the 'pre-owned' stock they take in trade for resale. Lens and cameras are gone through, cleaned adjusted if necessary. Hope this helps and happy shooting. sv
Welcome Ascet3! If you want to see some awesome night/storm chasing photography/timelapse you need to check out my friend's videos here
https://vimeo.com/risman. He conducts classes in Moab every year for astrophotography. I do know he uses the Sony A7s as just one of his camera's. Have fun out there!
I have not looked at the used equipment yet so thank you for the tip. Sojnds like FF and quality lens is the correct choice. Excited
rmalarz wrote:
Nice, Stan. So is that Chicago or Vermont landscape silhouetted by the night sky?
Vermont... Chicago doesn't have cacti.
Dik
Thank you, taking it all in and feel I will make a good final decision. I have a number of Zeiss contax lenses from the 35mm days and need to find out if they can work with the A7s. That ewould save me some money.
traderjohn wrote:
I have been to Vermont a few times. I have never seen any cactus in my travels. I'm guessing it's Chicago.
I stand corrected... never been to either place.
Dik
ASCET3 wrote:
Hello, I am new to the forum and want say hello to everyone. I went to photography school back in the film days. I am now wanting to get involved with nightscape photography and maybe some astrophotography. I am looking to get a dslr and have looked at the popular brands. Nikon 5500, Canon Eos m6 and Sony. My peice cap is $1000.00. Are there any suggestions from any experienced people on what camera may be suggested? They all seem technically similar and I see mirrorless is a rend. I need sharp low light setup.
Any suggestions?
Hello, I am new to the forum and want say hello to... (
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Since you want to do nightscape photography, I really can't understand why you haven't put the great Pentax K3, or K3 Mark 2 on your list.
Astrophotography gets expensive fast. You need a decent camera, but more important a good, fast lens, and a very sturdy tripod. On the camera side, maybe a used Canon 6d or Sony a7ii, but that doesn't leave you much for the lens and tripod.
GENorkus wrote:
Since you want to do nightscape photography, I really can't understand why you haven't put the great Pentax K3, or K3 Mark 2 on your list.
Can you elaborate? Are you referring to Pentax 'Astrotracer' feature? Does that work well? Does it need the 0-GPS1 attachment to work?
TriX
Loc: Raleigh, NC
bwana wrote:
If you're really serious about getting into astrophotography and nightscape photography, save up your dollars and buy a Sony A7S (not the II). It has phenomenal low light performance, is full frame and, with adapters, can mount almost any lens or telescope in existence.
If you get into astrophotography, you'll probably want to modify your camera to full spectrum. An A7S is easily modded and does a good job of capturing the Ha spectrum from emission nebulas, as well as everything else. A full spectrum camera can also be used with IR Pass filters for IR photography.
Clear skies!
bwa
If you're really serious about getting into astrop... (
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Question: does modifying a camera/sensor for sensitivity to the Ha Spectrum involve removing the anti- aliasing filter? And if so, can you recommend a company that specializes in the work?
repleo wrote:
Can you elaborate? Are you referring to Pentax 'Astrotracer' feature? Does that work well? Does it need the 0-GPS1 attachment to work?
Astrotracer works very well with two exceptions.
1 If you plan on more than about five minute doing a single shot, the in body sensor has to stop. If you plan on doing more, stacking is what you'll need to do.
2 if you plan to do light painting on ground subjects while including astronomy, the ground will become slightly blured with sharp stars. A total opposite of other cameras.
GENorkus wrote:
Astrotracer works very well with two exceptions.
1 If you plan on more than about five minute doing a single shot, the in body sensor has to stop. If you plan on doing more, stacking is what you'll need to do.
2 if you plan to do light painting on ground subjects while including astronomy, the ground will become slightly blured with sharp stars. A total opposite of other cameras.
Thanks GENorkus. When I was researching for my first FF camera I thought the Pentax K-1 was a great value for money option. Unfortunately, I went on a Pentax users forum at the time and found a lot of pessimism about the future of the brand and Ricoh's commitment to it. They seem to be coming out with some new products now so maybe they will start getting the recognition they deserve.
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