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Cannon 300 D Review & Images (Click on Thumb Nail for Medium Res Image)
After reading various articles in S&T regarding the wonders of the latest line of DSLRs I convinced my wife we needed to take the plunge into digital photography and ordered a modified 300 D from Hutech. The camera arrived safe and sound and after a very simple white balance was perfect for day light photography. I signed up for DSLR focus and ordered one of Hap Griffin's long cables and was all set for astrophotography. First night under the stars everything was very easy to use and focusing although a bit slow on my old PC works a treat. The only thing a I struggled with was the RAW file size (~7 MB) especially when converted to TIF(~20MB) which quickly used up disk space and slowed up the old PC. Anyway first set of pictures was the the obligatory set of star trails with instant gratification:
First real use under the stars was from a dark site in the UK and although it took quite a bit of processing I was delighted with the results. Again instant gratification and to my mind as good if not better than my early attempts with E200 slide film and a K1000.
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Cygnus Region 300D Hutech Modified 18 mm F4 Kit Lens EQ1 5 by 2 minute ISO800 Exposures Aligned and Combined in PS |
Caseopia Region 300D Hutech Modified 18 mm F4 Kit Lens EQ1 5 by 2 minute ISO800 Exposures Aligned and Combined in PS |
Cygnus Region Setting Into Sky Glow 300D Hutech Modified 18 mm F4 Kit Lens EQ1 5 by 2 minute ISO800 Exposures Aligned and Combined in PS |
Comet Machholz 1 January 2005 300D Hutech Modified 18 mm F4 Kit Lens EQ1 5 by 2 minute ISO800 Exposures Aligned and Combined in PS |
Next step was to try the camera from my back yard in light polluted Dublin. Having seen various shots on the web I was hoping for good results through my Tak E160 on some of the bright deep sky objects. Unfortunately it was not to be, I was very disappointed with the results, the camera simply could not cut through the light pollution and was not a patch on my ST2000 (but then why should it be it costs a 1/4 of the cost). Below is a comparison of the results using the 300D and ST2000 on M45 . I'm sure if I exposed for long enough (5 hours or so) I'd eventually get something but given that the only advantage over the ST2000 is field of view it would be much easier to use a shorter focal length on the CCD camera.
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M45 Borg 76ED Cannon 300D 90 Minutes ISO 400 (Five Minute Sub Exposures) |
M45 Borg 45ED ST2000XM CFW8 60:15:15:15 L:R:G:B |
To crack the light pollution problem I tried the 300D through my Astronomik Ha filter and was pleased with the results. Below is a 60 minute shot of the California nebula through my E160, 10 minute sub exposures at ISO800.
There is definite potential for Ha work even from a very light polluted area. I'm waiting for the chance to try this out on wide field star cloud shots etc. as I think it will work well.
My final experiment was to see how well the camera worked on a fixed tripod. So on our recent vacation to Florida I sat the camera on top of a rock and took a series of 30s ISO1600 exposures using the timer setting. I then aligned them in PS and used a lighten layer to remove the small star trails. Again I was very pleased with the results I could never have done this with a film camera. The shot below is of the Sagitarius star clouds.
Conclusions
As an easy to use travel camera I really like the modified 300D for astrophotography and it is a fantastic/easy to use day light camera. I was disappointed with the performance from my back garden (mag 4 at best) but then perhaps I was asking too much. That said, there is definite potential for wide field use with a deep red filter and I'm looking forward to trying that.
It won't be replacing my CCD but it will be in the carry on every time we go on vacation
Finally Some Dark Sky Shots
After waiting more than a year I finally had the chance to take my 300D to a dark site. Paul Hunsberger invited me to his Astro Ranch site (www.astro-ranch.com) in Highland County Ohio and I jumped at the chance. I was keen to run a comparison of my ST2000XM and the 300D so I set up the 300D on my Tak E160 and the ST2000 on a 200 mm Sigma APO lens. The ST2000 was supposed to guide the E160 and at the same time image M31. As luck would have it Paul also ran his STL11000 on his FSQ and we both targeted M31. It was a good clear moonless night and the site has a dark sky 6.5 rating from 'Clear Sky Clock' so the conditions were ideal. I ran the 300 D for 120 minutes on M31 (25 BY 300 S AT ISO 800) while Paul took 3 sets of 60 minute exposures in RGB and a 20 minute Ha exposure with the STL/FSQ combo. I also shot 90 minutes of luminance with my ST2000 and 30 minutes in each color channel. You can see the results with the STL and 300D below. My ST2000 luminance came out fine but there was some dewing on the red channel so the color was wasted.
I processed both sets of data in Maxim DSLR, CCDSoft and Photo Shop CS2 (mostly the latter) Paul sent me his FSQ data reduced to 2x2 so keep that in mind when looking at faint detail. For both images I took the RGB data and extracted the luminance for an LRGB process which allowed selective sharpening of the luminance frame.
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M31 120 Minutes Cannon 300D Hutech Modified Astro Ranch Dark Sky Site TAk E160 EM200 guided with ST2000XM on 200mm lens |
M31 Tak FSQ106 LRGB 60:60:60 Blended with 20 min Ha Astro Ranch Dark Sky Site |
So what conclusions can one draw?
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Firstly and probably the only real conclusion is that Tak make great scopes
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Secondly I think both cameras took great pictures I was surprised (delighted) how good the 300D was
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There was no doubt the STL image was easier to process it was deeper and needed less smoothing
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I think the Ha in the STL image adds a great deal even if it is subtle and this would have been a hassle (but not impossible) with the 300D
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It must be noted that any attempts I've made with the 300D away from a dark site have been unfortunate to say the least compared to the CCD camera
Overall I can't wait to try some more targets with the 300D I think with a good bright target and a right sky its a real winner. Anyway many many thanks to Paul for the use of his sky and his FSQ frames (his guiding and focus was better than mine as well) and thanks to Eric Africa for the company.
Hutech Front Mounted Ha Filter
Having visited the Hutech site I saw they had a range of front mounted filters for the 300D. As the Epsilon scope has very limited back focus these looked like a great way to use the 300D for filtered work especially Ha. So I took the plunge and picked up one of the 8 nm Ha filters. The image below is a median combine of 12 by 15 minute exposures taken at ISO 800 with my E160 and EM200 guided by the ST2000 through a 200 mm lens. The images were taken from my back yard mag 4 ish skies at best under a first quarter moon. I aligned and combined the frames in MaximDSLR and then split out the red channel in Photoshop CS2. I used a few curves and Gradient Exterminator and that was that. No flats and no darks. I like the result but it probably needs the same exposure again, next clear night I'll try at ISO1600.
Horse Head and Flame
12 by 900s ISO 800 Hutech Modified 300D Hutech Front Mounted HA Filter
Takahashi Epsilon E160 and EM200 Guided with ST2000 and 200mm lens
