Camera settings for an eclipse

Hi all

For next month's total solar eclipse I will be shooting on a ship. When I did so in 2006, half of my 16 images were in focus. Six of these were faster than 1/800 sec, one was 1/800, one was 1/200. Of my eight which were out of focus, six were slower than 1/800, one was 1/800, one was 1/1250. I used and will be using a remote release. 1/800 seems to be a stop point for shooting on a ship.

My set up for 2006 is shown, this year I will have a Rebel XTi on a Televue 85.

I note that fine eclipse photos (for ex. Denis diCicco's) are often shot at a film speed of ISO 200. Since speed is of the essence here, why not shoot at ISO 1600?

Cheers

Robert Howe

Attached Image:

Time is not of the essence here, Robert. YOu will have five or six minutes during what is the longest eclipse of the century. Your longest exposure at ISO 200 will be in the one to two ( four?) second range---you have time to take 150 of those. (and you probably want less than half a dozen.) If you bump your ISO up to 1600, you can shave those two second exposures down to one quarter second. You don't save all that much time. On half a dozen shots, you save what? ten seconds?

On the other hand, you may want Bailey's Beads at 1/1000 of a second, If you have bumped your ISO to 1600, you have to move the shutter to 1/8000 for an equivalent exposure. I doubt your camera will get that fast.

Now, we could discuss the relative noise levels of 200 v. 1600. It does matter, 200 is smoother, but probably not as much as it used to with older DSLR's.

I think you should practice just how many shots you can get in five minutes or so at 200 ISO versus what you can get at 1600 ISO. I think you will find that popping your ISO is not really that useful.

Note--other people may have slightly different exposure times for their various eclipse shots. Point is, you want a wide variety of exposures since when you composite, the far out corona shot is going to be a lot longer than the edge of the sun shot. You need them all.

Your boat pictures mean you have a moving imaging platform. Is that the source of your "out of focus?"

Alex