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Canon 5D for astrophotography?

Started by astroboy314, 01/02/2006 04:56AM
Posted 01/02/2006 04:56AM Opening Post
Hello! I am planning on purchasing a dSLR in the next month, and am curious if anyone has used the Canon 5D for astrophotography. I will be using the camera more for landscape photography, but would like to venture into basic astrophotography using my refractor and piggybacking on my C8. I was thinking about the 5D, but am curious how it compares to the 20D or 20Da for photos of the night sky. Thanks for any advice!

Dave
Posted 01/03/2006 01:31AM #1
David,

It's great for astrophotography, but the 20Da has adavantages--namely the live-focus capabilities and much better bandpass of the critical Ha light that make it very compelling--and it makes a great regular-use camera. If you want, I can show you pictures for both.

On the other hand, if you will be doing 95% landscape photography, the 5D is superb in this area. For the occasional astrophotography, you will have to learn to tweak the reds to recover the lost reds from the IR-cut filter, and also how to deal with manual focusing on stars (not easy).

Let me know if you want some sample images.

Jeff

Jeff 8O
Posted 01/05/2006 05:22AM #2
Thanks for the responses... in all honesty, at this point in time I would be using the camera for 95% (or more) landscapes. I don't really have the set-up right now to dive into astrophotography much beyond prime focus shots of the moon and piggybacked shots... the thing is that eventually I will want to get into more serious astrophotography.

Right now, I'd obviously prefer the 5D over the 20D... the issue being the cost difference. I'm trying to decide if the extra money is worth it for the 5D. I've heard the noise levels on both the 20D and 5D are great... how much of a difference is there between the two? How different are the 20D and 20D, other than the extra sensitivity to red emissions, and the live LCD focusing?

And Jeff, I'd love some sample photos... thanks!

Dave