Re: Some more new camera speculation

[Tom C]

Very high quality astrophotos can be taken with DSLR's.  Sure those that 
have unlimited funds can afford to buy the dedicated cooled sensor cameras.  
Even they are becoming a little chagrined at how well the new DLSR's (esp., 
Canons perform).

The quibbling is often more like, I spent $10K on this dedicated camera, and 
the guy who spent $1500 - $3000 is producing results that are stunning, and 
certainly disproportional quality-wise when compared to price.

As you mentioned, in many cases long exposures no longer necessary to image 
stacking of many short exposures

Tom C.







	Not to poke the bear here, but from what I know of astrophotography, NONE 
of the consumer cameras are adequate.  Taking high-quality astro photos 
requires using CCD/CMOS requires either cryo-cooling, or multiple 
exposures, stacking, and aligning to remove the noise and rotation.  
Certainly the 0.5-1.0 stop difference in noise quality between brandX and 
brandY camera is small in comparison.

	Film is still the way to do long exposures at night, even though you get 
screwed with reciprocity.  CMOS/CCD's will have "hot-pixel" noise from long 
exposures, just like it'll have higher noise at higher ISO's.

	If you're on the edge, have fun there.  I don't care to quibble about 
small differences brandX does vs. brandY to minimize artifacts from using 
the wrong tool for the job.

-Cory