[zkarj]

Using the more expensive lithium AA batteries in my K100d I took 10x the number of photos than using alkaline batteries.

Not only do the lithiums last considerably longer, they're also lighter! I used to use the Energizer ones in my *istD for air show days.

[following.eric]

I really liked that image you shared above too Eric - stunning, and thanks for sharing it.

You are inspiring me to try some astro photography too. I have recently brought a tripod and ball head, so I now have the gear I need for that. Thanks for sharing the settings you are using too - that helps cut down the experimentation time.

Thanks so much. Everyone in this group is very nice and supportive and seem like good experts. I have attached some samples of Astro I have pulled off with my k-50 to show that it can do some night time and I think pretty well. I am an enthusiast so I work with what I have. I would expect the k3 shooters out there to get better results, maybe not due megapixels but better ISO performance.

All of these images have been edited using LR but all the metadata should be visible on Flickr so you can see my exact settings. The varied results like I said could be due to environmental conditions like moonphase. Also I have noticed with the shots I have got, the ones that are shot well also edit well.. The Aurora one I just posted needed very little work.
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I use a free program called Stellarium. Can help you know where the milky way will be at what time and when. So I highly recommend if you are thinking of trying some astro now is the time, Winter will produce longer dark days and the Milkyway is rotating in our favour. The body is coming out earlier and moving across the sky in a more favourable way. Try the program (short youtube video) will show you how to use it easily. Pretty cool as you can see how it will move across the sky in a month or two months. Good if you're planning a trip.

My shots have varied with lenses from Kit 18-50, sigma 18-250, Rikenon 28mm 2.8 and Sigma 17-50mm
I also got a new tripod which is much stronger and has helped. Apart from that I use a custom K white balance. For example my Aurora was at 3700K. I also shoot very high iso like 25000 and a short shutter speed to help me find a composition and the milky way faster and once I am happy I dial down ISO and increase shutter until I find the sweet spot. I pixel peep to check my start trails and what I am willing to except.

Sorry if this is lengthy. I don't go out often as it's harder since it's late, but I have enjoyed it when it's gone well. I enjoy seeing something I can't quite see with my eyes but my camera shows me the hidden beauty.

[MarkJerling]

Very impressive Eric. Well done. I think you can give a class in nightscape / star photography.

[NZ_Ross]

Sorry if this is lengthy. I don't go out often as it's harder since it's late, but I have enjoyed it when it's gone well. I enjoy seeing something I can't quite see with my eyes but my camera shows me the hidden beauty.

Thanks again Eric, that is really helpful info. I have the advantage of living only an hour from Tekapo, where all the lights are dimmed for dark sky. I am keen to see how my Zeiss 28/2 and 35/2 perform with Astro photography. We will have to see

[awa355]

The maximum shutter speed on the K50 is 1/6000. For what, and when would you set the shutter speed to this rate?. Also if for example, you are using 1/6000, what would your other settings be?. I'm picturing dragon flies hovering maybe?

[following.eric]

Well here goes. Pulled the trigger on the tm k70. He dropped the price to 650 which for second hand could be a steal. Turns out it is ian r little Ltd which I know does the imports for pentax Australia and nz. So hopefully it's all good. With my camera breaking this could be perfect timing and a great deal.
Or Il get a beat up ex display model that breaks down in a few months haha

[Kiwi645hauler]

Well here goes. Pulled the trigger on the tm k70. He dropped the price to 650 which for second hand could be a steal. Turns out it is ian r little Ltd which I know does the imports for pentax Australia and nz. So hopefully it's all good. With my camera breaking this could be perfect timing and a great deal.
Or Il get a beat up ex display model that breaks down in a few months haha

Eric, being an ex-demo it will be in pretty darn good nick, and probably not have many frames on it the shutter and it will have had a service before being put on TM, Littles have been the NZ Pentax Distributor for many many years. CR Kennedy is the Australian distributor for Pentax.

---------- Post added 03-29-17 at 04:47 PM ----------

Thanks so much. Everyone in this group is very nice and supportive and seem like good experts. I have attached some samples of Astro I have pulled off with my k-50 to show that it can do some night time and I think pretty well. I am an enthusiast so I work with what I have. I would expect the k3 shooters out there to get better results, maybe not due megapixels but better ISO performance.

All of these images have been edited using LR but all the metadata should be visible on Flickr so you can see my exact settings. The varied results like I said could be due to environmental conditions like moonphase. Also I have noticed with the shots I have got, the ones that are shot well also edit well.. The Aurora one I just posted needed very little work.
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.

Love the one with Aurora in it second from the bottom, i also noticed the Satellite trail across the middle top of the image!

[Kiwizinho]

Sorry if this is lengthy. I don't go out often as it's harder since it's late, but I have enjoyed it when it's gone well. I enjoy seeing something I can't quite see with my eyes but my camera shows me the hidden beauty.

Thanks. Useful info in there. I tried some astrophotography with my K-50 last year, but wasn't getting the results I wanted. ISO 1600 seems to be about the limit for noise, at least with what I was trying to do. You made a good suggestion to use higher ISO and then drop down once you've checked composition.

I'm thinking the KP might be a worthy successor to my K-50 when I can afford it. I had thought I'd need a long wait to save for the K-1, but looking at reviews, I probably can get 2 stops higher ISO with similar noise to K-50 at ISO 1600, which would put me in reach of what I've been attempting.

As a side note, I found once you push the ISO up to 1600 or higher, a flash can work quite well at illuminating hillsides even 100m away, (possibly with multiple manual triggers off camera while the shutter is open). The only thing is white balance is totally messed up, and I ended up having to use the adjustment brush in Lightrom to apply selective white balance to the sky and the foreground as they were different.

Here's one of my efforts, at ISO 3200 50mm F1.4 8.0s. It's a bit too noisy for my liking but longer, and I was tending to get star trails. I'm pretty sure I used off-camera flash, as I didn't want just a silhouette of the hills. I found moonlight gave too much light pollution so the stars didn't really show.



---------- Post added 03-30-17 at 01:27 PM ----------

The maximum shutter speed on the K50 is 1/6000. For what, and when would you set the shutter speed to this rate?. Also if for example, you are using 1/6000, what would your other settings be?. I'm picturing dragon flies hovering maybe?

There are two scenarios I can think of.
A long telephoto to freeze action. The rough rule of thumb I've heard is 1/focal length to freeze avoid camera shake, however with Pentax shake reduction, you can probably go a bit slower.
The longest lens I've got goes to 300mm, so theoretically 1/300s is minimum I should be looking at, but if I'm trying to capture a fast moving subject, say a bird in flight, I'd need a considerably higher shutter speed, although 1/6000 is pretty high. At that sort of speed you're going to need a high ISO, and that's probably going to be a limiting factor.
With the K-50 I'm happy up to ISO 1600, and in good lighting maybe occasionally ISO 3200 if I'm really prepared to push it.

The other scenario is a fast prime. My FA 50mm 1.4 is so fast wide open, that in broad daylight, even 1/6000s at ISO 100 is sometimes barely fast enough to prevent over-exposure. It's not often that I'd actually want to shoot with those settings, but having a high shutter speed at least means it's possible.
This kind of scenario could crop up with any fast, relatively short focal length lens.

[Kiwi645hauler]

Thanks. Useful info in there. I tried some astrophotography with my K-50 last year, but wasn't getting the results I wanted. ISO 1600 seems to be about the limit for noise, at least with what I was trying to do. You made a good suggestion to use higher ISO and then drop down once you've checked composition.

I'm thinking the KP might be a worthy successor to my K-50 when I can afford it. I had thought I'd need a long wait to save for the K-1, but looking at reviews, I probably can get 2 stops higher ISO with similar noise to K-50 at ISO 1600, which would put me in reach of what I've been attempting.

As a side note, I found once you push the ISO up to 1600 or higher, a flash can work quite well at illuminating hillsides even 100m away, (possibly with multiple manual triggers off camera while the shutter is open). The only thing is white balance is totally messed up, and I ended up having to use the adjustment brush in Lightrom to apply selective white balance to the sky and the foreground as they were different.

Here's one of my efforts, at ISO 3200 50mm F1.4 8.0s. It's a bit too noisy for my liking but longer, and I was tending to get star trails. I'm pretty sure I used off-camera flash, as I didn't want just a silhouette of the hills. I found moonlight gave too much light pollution so the stars didn't really show.



---------- Post added 03-30-17 at 01:27 PM ----------



There are two scenarios I can think of.
A long telephoto to freeze action. The rough rule of thumb I've heard is 1/focal length to freeze avoid camera shake, however with Pentax shake reduction, you can probably go a bit slower.
The longest lens I've got goes to 300mm, so theoretically 1/300s is minimum I should be looking at, but if I'm trying to capture a fast moving subject, say a bird in flight, I'd need a considerably higher shutter speed, although 1/6000 is pretty high. At that sort of speed you're going to need a high ISO, and that's probably going to be a limiting factor.
With the K-50 I'm happy up to ISO 1600, and in good lighting maybe occasionally ISO 3200 if I'm really prepared to push it.

The other scenario is a fast prime. My FA 50mm 1.4 is so fast wide open, that in broad daylight, even 1/6000s at ISO 100 is sometimes barely fast enough to prevent over-exposure. It's not often that I'd actually want to shoot with those settings, but having a high shutter speed at least means it's possible.
This kind of scenario could crop up with any fast, relatively short focal length lens.

That is a pretty cool image, the other thing to help remove noise is shoot RAW, there is a whole lot more lattitude in the RAW files for removing any noise and other processes, Plus the other good thing is when you process a RAW file, you save it as a working file aka JPEG, TIFF or BMP file, so the original is preserved unlike working JPEGS which ruin the JPEG file

[following.eric]

That is a pretty cool image, the other thing to help remove noise is shoot RAW, there is a whole lot more lattitude in the RAW files for removing any noise and other processes, Plus the other good thing is when you process a RAW file, you save it as a working file aka JPEG, TIFF or BMP file, so the original is preserved unlike working JPEGS which ruin the JPEG file

Any suggestions to noise reduction with astro? I find that too much noise reduction in post starts to remove some stars. I like the noise reduction in Nik collection but don't use it often. One PP program is enough. I only use it if I have an image I want to really finish up.

[zkarj]

Any suggestions to noise reduction with astro? I find that too much noise reduction in post starts to remove some stars. I like the noise reduction in Nik collection but don't use it often. One PP program is enough. I only use it if I have an image I want to really finish up.

Could be tricky with astro, one of the noise reduction techniques I've heard of is to take multiple frames and average them. Thing is with astro you'd get star movement if over too much time, but then, multiple faster shots might be equivalent to one long one in that respect but have way lower noise when averaged? Can't quite get my head around that. If the stars (in fact the planet) would stay still, it would be epic! (But I suppose we might fall off or something.)

[following.eric]

Could be tricky with astro, one of the noise reduction techniques I've heard of is to take multiple frames and average them. Thing is with astro you'd get star movement if over too much time, but then, multiple faster shots might be equivalent to one long one in that respect but have way lower noise when averaged? Can't quite get my head around that. If the stars (in fact the planet) would stay still, it would be epic! (But I suppose we might fall off or something.)

that's where I am at a loss to the Astrotracer and Pentax. If it works like it says it works, Wouldn't that make Pentax an industry leader for Astro with a k1? Yet I rarely come across an astrotracer image, I think i have only seen a few of super zoomed nebula's.

[Kiwizinho]

that's where I am at a loss to the Astrotracer and Pentax. If it works like it says it works, Wouldn't that make Pentax an industry leader for Astro with a k1? Yet I rarely come across an astrotracer image, I think i have only seen a few of super zoomed nebula's.

One problem with the astrotracer is it will allow longer star exposures, but to track the stars it's going to end up moving any landscape foreground.

I guess it could be possible to do some post processing and combine the sky from one image and landscape from another.

It would be pretty cool if it were possible to write some software that could analyse movement across multiple frames in parts of the image, and move those parts of the image into alignment, while leaving parts of the image with no movement alone.
Theoretically I guess it should be possible, especially if you have a number of source images, as it would be reasonably easy to calculate the direction of movement. What a shame I never paid much attention to matrix transformations at school!

[Class A]

Guys, you may not believe this without evidence -- hence the screenshot below -- but the TVSN channel has featured a one hour long segment about the Pentax K-S2.

Clem Kennedy from CRK Australia was a guest and promoted a K-S2 kit along with a female presenter.

I know of at least two runs of the segment -- first time I missed it, the second time I recorded it -- but I'm not sure whether it will repeat in the future. Anyhow, mind blown!

[MarkJerling]

Wow! Useful info? Or just a typical sales pitch?