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Forum: Photographic Technique
06-08-2018, 09:06 PM
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I have used astrotracer on both my K-5 and my K-1. I have had pretty good luck with calibration. One thing I found online was that at the end of calibration when it says Calibration Complete, you still need to hit OK or your calibration is not saved. This is not clear in the manual but is apparently important. Occasionally my calibration is off, so I check the first shot or two for star trails. If the stars look good, I’m usually good to go. If I see trails, I recalibrate.
What the larger aperture gets you is more light for shorter exposures. I shoot with a Samyang 14mm f2.8 and astrotracer does a good job shooting the Milkyway for up to 80-90 seconds at 800-1600 ISO. If you have a smaller aperture, it still works but you might risk going longer exposure and getting small star trails or you need to go to higher ISO and risk more noise. I have used the Pentax 10-17 f3.5-4.5 on my K-5 with pretty good luck. Sometimes I can get 2-3 minute exposures with Astrotracer on either lens but there are usually some short star trails.
I agree that you can go a little longer on focal length but lens quality for star shots is important. The Lenstip reviews measure coma which determines if your stars stay round or get distorted. For my Samyang at f3.5, I get nice shots with some distortion (streaks) in the corners on my full-frame K-1. I have not tried stacking.
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