Aurora photography

I'm looking to buy a digital camera for aurora/astronomical photography
(as well as everyday photos). I'd like something less pricey and bulky than
a digital SLR, but I need a wide angle lens (28mm equivalent) and an ability
to take long exposures with an ISO rating of, say, 400. I'm also wanting a
high resolution (5 Mpixels or more). Does anyone have any suggestions for a
suitable camera?

John Owen

"John Owen" wrote in message
...
I'm looking to buy a digital camera for aurora/astronomical photography
(as well as everyday photos). I'd like something less pricey and bulky
than a digital SLR, but I need a wide angle lens (28mm equivalent) and an
ability to take long exposures with an ISO rating of, say, 400. I'm also
wanting a high resolution (5 Mpixels or more). Does anyone have any
suggestions for a suitable camera?

John Owen
Canon Powershot A95 is possible but does not go down to a 28mm wide angle
equivalent - more like 35mm. It does work very well when connected to
eyepieces and you can use the ISO 400 rating but there will be some image
degradation. Digital SLR use bigger sensing chips and the ISO speed can be
pushed to a higher level without this problem.

Alan

"John Owen" writes:

I'm looking to buy a digital camera for aurora/astronomical
photography (as well as everyday photos). I'd like something less pricey
and bulky than a digital SLR, but I need a wide angle lens (28mm
equivalent) and an ability to take long exposures with an ISO rating of,
say, 400. I'm also wanting a high resolution (5 Mpixels or more). Does
anyone have any suggestions for a suitable camera?

If I were you I'd hunt around on
http://www.cameratag.co.uk/search/cameras - look for 5 or 6Mpel cameras
by Nikon, Canon and Fuji and Olympus. Then compare reviews of the Coolpix
5700, PowerShot S50 and S7000 on http://dpreview.com/ or
http://www.megapixel.net/.

My experience of night-time photography (with a d70) is that you have to
balance:
duration of shot (at least 20s)
ISO-related noise (so ISO 800 or 400)
stars' motion at the given zoom-level
existence of a motor-drive
stability of tripod v wind-speed when you're stuck on a hilltop

and it pays to use a custom mid-afternoon grey-cloud preset whitebalance
rather than relying on auto.

Manufacturer-based things to worry about:
a) double-check the canon reviews for low-level noise
b) check the Fuji images for red response: historically they've been a bit
too sensitive to this, so photographing red roses on a bright sunny day is
fine if they're already made of plastic; however, they've definitely
improved over the years, but check some sample pictures first.

The lesser-known a brand is, the more likely you are to suffer with the
low-level / high-iso noise.

uk.rec.photo.misc may also be a reasonable place to canvas for opinions.

HTH,

~Tim
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