Photography
Related: About this forumCloudy Dipper, Android Sunrise
Sony NEX C3 on a tripod, basic kit lens at 18mm & F3.5 2 sec at ISO 6400, my first shot as clouds rolled in right after I got set up after the clouds rolled out..
Anyhow the clouds enhanced the Big Dipper nicely and gave it a bit more character perhaps.
The second one is a Samsung Exhibit Android smartphone with an app on it called A Better Camera and it really is, this was handheld in HDR mode.
alfredo
(60,074 posts)Smart phones like iPhone and Android have killed the small sensor compact cameras. It's really pushing the sensor technology now that the smartphone makers see the need for high quality imaging. I'm going to take a look at that software.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)There are a lot of photography apps and I've only tried a few so far, the one I mentioned works pretty good given the limitations of the hardware.
A friend just got an an iPhone 5 when his son upgraded to a 6 and I'm almost shocked at how good the camera is in that thing, especially with a third party app I put on there for him.
I'd like to see the voice command function integrated with the camera software, the Exhibit doesn't have a dedicated shutter button and you have to tap the screen, I'd rather say "click" or something similar. probably not "shoot" though..
I found an app for the Android that lets me use the phone to set the polar alignment up on my tracking mount, that saves a lot of time trying to drift align because I can never see Polaris and what I want to shoot from the same spot thanks to our many trees. SkEye uses the GPS and magnetometer sensors in the phone to show you the night sky with an overlaid 360 degree spherical polar grid. Just lay the phone flat on the wedge and line up with the South celestial pole and you're done.
I'm really impressed with the clarity of the Sony kit lens on the NEX, getting a really sharp focus is critical for shooting the night sky and it's hit or miss even at 15x digital zoom focusing mode but when I get it right on the results are crisp almost edge to edge.
Here's a shot of Orion where I nailed the focus pretty good @ 55 mm, there wasn't time between clouds to take flats and darks so it's not fully processed but the kit lens is clearly sharp and has very little chromatic aberration. I don't have an adapter for my Nikkor 50 1.8 prime yet so I've been using the kit lens, I suspect the Nikkor isn't much sharper although it will be a stop faster at f4 rather than the f5.6 of the kit.
alfredo
(60,074 posts)The camera on the iPhone 6 is a real draw for me, but I don't need a smartphone. I want one, but can't justify the contract costs. The iPad Mini is more my speed.
You have a wedge, so I guess you have a telescope. What do you have.
I had the Coulter 10.1 Dob, but it is over the 30lb limit imposed by my doctors. It's at a friend's farm now. He has dark skies.
It looked like this: